An old saw

It was in the window of the antique shop: an old handsaw about 18 inches long with a well-worn, carved handle, and the blade was protected by a wooden sheath on which the history of the saw was inscribed. A hand-written card also gave the information that the saw was one made by Henry Disston in America in the 1850s, and listed the owners from G. Hage in the mid 19th century, through three generations of Reeses to the last tradesman to own it, Carsey Evans, who died November 15th 1975 aged 81 years, 5 months.
It seems that the tool was been passed from hand to working hand for well over a century. The handle is polished by long use but the blade looks in good condition and still clearly shows the maker's mark Henry Disston & Son, Keystone Saw Works, Philadelphia. It didn't take me long to discover an interesting back story. Henry Disston was born in Tewkesbury, Herefordshire in 1819; his family were headed for New York in 1833 but on landing in Philadelpia his father died suddenly. It was up to Henry, only 14, to support his mother and sister so he got a job as a saw-maker's apprentice. He flourished in the trade and started producing saws of such high quality that they out-performed the British ones that had hitherto been imported. Such was his success that he built an entire settlement for his workers in the Tacony district of Philadelphia along the lines of a Utopian
working class community in which workers would live in homes with open space and have a chance to own their own houses. Disston saw a responsibility to meet his workers' economic, social, and cultural needs. In 1872, construction began on the saw factory. By 1876 the workers' homes were built. Money to buy homes was available through a building and loan association established by Disston; he even gave cash advances to guarantee that his employees could buy their homes. Disston even piped fresh water from the Delaware River to Tacony. He built a school, the Tacony Music Hall, and a library containing two thousand books. A newspaper was established. A firehouse was built... Tacony even had its own scientific society.
(Information from Find-a-grave)
Henry Disston died in 1878 and is buried in Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery (I've been there!)
By then this saw was probably in the hands of its second or third owner and still had another 100 years of use ahead of it.

Disston's book The Saw in History is dedicated, rather chillingly, to

That vast army of workers
extending from the crowded
centers of civilization into the wilds that
mark the limits of man's advance in his
conquering march against nature
whose chief weapon is
THE SAW

"An old saw" refers to a joke or saying that's been passed around so many times it's lost its edge. I don't think this one has yet reached that stage.

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Thank you to everyone who offered such thoughtful and interesting comments on yesterday's blipping dilemma. I was surprised to find so much agreement that a perhaps unsettling image deserved to be viewed and in addition it provoked a very useful discussion.