help...what is it?

[dawndidas]

So this was found in a drawer with door knobs and pulls and hinges.

[mikeswrenches]

My guess is a saw set of some type.  But that is purely a guess.

Mike

[dawndidas]

That was my best guess too. People keep saying leather punch...

[dowdstools]

Definitely a saw set.

[rusty]

Ditto.

Euro design, similar to Boker or Garanto Fein , not quite a match to either tho...

[Branson]

Absolutely a Euro design saw set.  There was a thread on these not too long ago.  There are lots of nearly identical examples of these sets -- as in they look like they came off the same drop forge dies -- with a multitude of maker's names from all over Europe and even a Canadian example.  Never did figure out the actual manufacturer.

Here's one from Latvia that is now on eBay.

[Billman49]

Many saw sets of this type are made in Germany...

[Plyerman]

Definitely a saw set. If you go cruising for old plier tools on the European ebay sites you find dozens of them. Way more than I've ever seen here in the states. Which begs the question, why did they make and sell so many saw sets over there, as compared to the U.S.?

[Papaw]

Perhaps they kept setting and sharpening their saws longer than we did.

[Branson]

Which begs the question, why did they make and sell so many saw sets over there, as compared to the U.S.?

Woodworking trades in Europe have long been more conservative than in the US.   Peugeot was still making center bits in the 1980s for example.  And to pass his apprenticeship in cabinet making, a Scottish finish carpenter I met (he'd be in his late 50s now) had to tune a wooden smoothing plane to be able to take a continuous 20 foot long curl off a board thin enough to see through.  I think they expect to do more than we have expected for several generations.  Here in Sacramento, California, the owner of a tool sharpening shop (now retired, and the shop closed) talked about contractors as far back as the '40s bringing in every saw from the jobs for sharpening each Friday, all to be ready for Monday's work.  I know that Viet-Namese carpenters expect to sharpen and set all their own saws (they use a saw wrest rather than a saw set.).

It seems that there are so many  elsewhere because elsewhere, carpenters traditionally do their own saw sharpening. 

Attached is a photo of a Boker saw set of European pattern that was made recently enough to have plastic wrapped handles.

[Billman49]

Until the advent of hard-point disposable saws c 20 years ago most of us in the UK who worked in wood sharpened and set our own saws. In the UK the Eclipse no 77 was most common  saw set used, with a wrest used for larger blades such as rip-saws, two man cross cuts etc. Eclipse also made other sets for large teeth - having said that I have sharpened and set hard point saws - saw files are no good, but a small grinding disc in a Dremel works wonders. Generally however, a new hard point saw is cheaper than a sharpen and set of a traditional saw.

Up until a few years ago a local hardware store always had a retired carpenter on the books who would take saws and sharpen and set them for a few quid ($$) for beer money. Last time I use their services was when teaching craft and design, and I had 20 + saws of all shapes and sizes to do... I'd drop them of at the end of term and pick them up just before the next one started - damned if I was going to spend my holidays sharpening the school's saws..

Just had to do one last week - round at a friend's house and needed to cut a 12 x 12 oak beam - his saw was blunt, but he did have a file, a vice  and a saw set... However, it is now getting difficult to get proper double ended saw files - I believe Nicholson has discontinued them...
Mentioned this to him and he says maybe the resaon saw sets are rarer in the USA than in the UK and Europe was mail order - did Sears and Roebuck offer a sharpening service?? Mail order never caught on in the UK during that period, so we had to buy the tools and do it ourselves..

[rusty]

Dunno if a carpenter, or even a farmer would be willing to do without a saw foe several weeks waiting on the mail...

But for a period of time, saw setting was a trade in the US. People would go around sharpening saws for other people. (Sawmills and wood working factories generally hired someone if they were big enough tho)

The odd British Gentlemen handyman thing may have played a part I suspect, everyone with a big house and some money had to have a set of tools, and probably a sawset to go with the saw, regardless if it was ever used much. (Leaning along these lines because the majority of euro pattern saw sets I have seen are almose pristine in condition)
 

[Branson]

However, it is now getting difficult to get proper double ended saw files - I believe Nicholson has discontinued them...

I'm not sure what a "proper double ended saw file is," but Nicholson is still making saw files:

http://www.thebestthings.com/newtools/nicholson_saw_files.htm

I may have to get a couple of the double extra slim files for my dove tail saws...  I wonder if these have been re-introduced, since my old saw sharpener was moaning about not being able to find the double extra slim files 25 years ago.

[rusty]

Silly website, 'Swiss Pattern' does not mean 'Made in Switzerland'...

http://paulsellers.com/2013/01/nicholson-saw-files-still-no-good/

[scottg]

Saw sharpening was a small business affair up into the 70's in the US.
 Anyplace you could buy nails, you could have your saws sharpened. Every hardware or lumber dealer had a "circuit rider" who would pick them up and deliver them back to the store. If it was important to you, you had to learn the schedule and then your saws would be done in a couple days. 
  Every town of over a few thousand population had at least one saw sharpener. Handsaws and round saws. Most of them also did reel mowers as well. Reel mower blades are not so easy to sharpen well, that the average homeowner was any good at it.
  Belsaw and Foley were the main saw sharpening equipment manufacturers. If you never saw their ads in the back of Popular Mechanics magazine, you have never read that title. I think they may have been advertizing in 1909, the year they started. 
 
 My own guy was named Dexter. I live in a tiny town. The only saw shop here in town was for chainsaws. Logging was the lifeblood of Happy Camp, not much construction trade.
  Dexter had his shop in Yreka Ca. the county seat. I did business with Dexter for years.  But the machines never did do as well as hand sharpening, for a handsaw. So I just had him do my circulars after the first couple handsaws I had him do were not very sharp.
 Dexter was in business as long as he lived. He became quite elderly in the end and still sharpened. But disposable blades were coming into fashion.
  After he died Marie, his wife, took over for few more years but it was a meager business. 

   The last shop in business that I know of is in Medford Or. The largest city hereabouts.
 Cal Ore Carbide is the name. The business has moved from steel blade sharpening to working on carbide tipped blades now. They may still have the old Belsaw in back if you want a handsaw, but you would be better off operating the machine yourself since nobody there knows or cares.

 Mark Harrell of Bad Ax Saw works is making a heartfelt try at petitioning all the filemakers to start making saw files again. It has become completely dismal trying to get a decent saw file.
 But it may be too late and our little enclave of saw people is simply not enough.
 
 Antique NOS is the last resort in saw files, and we are vacationing there now, but our reservation is ending soon.
      yours Scott