OP
Red Leader
Well-known member
Hey!! Red Leader Dave. I was hoping for an answer when I posted this in the tool forum but got almost no response. I looked at Vm.org and saw lots of pics of gray ones with the old style Craftsman badging but nothing in bronze with this badge. Thanks if you can help. We miss you!!!
Paul,
Cool Saw! As best as I can tell, that is an 12" bandsaw from roughly 1959-1962. Before 1959, Craftsman was using the old 1950's style logos and used the 1959-1960 catalog as the launch of their new marketing plan, which included new tools and updated looks. The design of that saw changed for 1963, so there is your window. The power bronze as a color is not as reliable as a date indicator because it was appearing as early as 1957, alongside the normal Craftsman gray and darker gray colors and can be found on Craftsman tools well into the 1960s. The logos also help, but can be pretty broad as well. The crown logo could have been in use as early as 1958, and of course was used for years and years afterwards. The old 1950's logo was also used on various tools extending as late as 1964, so there is a lot of crossover. That swoosh style logo was used as early as 1958/59 and continued through the 1960s on some tools, mainly jointers and shapers. There are always exceptions to the rule as well. Craftsman, as best as I could tell, didn't have catalogs for 1958 or 1962, so there are some holes in what we know. We have a tendency to judge things by the catalog when the reality may have been that on the ground, in the stores, things were different. There was a lot of change happening at this point in time at Craftsman. This was the big shift that all the tool makers were going through leading into the 1960s and the true decline of the golden era of tools and tool companies.
Don't get me wrong, there have always been boutique tools available during all eras (Oliver, Tannewitz, Powermatic, Delta Unisaws, etc) but if we are looking widely across the tool industry, it saw a major decline in the 1960s when companies started to get bought out and conglomerated and the result was chintzed out tools. Whether that was for greater profit margin or something else, I don't know. It is also true that at the height of the golden era, there were plenty of cheap, junky tools being sold in the magazines and newspapers by the fly-by-night companies, so I have no illusions.
My favorite year for Craftsman was 1957. There were a lot of reasons to like what they were doing. They were offering fabulous tools - the Parks 20" planer, the 10" cabinet saw, 18" bandsaw, the swing saw, the Parks radial saws (Craftsman's best RAS) AND the DeWalt turret arm saw and cabinet...and of course the really rare birds - the 20" tilt-arbor jig saw and the 12" Craftsman marked Belsaw planer (in full sheet metal dress). They had the pedestals, the Powr Panl, the great drill press accessories, the awesome 1/2HP grinder...there was just so much offered. So many of my favorite tools are in this catalog, and some of my greatest and hardest quest tools as well. This catalog represents, at least for me, the last great era of Craftsman before things started going downhill.
Don't get me wrong, Craftsman still was offering some great tools, but we see Craftsman start to move away from their industrial roots, by losing the parks radial saws and planers. A lot of interesting tools are gone. The shipping weight of the Accra-Arm saw was 180lbs. The Parks? 310lbs. I've owned both and can attest to the difference. 1959 marked the start of a migration away from the heavy duty, heavy/cast iron solid quality type tools and towards cheaper, mass produced hobbyist tools. A migration away from production to the hobbyist. Look at the 1942-43 catalogs. Look how heavily Craftsman was into production! Very telling is the 1966 catalog, followed by the 1969 catalog. I'm pretty surprised some of these tools were hanging on as long as they did, such as the 18" Parks bandsaw. There are still some great tools to be found in these later catalogs, which you can tell are obviously the same castings as their former 1950s brethren, just with different logos. But firmly in place are all the tin can models that are paired sometimes right next to or right before some of the older quality tools of the exact same category, in such taunting, offensive fashion as to nearly revel in the success of mediocrity through celebrating the death of their greater counterparts.
Fortunately, this 12" saw escaped the early 1960s unscathed and remained basically the same saw it was throughout the 1950s, which some people hold in incredibly high regard. This tool, along with some of the budget 1950s contractor saws (which were a sort of chintzy in their own right), have astounded some people and it really turns people's expectations on their ear. It is not hard to find stories of some of these contractor saws having zero measurable runout, or an individual stating that this little bandsaw is the best cutting saw they've ever used. I personally appreciate and enjoy the power bronze tools and even though some of them represent the unfortunate future direction Craftsman was to take, they still really pique my interest and hold a prominent spot in the history of Craftsman tools.
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