old 8"Skilsaw" saw

United States
January 4, 2007 9:16pm CST
I have and old 8" skil brand worm drive skilsaw, it was made in ( i think ) 53. This saw was my granddad's saw. It is older than i am, and I am pushing 50 really, really hard. I would like to know when Skil introduced the 8" worm drive saw. I would appreciate any input on this saw. By the way, it still works. thanks, Don
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1 response
JoyfulOne
@JoyfulOne (6232)
• United States
5 Jan 07
How cool! I have an old 8" Skilsaw too, lol! (I'm not pushing 50...I'm pushing 60) I found a couple of really good reads about how the worm drive saws came about. I was surprised to read that the worm-drive was actually invented in 1921 to assist in sugar cane production. At that time it was used as as kind of an electric machete (of sorts.) From that the invention it evolved into the worm driven saw that we now appreciate so much. Here's the links if you want to read the history: http://www.asktooltalk.com/home/articles/toolhistory/divide.htm This one's good too, and they cover not only Skilsaw, but also a few others: http://tvww.utsi.edu/Articles/tools20th_cen.htm