Saw Marks on Timber
Also called mill marks, tool marks.
Typical period: Varies
A hard chronological floor. Curved arcs mean a circular saw, and circular saws cannot predate their own invention, so the marks put a date before which the timber cannot have been cut.
What you are looking at
Marks left by the blade on unfinished surfaces — the back of a case, the underside of a top, the inside of a drawer.
How to date it
- Straight parallel marks, irregularly spaced — a pit saw, hand-worked, before roughly 1800.
- Straight parallel marks, very regular — a sash or gang mill, roughly 1790 to 1860.
- Curved arc marks — a circular saw. Not in general use before about 1830, widespread from the 1860s.
- Very fine straight marks with no visible arcs — a modern band saw, from the later nineteenth century onward.
- No marks at all on any surface, including hidden ones — machine-planed, and modern.
Spotting a reproduction
- Look at surfaces nobody would finish: drawer bottoms, case backs, the underside of a tabletop.
- Fakers sometimes distress visible surfaces and forget the hidden ones.
- A piece with circular saw marks cannot be Georgian, whatever the style says.
What it is worth
This is a dating tool rather than a value one, and its main use is negative — it rules out an early date quickly and cheaply.
Confused with
Straight and very fine, without the arc of a circular blade. Later rather than earlier.
Questions about this
How do you date saw marks on timber?
Straight parallel marks, irregularly spaced — a pit saw, hand-worked, before roughly 1800. Straight parallel marks, very regular — a sash or gang mill, roughly 1790 to 1860.
How do you spot a reproduction?
Look at surfaces nobody would finish: drawer bottoms, case backs, the underside of a tabletop.
Are saw marks on timber valuable?
This is a dating tool rather than a value one, and its main use is negative — it rules out an early date quickly and cheaply.