About the Author

After a professional life in various branches of medicine Simon Barley became interested in using hand tools for the woodwork in a barn conversion. He volunteered to catalogue the saws in Ken Hawley's collection and wrote a thesis on Hand Tool Manufacture in the Industrial Revolution based on the rich 18th and 19th century survivals in Sheffield's industrial base and unique City Archives. His own collection of saws is now housed alongside the Ken Hawley Collection Trust's at Kelham Island Industrial Museum, his knowledge continually increased by correspondence with saw collectors and historians all over the world.