Trade Catalog
Shurly Dietrich: Price List Of The Maple Leaf Saw Works; Manufacturers of Refined, Silver & Cast Steel Saws Of All Kinds; Patent Ground; Plastering Trowels, Straw Knives, &c. Galt, Ont. c1902. Courtesy of John Pirie. Canadian tool manfucaturers catalogs are exceedingly rare. Why? I asked this question over at a Canadian Woodworking Forum. The consensu was that the climate does not lend itself to the survival of paper. One person guessed the old catalogs found their way into the stove. Whatever the reason, they're hard to find.

From The Southworks Outlet Mall web page:

"The Saw Works of Shurly - Dietrich were founded by Jerome C. Dietrich and Cosmos J. Shurly in 1873, in an old tannery building on Malcolm street. The building was owned by the Goldie & McCulloch Foundry. Malcolm street is where Southworks Boardwalk is now located. The buildings were situated on the property that is now Southwork's North parking lot.

Jerome Dietrich was born in New York State in 1838 and, both he and Cosmos Shurly, worked for Joseph Flint, a Rochester, New York, saw manufacturer. They founded Shurly and Dietrich Co. with an initial investment of $12,000, they commenced operations in Galt with nine skilled saw makers, who were brought in from Rochester and Sheffield, England. Canada in those days still had forests to be cleared and there was a ready market for top quality saws that would stand up to harsh conditions. Shurly Dietrich emphasized quality and the company's saws were readily accepted by loggers throughout Canada, the United States and the British Empire. They were one of the first companies in Canada to use the Maple Leaf as a symbol of things Canadian.

The company developed expertise in the hardening and tempering of steel. It produced about 40,000 tons of light armoured plate during the Second World War, returning to the production of saws and machine knives after the war. By 1968 Shurly Dietrich was producing 1,400,000 feet of metal-cutting band saw blades and 1,000,000 jigsaw blades annually. An American company, H.K. Porter, purchased Shurly Dietrich in 1969 and continued operations in Galt (now Cambridge) until 1973, when, after a hundred years in business, the plant was closed."

If only more outlet malls would provide such excellent histories, my work would be so much easier.