We have seen a World War II era 14-inch bandsaw from Metal Craft Co., Ltd. of Grimsby, Ontario. Grimsby is near Hamilton, and a large number of makers of home-shop bandsaws popped up in that area in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The Hamilton area was a major manufacturing center for armaments, airplanes, and other war materiel; after the war, idle industrial capacity and raw materials were repurposed in a variety of ways. Very few of these small makers survived for more than a year or two, and since some of these bandsaw makers are known from only one surviving machine, some of them never really got off the ground.

Information Sources

• We learned of this maker from an owwm.org forum discussion. The saw is labeled "TEK NO 16" on the top of the upper wheel guard and "METAL CRAFT CO LTD GRIMSBY ONT." on the lower part of that guard. The owner of the saw did some research and found some data points on the company spanning 1926 to 1948. The saw is almost certainly from the tail end of those years.
• The name on the saw appears to be "Metal Craft Co. Ltd." but it might be "Metalcraft Co. Ltd."
• A small bandsaw has this company name cast into the guard, and the saw has a sticker that reads "The TEK Wood Working Shop Machinery, Manufactured by The Metal Craft Co Ltd. Dept. C, Grimsby, Ontario".