This firm was established in 1882 or '83, and was based in Indianapolis. The founders were likely Henry F. Kuhlmann and John H. Grube. The company's specialty was blade guards for table saws. By 1906 they were apparently located in Kansas City, MO.

Advertisement from the February 1898 "The Wood-Worker"

Information Sources

• Thirty-Third Annual Report of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture, 1883, Indiana State Fair, Indianapolis, September 1883. "National Saw Guard Co., Indianapolis, exhibited their device for preventing the accidents that occur so often in using the insatiable buzz saw. It consists in a cover or hood over the exposed part of the saw, suspended from an arm above in such a way as to allow the guard to raise freely on the lumber as it passes through, and then drops back on the table as soon as it has passed. Connected with it is a stop that prevents any backward movement of the stuff sawed."
• Might be a connection to Frank & Co., which sold a "National Saw Guard"; it could have been a licensing or reselling arrangement.
• Third Annual Report of the Factory Inspectors of the State of New York, for the year ending December 1st, 1888 has the following.

  The most adaptable saw-guard which we have seen is that illustrated by Figure 10, and manufactured by the National Saw-Guard Company of Indianapolis, Ind. It is easily adjusted to the table, and no time is wasted in gauging it to any class of work. These are points which commend themselves to the workers, but its chief recommendation to us as Factory Inspectors is the almost absolute safety which experience has proven it has given to that most dangerous of all machines, the buzz-saw.

• R. L. Polk & Co.'s Indianapolis City Directory for 1891 has a listing for "Collins Samuel H, vice-pres and treas US Lounge Mnfr Co and propr National Saw Guard Co, b 735 N Meridian". The listing for National Saw Guard Co. gives their address as 238 S Meridian.
• Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics for the State of Maine, 1894, has the following.

  Cut No. 8 illustrates a guard known as the "O.K. saw-guard", which is manufactured by the National Saw Guard Company of Indianapolis, Indiana. This is a simple guard and is in general use. The guard is supported by a thin steel splitter which is held in position by a clevis, securely fastened by a bolt to the saw table in line with the saw. The splitter is held in the clevis by means of a key. The guard is made of cast iron, which is about one and one-fourth inches wide, hollowed out on the under side. It has no covers on the sides. The guard can be adjusted for the use of saws of different sizes by raising or lowering the guard on the splitter, which slips back, and is held by a thumb-screw. The guard is fastened to the splitter by means of a thumb-screw, and is adjusted to the thickness of the work, being made in two pieces, one passing over the other with a round rod passing through a nut, which is shown in the cut. The guard can therefore be made rigid in any position. In addition to preventing the operator's hands from coming in contact with the saw, this guard has a forked-shaped dog which is fastened to the splitter on the side between the gauge of the saw and the splitter. As the saw passes through the material the dog rides on top of the work, and in case the saw should pinch and the piece being worked start to fly back, as is frequently the case, the dog forms a brace, and the harder the stuff pulls back the tighter the dog holds it to the table. Nine times out of ten this guard will prevent the stuff being hurled from the saw by pinching.

• The February 1898 issue of The Wood-Worker has an ad from National Saw Guard Co. of Indianpolis.
• The 1906 "Report of the Inspector of Factories" for the Province of Ontario has an illustration of a table saw blade guard from National Saw Guard Co. of Kansas City, MO.