I found this saw with a small miter box few months ago. Could anyone give me any info on it? I have since removed the back and gound that it was just bent. The plate is straight. Also someone on another site informed me that y Cia is short for y compania( and company). Its 14" long, so a little too small to have come with the miter box.
Hi Daniel, I don't have any answers for you, just some points that I am guessing at. Despite the Spanish??/Portuguese?? makers initials, it looks to me like a British saw re the "Cast Steel" and the font used. (Although there is the obvious implication that it could be American) This font is obviously far removed from the maker's mark font and I am wondering whether it (the maker's) was struck after the initial manufacturing process. Secondly was the makers mark struck in Britain with a British maker's initials or an overseas retailer, or struck in its destination country with a retailer there. The only British sawmaker that matches A R and Co. in HSMOB is A. Ransome and Co. in London in 1891 and he is more likely to be a retailer than a maker. It is also probably a little farfetched for him to be an exporter as well. It is a very unsatisfactory answer, but it is all that I can do at the moment. I have googled A R Y Cia but unfortunately Google does not distinguish between Cia and CIA so the search is a little hard to do. Fred