Found this 10" open handle backsaw today. Its spine stamp includes "E Preston", "Birmingham", around Preston's "E P" logo. ["Birmingham" is 19mm long] HSMOB lists E Preston & Sons as 1825-1933, and the Oracle (google) notes that Edward Preston was a planemaker in the 1820s, but that his son, Edward Preston Jr (b1835 d1908), joined him in his work and expanded the business to include other tools which by 1866 included "carpenters tools" The company name changed to "E Preston & Sons" in 1889, when Ed junior's sons joined the family business. ref http://www.handplane.com/100/edward-preston-sons-1901-catalog/ So my guess is that my sonless saw dates between 1866 and 1889 Does anyone know when the "E P" logo was started ? An interesting aspect of this saw is that it has a handle with a hang angle ("hangle"), which has the sawyers hand angled at about 60 degrees off a line perpendicular to the tooth line. [This is about the most extreme angle on my (limited, but growing inexorably ) backsaw collection] I haven't noticed any other unique features that could determine whether Preston made this saw, or if it was made for him by one of the big Sheffield manufacturers.
E Preston, Birmingham, (60 hangle) Hey Rob Nice saw. I can only answer the logo question from a secondary source of Jay Sutherland's who did a study on Preston routers. In it he says,"The Preston trademark or logo was called the Birds Eye. The logo started in 1870 but was not registered as a trademark until 1876." Doesn't tell us when they first started stamping them on the tools but gives a good ball park. My eye suggests later in the time frame because of the angular sides to the handle but who knows. Joe S. ps. "Inexorable"? synomyms :unbending; severe, relentless, unrelenting, implacable, merciless, cruel, pitiless....... naaahhhhhh
E Preston saws Did EP ever make their own saws? I'm guessing probably not, partly because they had so many other tools to make, and the set-up for saw making was quite different to any of their other lines. Birmingham tool makers, with the exception of Aaron Atkin (a Sheffielder who fled to B'ham to escape over-zealous saw grinding trades union members) didn't mix saws with their other tool manufacture. And they were never listed with the saw makers in the trades directories. The saw marks I've been able to photograph date between about 1890 and 1925, but that is certainly not to say they didn't factor at other dates. Their outside dates of existence were apparently 1825-1934.