Our museum saw collection has just benefitted from the generosity of a tool enthusiast (thanks, Peter!), who has let us have an 18th century back saw, by Thomas Harrison, for a lot less money than he might have got on ebay these days. As the pictures show, it is enormously worn, with an index finger indentation on the reverse of the handle which is deeper than any I can remember on a back saw. I think it is probably about 1780, possibly a bit later. The reasons for the dating are based on the likely date of the finest early Harrison, which is in the London Science Museum; it is much larger (16in blade, I think) and marked on the blade, incidentally, a better mark than any other very early saw I've seen, complete with crown. The Science Museum has its saw because it was once owned by Samuel Crompton, the Lancashire cotton spinner who got tired of using the earlier spinning jenny (and too impoverished), putting his own spinning mule out there for all to copy in 1779; given that he made his machine largely of wood, I'm presuming that he used this saw in the years before 1779, and, again presuming, our newly acquired saw is later, in that it's marked on the back, not the blade. I hope you will all enjoy it as much as I do, minus of course the peculiar pleasure of holding that handle. (Visitors welcome, no extra charge for holding).
Simon, what a pleasure you have given us. These early saws are so unadorned, just useful things that cut wood. I enjoy later saws as well, all gussied up with details, but this one is simply a pure tool. David