Taylor Brothers novelty (again)

Can I appeal to the collective for thoughts about the toothing on this backsaw?

It is at first glance no more than a nice 14inch brass backed saw of maybe 1880-ish, but with a toothed edge that looks original. This tooth form is not unlike what the firm put on their perforated saws, a product line they introduced around 1870, I think, but which did not do very well and certainly had disappeared from their catalogue of about 1890.

Large gullets every four or five cutting teeth makes sense for a saw used on green wood, where wet saw dust would clog the teeth, but for a backsaw?

I have no idea, so any help will be much appreciated.
Thanks Simon

 

Simon, The perforations on the handsaw plate were a patented development that was supposed to help maintain the toothline. If you look at Taylor Bros catalogues they had a large marketing push based upon this, especially for their large circular saws. When filing the perforations were supposed to be used as a guide when deepening the gullets ("gulleting"), an essential part of maintaining saws cutting wet timber. In catalogues you will notice a lot of machines and gadgets designed to do this job. Remember that the shape of a tooth is controlled by the depth and shape of the gullet, and saws stop cutting when the gullets fill up.

Today these saws are very rare. Looking at the toothline on the handsaw it looks like a "universal" (basically a crown or M-tooth) pattern, designed for heavy work in green timber, eg mine props and farm work. This toothing is a schweinhund of a pattern to maintain in good working order.

My WAG with the backsaw; it is an attempt at a "universal" style pattern in that it rips and cross cuts (I assume that the teeth are fleamed?). In reality this toothing does neither well and acts like a cross cut with every 4th tooth broken. As they cut poorly they were not good sellers and few survive today.

 

perhaps the backsaw is owner modified,
the depth of the notches in the plate appears to vary along the saw, whereas a factory notching might be expected to be to uniform depth ?

 

Hello Simon,

just read your thread about the Taylor Bros. back saw with the unusual tooth pattern and
then the larger hand saw with the perforations, and remembered that I had seen one like it
at our tool club ( South Australian Historical Tool Association ) meeting back in 2013.

Am not sure of its length, but possibly 26", it does not have a Taylor Bros. medallion but
one that I think reads as FEINSTE QUALITAT GARANTIE around with a crown in the
middle with a date of 1822 under the crown.

The medallion looks to be original with a split nut the others are crude replacements,
the timber looks to be beech, and its design appears younger and less refined than the
handle on you saw.

Just thought I might include this as another example of this tooth pattern.

Regards

Graham.

ps.

once again am having trouble uploading photos,
I wish this site had a simple method to follow.

 

Hello Simon,

will attempt to upload some pictures of the saw
from my last entry.

Graham.

 

Hello Simon,

here is an enlarged image of the medallion.

Graham

 

Thanks for keeping on trying, Graham!
From the pictures, I would begin to wonder if this saw's screws have been altered, which might account for the apparently German wording on the medallion (and I can't immediately think what else might).
I'm glad of the extra info about the perforated saws, but am no closer yet to knowing why the backsaw which started it has the odd tooth pattern.