At a tool auction last week I acquired the long one, and had merely to envy the owner the short one. The latter is fairly self explanatory – I guess it might have found a use in the jewellery trade. The long one is yet another from that colossus of the saw trade, Taylor Brothers. It's a rarity in being 30in long, and is currently cut with cross cut teeth, whereas the very few others of that length I've seen are usually rip cut; but that's a change that could have happened at any time. When it was made is not very easy: the first use of the Mowbray mark I can find is in their catalogue from the 1920s, when it was on their 4th quality of several types of saw; this one, with its London pattern handle, no tongue, is also not particularly well worked, but on the other hand the timber looks to me like a fruit wood, not beech – not the usual for a 4th quality item. The etch is not a high quality 19th century application, and it's got rather eroded, so that getting a decent picture of one that is 400mm overall length is harder than usual, although the Mowbray roundel is easier (the etch is incidentally a bit better than a similar railway train etch on a Taylor saw of the 1950s). So I'm settling for a vague "sometime between the two world wars" for a date. Simon
Nice example you landed there Simon, that handle does seem very dark, it does not look at all like beech, I don't recall seeing apple wood like that before. Date wise I have nothing I can add to what you have suggested. Great find.