Tyzack Sons & Turner Backsaw

I mentioned in a recent post that I found this saw at a garage sale.  It's by W. Tyzack Sons & Turner PLC, and the seller thought it might've been from the 1950's or 60's.  He's probably right, but could be later based on the interesting "medallion".

The saw as-found

Can you call it a medallion if it's not made of metal?

It's some kind of plastic that fits around an ordinary saw bolt.

The owner had made his own handle for it and also included the original handle.  His African mahogany handle looked very nice, but it didn't fit my hand well - in fact, he said it was too big for him, too.  The part that the hand wraps around was way too thin.

I don't own any, but I've seen saws where the saw plate at the front is shallower than at the back.  This saw was like that, but when I looked closer, I saw that the front of the plate was just pounded further up into the brass back.

Back end - a little over 1/4" extends up into the brass back.
Due to where the brass back sits in the handle's mortise, it couldn't go any further up.

At front the plate it's jammed way up near the top of the slit.
I tapped the back up to even it out with the back end.

The brass back is massive, so the saw is relatively heavy.  I sanded the back and the plate.  They didn't need much, but they look better now.  The saw plate had a little curvature to it, but I was able to bend it back into straight.  Then I put the original beech handle back on.

On the underside of the lower horn was a past owner name (not the seller)

Original handle reinstalled

This still didn't look right to me, so I removed the handle, scraped and sanded it, and did a little reshaping.  I like it much better now.

Added the notches (large arrows),
eased the lower horn (medium arrow) where heel of hand touches, and
eased the sharp transitions (small arrows) that I just didn't like.

After a couple coats of BLO and a good sharpening, she's ready to go.  I kept the teeth at 12 tpi rip, though I might change that later.  I've made a few test cuts, and it felt ... OK - nothing special.  Only time will tell if I like it.

Left side

Right side (clocked screws, just because ...)