Ray Gardiner
>The curious thing about this subject is the lack of surviving examples, we have evidence of organized saw manufacturing as early as 1660, but very few examples of actual saws for around 100 years, until mid 1700's and from then onward we have more examples.

I will go out on a limb here, and say that I suspect we have more examples of Roman and Egyptian saws than we have saws from the 1600's.

The very lack of evidence might be a clue in itself?

Regards
Ray