Identifying a Richmond Sawmaker:
Burger Boyle & Gamble

by Jim Crammond

If you can provide Jim with some information about the maker of this saw, contact him at jicaarr@yahoo.com

At the Chicago Artisans and Trades Society, Black Saturday Tool Show in November of 2005, I acquired a backsaw marked “Burger Boyle & Gamble, Richmond VA”. At the time, I was pleased to have bought the saw, cleaned off a little of the “patina”, placed it with my accumulation of backsaws and gave it little further thought.

The saw is steel backed with a blade 16” long with 2 ¾” under the back at the toe and 3 ¼” under the back at the heel. The handle appears to be beech and is secured to the blade with split nuts. One curious thing about these is that the medallion is the same size as the other two nuts rather than the more typical larger size. The medallion is marked “Warranted Superior” with an eagle facing left. From its appearance, I would guess it could have been made anytime from about 1850 to 1880.

While attending the M-WTCA Tool Meet in Chattanooga last fall, I asked a couple of saw collectors about Richmond saw makers and neither of them had heard of any. After a bit more procrastination, I finally did some research into the maker of the saw with less than satisfactory results. According to "Hand-Saw Makers of North America" by Erv Shaffer, E. Boyle worked as a sawmaker in Richmond circa 1870-1871, Mr. Shaffer cites the Directory of American Toolmakers (DAT) published by the EAIA as his source. There is no reference to Burger Boyle & Gamble. Basically, the same information is shown in the DAT, citing a primary source such as a directory, census listing, advertisement, etc. as a basis for the information. There is no mention of the company or individual members other than E Boyle given.

As this exhausted my personal source of references about sawmakers, I next went to the Internet for information. A Google search for the company did not find any information about Burger Boyle & Gamble, but I did find some interesting data that leads to speculation about the company. Boyle & Gamble was a prolific Richmond manufacturer of swords located on South Sixth Street that supplied the Confederacy with swords of all types throughout the war. Reputedly, Boyle & Gamble sold to individuals or outfitters while a connected firm, Boyle Gamble & MacFee sold equipment directly to the Confederate government. Edwin Boyle is listed as one of the principles of these companies. Burger and Brothers was also a Richmond, VA company that supplied the CSA. They made military arms, equipment and supplies for railroads, so it seems that they were involved in the production of iron and steel products. The Burger Family was from Botetourt County and developed the Burger Plow.

While I could not find any reference to Burger Boyle & Gamble as a company, it does seem plausible that two companies that had experience in metal working could have combined their resources in the devastation that followed the War to produce woodworking tools. The evolution from making swords to making edge tools or saws does not seem that great. It is also possible that these companies were connected before the War and separated to concentrate on different areas of production for the war effort.

Because the sources that I have available to me did not provide any concrete information about Burger Boyle & Gamble, I would like to enlist the help of any RATS member to do some research at Richmond sources of information such as libraries or history museums to dig a little deeper into this mystery. Virginia did not seem to have a prolific saw making industry, so it would be great to add one to the list.