From what I can gather C.Nurse & Co were a London-based firm that primarily made handplanes. From backsaw.net, "Nurse never made saws but sold saws of very high quality", and that "at least some Charles Nurse saws were made by Thomas Turner". Saws by Nurse & Co were "expensive and high end".
A few weekends ago, I picked up a 9" dovetail saw from this maker at the Perth Wood Show for $40.
The saw plate was mildly pitted. The Seller had made an attempt to tidy it up ..
The handle was in decent condition. A bit rough here-and-there, but the only area I thought needed some work was the curve for the palm. The projection here extended too far and was painful to hold for long.
The nuts were buggered and needed replacing ..
.. and the brass back looked like it had been hammered into the wood (presumably as the teeth were misshapen and dull) ..
I was determined that any restoration must to not alter the vintage presentation of this saw.
The plate was sanded 120/240/400 grit (sandpaper on a hard backing), the teeth sharpened (19 tpi! at 5 degrees rake), and the saw nuts were replaced. The hump on the handle was reduced until the saw felt comfortable ..
I need to level and file the teeth again. They were so misshaped originally. Not bad now, but could be a little more even. They cut well.
The brass back was sanded back, but hopefully still looked well-lived ..
Test cuts were spot on. As good as the Veritas 20 tpi I used for comparison. Here is the saw with the sharpening tools ...
Not much to see on the outside ...
Regards from Perth
Derek