This is the name given in the old catalogues for what would now be called a hacksaw. I'm not very sure how I came to acquire this one, as all the rational reasons would have said I shouldn't, but in the end we often go for something for no better reason than we just like the look of it. I was attracted by the name Stubs on the blade, Stubs being for decades the name a clockmaker would most want to find on his tiny files, and Stubs being the subject of the most readable and learned book of all on the early industrial revolution "An 18th century industrialist: Peter Stubs of Warrington 1756-1806" by the finest of all economic historians, TS Ashton (1939). There is also a massive and to my knowledge completely unexamined cache of business documents of the Stubs firm in the Hawley Collection (copied from originals somewhere in Manchester). But in the end I bought it simply because I wanted it: full stop. It's very small, and the blade is now utterly useless for cutting anything but particularly soft butter. On the back of the handle is the name in exceptionally nice lettering C Hindle, but I suspect that was a user's. I have no idea of its age, as the style didn't change for many decades, and by 1911 (Ward & Payne's catalogue has some interesting food for thought in its choice of nomenclature) saws were being sold that still closely resembled what Stubs would have been selling (probably factored) 150 years earlier. Just for you to look at something as a change from brass back woodworking saws.
It is a lovely little saw Simon, and I can see why you wanted it. It almost looks hand made. I think that Americans would describe this saw as "primitive", a wonderful expression that covers a multitude of sins, ages and origins. Is it a screw-on handle (as one may infer from the nut like hexagon at the rear of the handle) or is it a tang? As you also mention, Ward and Payne definitely discriminate between this style of saw and the more modern hacksaw pattern. Fred
It's hard to imagine doing too much metal cutting with this saw; a four inch maximum stroke, 10 tpi, and no method to tension the blade. But clearly it's had a satisfactory working life and comes down to us with it's (figurative) head held high. My guess is that the ferrule on the handle implies a tang rather than a screw fixing. And coincidentally, this evening I've just finished reading "An Eighteenth-Century Industrialist". And a good read it was, providing much color and background to our mutual interests in the history of saw and tool making.