A saw with a thin metal blade held tight in a frame, used for cutting through metal or hard materials.
From 'hack' meaning 'to chop' (Old English 'haccian') plus 'saw' from Old English 'sagu.' It's called a 'hack-saw' because it hacks at material with repeated cutting motions.
The hacksaw was revolutionary because it could cut through hard materials like steel and metal pipes—before it, metal work required entirely different tools, making construction and manufacturing way slower.
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