Whelp I've learned a lot here. My little experience with setting and sharpening saws would lead me to the store I think if I ever got it into my head to grind one off and start over...a whole lot of work for sure! By the description of the second saw obtained from the same source I would bet that he took on that challenge on the saw in the picture with the reasons lost in the mind of the owner/user.

I did understand the Pull virtues of Phillips saw but the little nib peaked my interests as I had never seen that. Interesting that the article Kngtek posted seems to indicate no use other than decorative. In the pre-war and older saws like I found I can somewhat understand the "Craftsmanship" "Scroll Work" angle to putting one on in the manufacture of it but the engineer in me tells me it surely had to have a purpose as Phillip indicated or other unknown carpentry technique to my novice skills and no training in that arena.

As for the push/pull, I tend to lean toward the pull side but have a nice cross cut "Push saw" that gets with the program and has a really good finish. Also have a couple of Pull style for dovetails and Dozuki for more generalized fine work and have to say I like the pull style for fine work.