Thomas Stones may have been the son of John (a cutler) and his wife, Ann.  If so, he was baptised in Sheffield on 8 September 1799.  His early life is obscure, but he was probably the pen and lock knife manufacturer, who was listed in directories in 1833 and 1837 at Coalpit Lane.   By 1839, he was working and living at Sheldon Street, Little Sheffield.  The Sheffield Independent, 25 May 1839, reported a burglary one night at his house and workshop.  He shot at the intruders from a kitchen window.  In 1841, the local directory and the Census confirm his address at Sheldon Street, where he was living with his wife, Ann, and an apprentice.  Ann died in July 1841, aged 56, and later that year Thomas married Mrs Mary Snape (Sheffield Independent, 25 November 1841).

In the Sheffield directory (1861), Thomas Stones & Co was a spring knife manufacturer at Jessop Street.  It was still a little-mester type operation.  In 1851, Thomas was living with two young apprentice spring-knife cutlers; in 1861 he told the Census that he only employed one boy.  Thomas Stones died at Sheldon Street and was buried at St Mary’s churchyard, Bramall Lane, on 2 August 1868, aged 69.  His death was apparently not reported in the press.   His former wife, Ann, and widow, Mary (d. 1872), were also buried at St Mary’s.