Sheffield has been the centre of cutlery for the best part
of the last thousand years. Although there were many knife
making and cutlery centres in Britain over the centuries,
Sheffield became the pre-eminent centre for many reasons.
Sheffield has good natural
resources, five rivers that flow from the surrounding hills
down through the Sheffield area powered the water wheels that
drove the grinding wheels for the cutlers. Coal for smelting
and forging, and iron ore for making the blades were also
both mined locally. Finally, nearby quarries provided the
sandstone for the grindstones with which items were sharpened
and polished, and it was the quality of these grindstones
and the large number of water powered workshops using them
that really gave Sheffield the edge above other cutlery making
centres.
The first recorded mention
of a Sheffield knife is in the inventory of King Edward III's
possessions in the Tower of London in 1340. King Edward must
have greatly valued the knife, as he was very specific about
leaving it to a beneficiary in his will. In the 1380's Chaucer
wrote about a Sheffield knife in the Reeves tale, and can
be seen wearing such a knife in the portraits that were painted
of him. By the 1580's, Sheffield penknives were being recommended
as the first choice for schoolmasters in 'The Writing Schoolmaster'
a contemporary publication.The first recorded mention of a
Sheffield knife is in the inventory of King Edward III's possessions
in the Tower of London in 1340. King Edward must have greatly
valued the knife, as he was very specific about leaving it
to a beneficiary in his will. In the 1380's Chaucer wrote
about a Sheffield knife in the Reeves tale, and can be seen
wearing such a knife in the portraits that were painted of
him.
By the 1580's, Sheffield
penknives were being recommended as the first choice for schoolmasters
in 'The Writing Schoolmaster' a contemporary publication.
Another reason for the success of Sheffield's cutlery industry
must be due to the system of organisation. Under George Talbot,
Lord of the Manor of Sheffield, the cutlers operated under
a system of guilds, with the Lord of the Manor at the head.
Unfortunately, after George Talbot's successor died in 1617,
the guild system collapsed as there was nobody to take over
the position. The Sheffield cutlers were so concerned by the
disorganisation, that within four years, they presented a
bill to Parliament to form a new controlling body. This Act
of Parliament formed the 'Company of Cutlers of Hallamshire'in
1624 (which covers the whole Sheffield area) and under this
new authority, the cutlery industry flourished. The company
is still around today, and although it lost its authority
in the early 19th Century, it still has some important functions,
and is still active today in Sheffield.
The Sheffield Cutlery trade
grew throughout the 17th and early 18th Centuries, gaining
extra growth when new developments in increasing the quality
of steel gave the cutlers a finer basic product to work with.
Specialisation of tasks also helped the industry to grow,
and by the mid 19th Century, the Sheffield cutlery trade was
very large, employing ten thousand people, and by the end
of the Century more than fifteen thousand. In comparison,
London had only one thousand at the start and 500 cutlers
at the end of the 19th century. By the 1920's an important
new invention stainless steel started to be used, developed
by a Sheffield metallurgist it has been the standard material
for knife blades made ever since.
In the 1970's and 80's the
Sheffield cutlery industry went through a leaner period as
cheaper, lesser quality foreign imports came into the country.
However, the values of care, quality and the finest craftsmanship
that marks out the Sheffield cutlery trade were never compromised.
The Sheffield cutlery industry is now undergoing a renaissance,
generated by the development of the Camlock knives collection
and the recognition that if you want the finest quality, you
have to use the finest craftsmen. If you want to own cutlery
that will become a family heirloom, there is no doubt, it
has to be made in Sheffield.
We always talk about knives
and forks, never forks and knives, probably because the knife
has the longest history. The first very simple cutting edges
were made from flint and date back two million years, but
recognizable blades were made out of stone from five hundred
thousand years years ago during the Paleolithic period (500,000-10,000
B.C.). By the Neolithic period four to seven thousand years
ago (5000-2000 B.C.), stone blades were being polished and
were fitted with crude handles along the top edge of the blade,
which were made of wood or animal hides to protect the users
hand.
Metal blade knives were
first made from copper and then bronze in the years 3000-700
B.C.and they have many features that we still see today. Bolsters
and tangs were added so that a handle could be fitted to the
end of the blade (just as they are today), and shapes developed
that can still be seen in many carving knives that are still
produced today. After the bronze age came the discovery that
an iron blade had a much sharper and long-lasting edge, and
iron knives were widely made since about 1000 years BC.The
Romans in particular developed many different types of knife
to suit a wide number of uses (including ritual animal sacrifices
and knives for cutting hair). Knives were considered to be
very important possessions, and were treasured items. People
had their own personal eating knives which they carried with
them (they would not be provided at the table) and it was
not unusual for people to be buried with their personal knives.
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