Cutlery Industry

The name of Sheffield has become so indelibly linked with the cutlery industry that it is difficult to imagine that it was ever otherwise. But, although Sheffield can claim to be the home of the industry, it was not its birthplace. This book follows the development of the cutlery industry from thirteenth-century London to present-day Sheffield. The rise of Sheffield was a relatively late development and the reasons for this ascendancy are explained. An important part of this history was the skills of the craftsmen upon which the industry depended and this aspect is also covered. Although it is impossible to know exactly how the craftsmen worked in the past, the records which have been made of practices since the 1930's and the work of the few handcraftsmen still at work today are not very different from the methods and equipment used over the centuries. There are sufficient items from the seventeenth century onwards to support this view, and the author uses such records to explain techniques and working conditions.Smithurst, Peter is the author of 'Cutlery Industry', published 1997 under ISBN 9780852638705 and ISBN 0852638701.