It was extremely exciting to see Jack have tremendous input to help with the such Knives as the Hartshead Barlow and that great Knife the Lambsfoot.
Jack had great influence on the knives he helped A.Wrights produce and the difference in Quality was immediately obvious - and these knives that have some of our Jacks DNA are
very good Knives.
When talking to Jack the loss you see he feels deeply from the modern times taking over and changing the once Almighty Sheffield to yet another Industrial Town / City to be replaced by the overseas manufacturing, seeing Jack and hearing the difference in what was Sheffield and what now is really hits home as to why we are seeing the change of a well known Sheffield Cutler name such as A.Wright that made very good Knives to the same name, but different management of course producing the quality of today..
I saw this myself ( and felt it deeply )when I was privileged to spend the day with Jack touring Sheffield and being shown such indepth true Sheffield from such a great and knowledgeable guy.
I think it's important when talking about A.Wright knives to be very specific of the era of the knife as there are such Special Factory Orders such as the ones that Jack had massive influence in the making - that are
fantastic Knives.
A.Wright has simply joined ranks with Joseph Rodgers, Taylors Eye Witness etc, all who made some of the most outstanding knives, but from what I have seen from the two later Cutler Firms names, I wouldn't even entertain the idea of picking one up to even look at it with the prospective of buying the Knife, this however would change massively if it were the True Knives from the era of when all these Cutler firms mentioned made incredible knives - I would trample over bodies to get to those Knives in a Heartbeat.
Speaking to very well educated Knife experts like Jack, Charlie- The older Knives needed the Iron Thumbnail to open these Knives- it seemed that this was a very common thing in the day, we of course now dont experience this and most of us dont have the nails to be able to match those old Pulls, and modern manufacturers are onto the fact that a very hard pull Knife wont be a good seller these day.
So, Old Sheffield Knives are some of the best in the World, the people who made them joined others from the other great Industrial Knife making City - Solingen to immigrate to the USA, this was the start of American made Knives - which we know to also to be some of the Worlds best, only because of the influence from Solingen and Sheffield/England.
So to see what has happened to the Sheffield Greats is sad - it's very sad, the names stamped into the Tang such as A. Wright, Joseph Rodgers, Taylor Eye Witness does not have the Soul that their earlier Knives have.
I know one thing - if Jack had permanent influence inside of the A.Wright Cutlery shop - that old Soul would come back from the past and you would have such Knives like the great Hartshead Barlow, and the Lambsfoots that Jack has also influenced.
I also have seen Jack get extremely frustrated with the modern times of the way these business's are being managed - because simply of what could be.
I personally want to thank Jack so much for the person he is, the amazing influence he has had on all of us, and also the influence that Jack has had on Cutlery Firms where now we actually hold a true Sheffield Knife.
) blade on a single blade... Liners have been above the scales and you need to sand or file them flush. Can't say I find this thrilling. Spring ends are often cut off very crudely. A horn handled knife has shrunk back badly and this is disappointing, points to low quality horn. The edges are not very impressive either but you can get them there certainly, an Ettrick I got last winter initially impressed me, I like the bizarre pattern but this soured when the tip curled (didn't break off) when I was scoring chestnuts, does not suggest quality steel.
