Guardians of The Lambsfoot!

bigfish64 said:
Love that jigging Steve. 😎👍
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Thanks Todd !

Jack Black said:
A pleasure Steve :) While there were a lot of scale makers, I'm sure that the cutlers would get to know a particular jigging style, and who had done the work :thumbsup:

Going back in time, cutlers were issue with the materials to make up a dozen knives, and when they delivered them, they would draw their pay. Sometimes though, a cutler would be extra to squeeze out an extra knife, so he'd probably grind off the tang stamp, and sell it on the side, since the work was his, and he was a self-employed cutler (a Little Mester). So, feeling hard done to, the gaffers demanded 13 knives to the dozen. The first to introduce this was a gaffer named Watkinson, who was the Master Cutler at one time. As a consequence, the cutler's favourite 'poet', the great Joseph Mather, penned what would become his best-known song, which was known, way beyond both Mather and Watkinson's deaths, by ever cutler in the town. It's singing hounded Watkinson everywhere he went, until the end of his life, with the crowds in the cheap seats of Sheffield Theatre, singing it uproariously, whenever Watkinson entered, often led by Mather himself. Unfortunately Watkinson was not the only gaffer to introduce the practice, and George Wostenholm II even pushed a cutler's dozen to 14.

Watkinson And His Thirteens

This monster oppression behold how he stalks,
Keeps picking the bones of the poor as he walks,
There's not a mechanic throughout this whole land
But more or less feels the weight of his hand;
That offspring of tyranny, baseness and pride,
Our rights hath invaded and almost destroyed
May that man be banished who villainy screens:
Or sides with big Watkinson with his thirteens

Chorus:
And may the odd knife his great carcass dissect,
Lay open his vitals for men to inspect,
A heart full as black as the infernal gulf,
In that greedy, blood sucking, bone scraping wolf.

This wicked dissenter, expelled his own church,
Is rendered the subject of public reproach:
Since reprobate marks on his forehead appeared,
We all have concluded his conscience is seared:
See mammon his god, and oppression his aim,
Hark! how the streets ring with his infamous name,
The boys at the playhouse exhibit strange scenes
Respecting big Watkinson with his thirteens.

Chorus

Like Pharaoh for baseness, that type of the de'il,
He wants to flog journeymen with rods of steel,
And certainly would, had he got Pharaoh's power,
His heart is as hard, and his temper as sour;
But justice repulsed him and set us all free,
Like bond-slaves of old in the year jubilee.
May those be transported or sent for marines
That works for big Watkinson at his thirteens.

Chorus

We claim as true Yorkshire men leave to speak twice,
That no man should work for him at any price,
Since he has attempted our lives to enthral,
And mingle our liquor with wormwood and gall;
Beelzebub take him with his ill-got pelf,
He's equally bad, if not worse than thyself;
So shall every cutler that honestly means
Cry 'take away Watkinson with his thirteens.'

Chorus

But see foolish mortals! Far worse than insane,
Three fourths are returned into Egypt again;
Although Pharaoh's hands they had fairly escaped,
Now they must submit for their bones to be scraped;
Whilst they give themselves and their all for a prey
Let us be unanimous and jointly say,
Success to our sovereign who peaceably reigns,
But down with both Watkinson's twelves and thirteens.

And may the odd knife his great carcass dissect,
Lay open his vitals for men to inspect,
A heart full as black as the infernal gulf,
In that greedy, blood sucking, bone scraping wolf.




You too Steve, thank you for those wonderful photos :) :thumbsup:
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My pleasure Jack and thanks for the history lesson 👍
 
Jack Black said:
There were a lot of them in Sheffield Steve, they are listed in trade directories as scale makers. Occasionally, they will have an advert listing some of the scales they made. The big companies made their own scales. It's worth noting that even the largest, like Joseph Rodgers, for example, did not have factories, in the way we have understood them to be since Henry Ford's time. Rather, they were a series of workshops, with the self-employed cutlers renting bench-space and power, and generally being supplied with the materials to make the knives, and being paid after the work was finished (this was called the 'Liver and Draw' system).

JhpWWPF.jpg
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Sounds like the original form of " Piece Work ".
 
Jack Black said:
There were a lot of them in Sheffield Steve, they are listed in trade directories as scale makers. Occasionally, they will have an advert listing some of the scales they made. The big companies made their own scales. It's worth noting that even the largest, like Joseph Rodgers, for example, did not have factories, in the way we have understood them to be since Henry Ford's time. Rather, they were a series of workshops, with the self-employed cutlers renting bench-space and power, and generally being supplied with the materials to make the knives, and being paid after the work was finished (this was called the 'Liver and Draw' system).

JhpWWPF.jpg
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Very interesting history Jack!
SteveC said:
Good morning Guardians

Hope everyone has a good start to the week 👍



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Verah nice Lamb 🐑
Fodderwing said:
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Mercy sakes!
Rufus1949 said:
I always enjoy the classic look of wood David. Nice. 👍🏻
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Thanks Bob!
 
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