- Joined
- Dec 2, 2005
- Messages
- 71,165
While 1960s America had colour TV and exciting programmes to watch, Im afraid it wasnt quite the same in the humble households of Yorkshireland my friends! I grew up in a house with a rented television set, which took old British thrupny bits in a slot in the back, and the programmes broadcast on the TWO channels, for just a few hours a day, were so rubbish they werent WORTH thrupence! We could only watch the telly when my father was there, and since I was generally sent to bed soon after he came home from work, I saw little TV growing up, and have watched little since.
Now I know you're going to tell me that you didn't all grow up with colour TV's, and that some US families only had a radio. Well we didnt have the radio, we had the WIRELESS! It operated like the radio, but it was a lot less fun. When I was a small child, my listening was controlled by my mother, who has all the taste of an over-boiled piece of cardboard, or indeed of the BBCs Light Programme, into which the family wireless was inevitably tuned. It was absolutely nothing like Woody Allens Radio Days! And this was in the supposedly Swinging Sixties!
Towards the end of the Sixties, during which the only swinging I witnessed was the occasional game of conkers in the school playground, I inherited a vast and ancient wireless from my Great Grandmother. The BBC had barely improved its programming, but popular music was now being broadcast by a range of pirate stations operating outside the grasp of the British government, including several moored in international waters out in the North Sea (which has even more old wrecks than a Yorkshire fleamarket). That was how the British came to have RADIO!
Im just throwing this in for those of you who have never heard of the wireless, and so might wonder why this odd looking electricians knife has that name. Of course this example of an Ibberson made Wireless Knife would look considerably less odd if someone hadnt broken the blade, and then set about it with a grinder. Sadly, Sheffield has always had more grinding wheels than those with the skill to use them.
I picked up the knife from the market today when I went to visit ADEE, and Ive spent quite a bit of time wondering what on earth happened to it, what it would take to seriously damage such a sturdy and robust blade, and why whoever put it to the grinder had to thin the blade out so much that the nail nick was lost.
It would have been great to have found this knife in better shape. As youd expect from Ibbersons, its a nicely made knife that has clearly seen a lot of hard use, aside from the obvious abuse. Both blades have half-stops, and even with the damage, they still have great walk and talk, and the knife has a good feel to it. But it really is a shame about the main blade
Later Ibberson knives of this sort have a liner-lock like the TL-29, but this is more like the Wostenholm model below, the picture of which I think was originally posted by Smiling-Knife. If anyone else has an old Sheffield Wireless Knife, Id love to see one in better shape than this.
Jack
Now I know you're going to tell me that you didn't all grow up with colour TV's, and that some US families only had a radio. Well we didnt have the radio, we had the WIRELESS! It operated like the radio, but it was a lot less fun. When I was a small child, my listening was controlled by my mother, who has all the taste of an over-boiled piece of cardboard, or indeed of the BBCs Light Programme, into which the family wireless was inevitably tuned. It was absolutely nothing like Woody Allens Radio Days! And this was in the supposedly Swinging Sixties!
Towards the end of the Sixties, during which the only swinging I witnessed was the occasional game of conkers in the school playground, I inherited a vast and ancient wireless from my Great Grandmother. The BBC had barely improved its programming, but popular music was now being broadcast by a range of pirate stations operating outside the grasp of the British government, including several moored in international waters out in the North Sea (which has even more old wrecks than a Yorkshire fleamarket). That was how the British came to have RADIO!
Im just throwing this in for those of you who have never heard of the wireless, and so might wonder why this odd looking electricians knife has that name. Of course this example of an Ibberson made Wireless Knife would look considerably less odd if someone hadnt broken the blade, and then set about it with a grinder. Sadly, Sheffield has always had more grinding wheels than those with the skill to use them.
I picked up the knife from the market today when I went to visit ADEE, and Ive spent quite a bit of time wondering what on earth happened to it, what it would take to seriously damage such a sturdy and robust blade, and why whoever put it to the grinder had to thin the blade out so much that the nail nick was lost.
It would have been great to have found this knife in better shape. As youd expect from Ibbersons, its a nicely made knife that has clearly seen a lot of hard use, aside from the obvious abuse. Both blades have half-stops, and even with the damage, they still have great walk and talk, and the knife has a good feel to it. But it really is a shame about the main blade
Later Ibberson knives of this sort have a liner-lock like the TL-29, but this is more like the Wostenholm model below, the picture of which I think was originally posted by Smiling-Knife. If anyone else has an old Sheffield Wireless Knife, Id love to see one in better shape than this.
Jack
:thumbup:
Your posts are always the best reads
:thumbup:
