Visiting Arthur Wright & Son (Pics)

[VCM3]

But not like these

In doing research to try to find info on some of these, I noticed a lot of the firms that made knives have evolved into cutlery for your table ( table ware)

 

[VCM3]

These were the JT Wright & Daughter marked .

 

[VCM3]

Pretty sure they still manufacture boatsmans sets like this

But I did not find sets like this with the small sharpening steel The knife itself is what Russell Green Rivver calls " Dadley" So my guess is this style of pattern was started in Sheffield,like so many others

 

[herder]

A trip to Sheffield would be a wonderful pilgrimage for any knife enthusiast, but when guided by Jack, it's made simply unforgettable. Jack's knowledge not only covers the cutlery trade, but also the general history of Sheffield and England at large. A visit to the A. Wright & Son shop with a tour by the owner, John Malcham, was fascinating. While no workers were there at the time, John gave us a step by step tour of the process of creating various cutlery from start to finished products. Amazing to see the wide array of equipment used, much of which was over one hundred years old and still performing better than most modern machinery could.

Jack, Cambertree, and others have included many pictures and great information that little more can be said other to add that a visit to Sheffield should be on everyone's bucket list.

Enclosed is a picture of a few very generous gifts from Jack, thanks my friend!!!

 

[Jack Black]

Duncan told me the name,I already forgot It isun marked,but going by the sheath it has to be more A Wright stuff

...

Just says Sheffield England

These were unmarked too,only Sheffield England

The top one is a Sgian Dubh Vince, it means 'Black Knife' in Gaelic I understand. 'Black' as in hidden/concealed, and carried under the armpit, rather than the stocking (as in the modern 'Highland Dress'). Like most of the knives in your parcel, they are of the Sheffield 'Town Patterns', once made by cutlers and cutlery firms all over the city, and still made by a number today. The larger knives were probably sold as 'Scottish Dirks', many Sheffield cutlers have produced them, and the design varies (more commonly they have a single edge). Those appear to use Fairbairn-Sykes blades, another 'Town Pattern', which have been used on a number of Sheffield-made daggers. Unfortunately, sheaths like that were and are used by numerous cutlers, but I think Wright's is an informed guess

Pretty sure they still manufacture boatsmans sets like this

But I did not find sets like this with the small sharpening steel The knife itself is what Russell Green Rivver calls " Dadley" So my guess is this style of pattern was started in Sheffield,like so many others

Both types are still produced in Sheffield

A trip to Sheffield would be a wonderful pilgrimage for any knife enthusiast, but when guided by Jack, it's made simply unforgettable. Jack's knowledge not only covers the cutlery trade, but also the general history of Sheffield and England at large. A visit to the A. Wright & Son shop with a tour by the owner, John Malcham, was fascinating. While no workers were there at the time, John gave us a step by step tour of the process of creating various cutlery from start to finished products. Amazing to see the wide array of equipment used, much of which was over one hundred years old and still performing better than most modern machinery could.

Jack, Cambertree, and others have included many pictures and great information that little more can be said other to add that a visit to Sheffield should be on everyone's bucket list.

Enclosed is a picture of a few very generous gifts from Jack, thanks my friend!!!

Thanks for the kinds words, and for visiting my friend, it was an honour to meet you, and a real pleasure to be able to spend some time with you

Don't forget to sign up for your free Guardians of the Lambsfoot membership!

 

[VCM3]

A trip to Sheffield would be a wonderful pilgrimage for any knife enthusiast, but when guided by Jack, it's made simply unforgettable. Jack's knowledge not only covers the cutlery trade, but also the general history of Sheffield and England at large. A visit to the A. Wright & Son shop with a tour by the owner, John Malcham, was fascinating. While no workers were there at the time, John gave us a step by step tour of the process of creating various cutlery from start to finished products. Amazing to see the wide array of equipment used, much of which was over one hundred years old and still performing better than most modern machinery could.

Jack, Cambertree, and others have included many pictures and great information that little more can be said other to add that a visit to Sheffield should be on everyone's bucket list.

Enclosed is a picture of a few very generous gifts from Jack, thanks my friend!!!

That knife is real nice herder

 

[Bartleby]

Beg pardon Jack, do you know if Reg Cooper has been making some Bowies for Wrights? I saw some done in a style very similar to his, marked with Wright's stamp as I was surfing the web. Thanks!

 

[Jack Black]

Beg pardon Jack, do you know if Reg Cooper has been making some Bowies for Wrights? I saw some done in a style very similar to his, marked with Wright's stamp as I was surfing the web. Thanks!

I don't think so Bart, their Bowies are made in house. Reg used to buy his Bowie blades from another Sheffield firm, Jack Adams, and most are Sheffield Town Patterns. Eggington also sell some similar knives

 

[Campbellclanman]

Man this is Interesting stuff - thank you Jack, Herder, Chin and Vince, Meako etc.
awesome stuff.
In Vince's Photos you can see a few of my Knives I have coming - a few of those Bowies

 

[Jack Black]

Man this is Interesting stuff - thank you Jack, Herder, Chin and Vince, Meako etc.
awesome stuff.
In Vince's Photos you can see a few of my Knives I have coming - a few of those Bowies

Cheers Duncan, those are interesting knives, look forward to seeing more of them. I have a recent AW Whittle-tang Bowie I must take a pic of. The patterns are the still the same as they were when I was a kid, and long before (as are most of the Jack Adams knives)

 

[Jack Black]

Sorry for the poor pic (took a second to take, and half an hour to upload ) This is the 5" Whittle Tang Bowie in stag. 'Fraid the sheaths haven't got any better since I was a kid, but the knives are pretty nice!



Here's another pic of the pile side tang stamp.

 

[Bartleby]

Sorry for the poor pic (took a second to take, and half an hour to upload ) This is the 5" Whittle Tang Bowie in stag. 'Fraid the sheaths haven't got any better since I was a kid, but the knives are pretty nice!



Here's another pic of the pile side tang stamp.

This is perhaps another case in which blanking is done by one company and then finished up by another company. I have a recent nearly identical Bowie style knife (even the sheath is the same generic sort) marked "John Nowill & Sons Ltd. Sheffield England" which I believe is the Jack Adams house version. The Wright stamped embellished version I encountered is very similar to the style Reg Cooper made, but not done by him (I was able to contact the source of the photo, that confirmed them as being sourced from Wrights and not Cooper's work). It would be interesting to see if Wrights is doing more embellished versions. I have encountered some of their workback knives, which seem first-rate (am considering getting a WB Lambfoot).

 

[Jack Black]

This is perhaps another case in which blanking is done by one company and then finished up by another company. I have a recent nearly identical Bowie style knife (even the sheath is the same generic sort) marked "John Nowill & Sons Ltd. Sheffield England" which I believe is the Jack Adams house version. The Wright stamped embellished version I encountered is very similar to the style Reg Cooper made, but not done by him (I was able to contact the source of the photo, that confirmed them as being sourced from Wrights and not Cooper's work). It would be interesting to see if Wrights is doing more embellished versions. I have encountered some of their workback knives, which seem first-rate (am considering getting a WB Lambfoot).

Lots of Sheffield firms used to produce those knives, and they all seemed to come with the same poor quality sheaths! Adams blanks out their own blades, up to around 8", larger knives are hand-ground. I don't know if they use any outworkers or not. Wright's knives are made entirely in-house. Wright's do some larger, and embellished Bowies, and even swords, which are all hand-ground. Stan Shaw occasionally turns out a Bowie, and there are still a few other Little Mesters. Eggington get Bowies made up, selling them with various marks, both as Eggington, and Sheffield Collectable Knives

 

[Bartleby]

Lots of Sheffield firms used to produce those knives, and they all seemed to come with the same poor quality sheaths! Adams blanks out their own blades, up to around 8", larger knives are hand-ground. I don't know if they use any outworkers or not. Wright's knives are made entirely in-house. Wright's do some larger, and embellished Bowies, and even swords, which are all hand-ground. Stan Shaw occasionally turns out a Bowie, and there are still a few other Little Mesters. Eggington get Bowies made up, selling them with various marks, both as Eggington, and Sheffield Collectable Knives

I believe that one of the outworker shops is R&R Polishing Sheffield. They seem to be doing a fair bit of finish work, and possibly some production in house. Perhaps you might try to see if they do anything worthy of a visit next time you are in the area. Although they may be more focused on the table ware end of the market, they seem to have a line of traditional hunting knives (many sourced from Wrights, I believe) as well.

 

[Bartleby]

I for one, would be pretty interested to get some info on the swords of Sheffield as well.

 

[Jack Black]

I believe that one of the outworker shops is R&R Polishing Sheffield. They seem to be doing a fair bit of finish work, and possibly some production in house. Perhaps you might try to see if they do anything worthy of a visit next time you are in the area. Although they may be more focused on the table ware end of the market, they seem to have a line of traditional hunting knives (many sourced from Wrights, I believe) as well.

Thanks for the info

I for one, would be pretty interested to get some info on the swords of Sheffield as well.

A few are still produced there, mainly for the British Army

 

[screened porch]

Speaking of Sheffield swords, I miss the British Antiques Road Show. Somebody brought in a funny sword he'd traded a couple of bayonets for. It turned out to be Wilkinson Sword's prototype for the bodyguards of Haile Selassie.

 

[Jack Black]

F

Speaking of Sheffield swords, I miss the British Antiques Road Show. Somebody brought in a funny sword he'd traded a couple of bayonets for. It turned out to be Wilkinson Sword's prototype for the bodyguards of Haile Selassie.

Fascinating! Wilkinson's are still getting swords ground in Sheffield, there's a bloke who grinds them with water-power at the Abbeydale Industrial Museum! I've posted pics of him in the past. Haile Selassie had a huge canteen of ornate cutlery made in Sheffield, by Rodgers I think, I might have a pic of it somewhere

 

[sitflyer]

It's a working factory, and not open to visitors :thumbup:

Thank you for being our eyes and ears and bringing us along on such a neat tour! It is a real treat to see these men working those old great machines and producing all those fantastic looking knives. Your photo's caught the real essence of the working shop, and I could almost hear the humming and banging, and smell the steel dust and quenching oil in the air. Those old machines were built to run practically forever! Great job on this piece Jack, you should really consider compiling these things into a book or something, you are capturing the living history of an age of cutlery production that is still breathing. Thank you.

 

[Jack Black]

Thank you for being our eyes and ears and bringing us along on such a neat tour! It is a real treat to see these men working those old great machines and producing all those fantastic looking knives. Your photo's caught the real essence of the working shop, and I could almost hear the humming and banging, and smell the steel dust and quenching oil in the air. Those old machines were built to run practically forever! Great job on this piece Jack, you should really consider compiling these things into a book or something, you are capturing the living history of an age of cutlery production that is still breathing. Thank you.

Thanks for the very kind words Duane

Unfortunately, the BF software changes not only mangled all the old threads, but it's not possible to edit the longer posts So, I can't edit in this link into my first post - More pics here: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/visiting-arthur-wright-son-pics.1481181/page-4#post-17092256