Visiting Sheffield

waynorth said:
Thanks, Jack! You've saved me the air fare!:D
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Jack, these are my favorite types of threads, I like to see these types of articles in Knife World from time to time. Thank you for sharing, I would definitely like to see more. It would be neat to see Sheffield back in action again. It seems like Pennsylvania and New York over here is the only place to get a factory slipjoint in America. Okay, okay, Rhode Island too ;).
 
Jack Black said:
Thank you very much for your kind words gentlemen :)



I'd be more than happy to show you around Sheffield Duncan :thumbup:
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Jack-what a extremely kind offer - thank you very much, I will drop you a line before we go so I can buy you a pint :)
 
Ew to the bloodletting knife.

If I were going to make a rash generalization based on the knives-for-sale tray, it would be that the English in general traditionally favored lambsfoots and pruners. (I expect you see as many SAKs as we do these days.)

I might guess that the early mass production in Sheffield smoothed out regional differences, except that in living memory you could still buy billhooks of different shapes named for different counties. Go figure.

Glad you're keeping dry.
 
silenthunterstudios said:
Jack, these are my favorite types of threads, I like to see these types of articles in Knife World from time to time. Thank you for sharing, I would definitely like to see more. It would be neat to see Sheffield back in action again. It seems like Pennsylvania and New York over here is the only place to get a factory slipjoint in America. Okay, okay, Rhode Island too ;).
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Many thanks. I hadn't actually planned to make my visit this week an 'official' one! :D There's plenty more to be said about Sheffield I think, but I very much doubt it'll ever return to anything like the form of the past.


scrteened porch said:
Ew to the bloodletting knife.

If I were going to make a rash generalization based on the knives-for-sale tray, it would be that the English in general traditionally favored lambsfoots and pruners. (I expect you see as many SAKs as we do these days.)

I might guess that the early mass production in Sheffield smoothed out regional differences, except that in living memory you could still buy billhooks of different shapes named for different counties. Go figure.

Glad you're keeping dry.
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I think the limited number of patterns reflects the lack of imagination of the mainstream Sheffield cutlers. Yes, far more people carry SAKs than Sheffield-made folders, and who can blame them? I didn't know that about the billhooks, very interesting.

Campbellclanman said:
Jack-what a extremely kind offer - thank you very much, I will drop you a line before we go so I can buy you a pint :)
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It will be my pleasure Duncan. Nearer the time, if you let me know when you're coming, I'll get in touch with the Sheffield museums, such as Sheperd's Wheel, and see if they'll sort out an open day, or perhaps see if we can get a look at some of the knives they don't have on display anymore :)
 
Jack,

I was finally able to give your post the undistracted attention it deserves.

Thanks for once again taking the time to write up one of your jaunts, complete with helpful illustrations. I so enjoy your eye, and the way you bring forth your impressions in words.


... I am still haunted by the image from a previous tale of the poor worker whose long-awaited, irreplaceable dinner was ruined. :(

~ P.
 
pertinux said:
Jack,

I was finally able to give your post the undistracted attention it deserves.

Thanks for once again taking the time to write up one of your jaunts, complete with helpful illustrations. I so enjoy your eye, and the way you bring forth your impressions in words.


... I am still haunted by the image from a previous tale of the poor worker whose long-awaited, irreplaceable dinner was ruined. :(

~ P.
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Thanks P, sorry to have left you with that image. It's more than 45 years ago, and to be honest, I still think of it regularly.

Jack
 
Jack Black said:
Thanks P, sorry to have left you with that image. It's more than 45 years ago, and to be honest, I still think of it regularly.

Jack
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Jack,

There's no need to apologize. The moment is memorable not only because of its intrinsic, helpless sorrow, but your skill (and heart) in portraying it. While I admit its memory is one reason I waited to read this new tale (I'm not keen to run into such a haunting again, so soon), at the same time it strenghtens motivation I've tried to embrace from my own such "moments"-- to not walk away from a given situation now, as an adult, if it's within my ability to do something (and hopefully not something misguided or inappropriate to a given situation guided solely by my own desire to feel better...).

~ P.
 
pertinux said:
Jack,

There's no need to apologize. The moment is memorable not only because of its intrinsic, helpless sorrow, but your skill (and heart) in portraying it. While I admit its memory is one reason I waited to read this new tale (I'm not keen to run into such a haunting again, so soon), at the same time it strenghtens motivation I've tried to embrace from my own such "moments"-- to not walk away from a given situation now, as an adult, if it's within my ability to do something (and hopefully not something misguided or inappropriate to a given situation guided solely by my own desire to feel better...).

~ P.
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Thank you for your kind words P. That post was off-topic (hence its posting in Carl's Lounge - Post 2855). Hopefully the only haunting in my field-trip threads will be the wailing of the ghosts of cutler's past (and a few disgruntled crochet-hook owners) :)
 
On ya Jack.
i love a bit of English history.
Although for some strange inexplicable reason I started thinking of this.[video]http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/dc333014c5/four-yorkshire-men-by-at-last-the-1948-show-from-greatest-comedy-sketches[/video]
 
It will be my pleasure Duncan. Nearer the time, if you let me know when you're coming, I'll get in touch with the Sheffield museums, such as Sheperd's Wheel, and see if they'll sort out an open day, or perhaps see if we can get a look at some of the knives they don't have on display anymore :)[/QUOTE]

Jack....I would feel extremely grateful just to meet you, so yes, please let me get over this busy period and I will be in touch!...what an incredible offer, but as I said - just to meet one of our forum friends would be such a bonus included in our trip!
I feel quite inadequate with just saying thank you, but thank you very much.
 
Thank you Jack for one of the best posts I've read in years, I'd buy you a pint if I was in blighty.
 
Jaytaylor said:
Thank you Jack for one of the best posts I've read in years, I'd buy you a pint if I was in blighty.
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Thank you Jay, I'm flattered. I'll buy myself a pint and think of you all while I drink it! :)
 
:cool: I always enoy reading the intelligent and erudite postings from Jack Black. Although I have never lived in England, I enjoy learnig about other coutries and cultures. For a long time, I have heard about the cutlery tradition of Sheffield - it seems to be the English equivalent of Toledo or Solingen - and I am sorry to hear that the industry in Solingen is not strong at this time.

My question is about a comparison between Sheffield and Birmingham. The Birmingham company I am familiar with is Martindale (Crocodile brand). While a teacher in Western Samoa some decades ago, all of the machetes (bush knives) were the Martindales from Birmingham. Even now, I see British goloks and paratrooper knives from Birmingham. Are the two cities very different in losing industries and cutlery manufacturing. Did Birmingham have a cutlery tradition like that of Sheffield? I am only asking out of curiosity and because I own several bush knives made in Birmingham.
Faiaoga
 
Very interesting thread. Over many years of knife collecting, I've visited most of the great knife making cities, in the USA or out of it. In the early 1990s, I went to Sheffield. While there, I visited the industrial museum, Kelham Island. What a treat that was. The knife / tool making operation, the Little Mesters, was of most interest to me. It seems from your post, JackBlack, that the museum is still in operation, but only very limited. I wish I would have had you as a guide.
 
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G-Winstead said:
Very interesting thread. Over many years of knife collecting, I've visited most of the great knife making cities, in the USA or out of it. In the early 1990s, I went to Sheffield. While there, I visited the industrial museum, Kelham Island. What a treat that was. The knife / tool making operation, the Little Mesters, was of most interest to me. It seems from your post, JackBlack, that the museum is still in operation, but only very limited. I wish I would have had you as a guide.
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Thank you Mr Winstead. You picked the best possible time to visit Kelham Island I think. It has just re-opened after several years closed, but it's not the museum it was, and they don't run those enormous engines the way that they did. I'm going to try and make a visit soon and take some pics for forum members.

The Sheperd's Wheel is closed except 'by special appointment', which probably means to school parties. While the Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet (the real 'jewel in the crown' I think) was 'mothballed' in the mid-1990's.

It would have been my pleasure to show you around sir, and please let me know if you ever think of making a return visit :)

Best wishes

Jack

 
Jack,

this is a great tool to make steel.... somehow this remembers me from pics of the past and at present in the "Ruhrpott" (Germany) where still steel is made :)

The size comparison to the car is just great!

Thanks for sharing, my friend!
 
Humppa said:
Jack,

this is a great tool to make steel.... somehow this remembers me from pics of the past and at present in the "Ruhrpott" (Germany) where still steel is made :)

The size comparison to the car is just great!

Thanks for sharing, my friend!
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Thanks Andi. Yes, those Bessamer Converters are absolutely incredible things to see in use.

I didn't realise that, according to the Kelham Island Museum site (http://www.simt.co.uk/kelham-island-museum/bessemer-converter), this is only one of three left in the world!
 
Jack,

I also very much enjoyed reading about your visit and agree Sheffield is continually changing and not always for the better. City council and the local authorities seem to have virtually no regard for "heritage" the past and seem anxious to destroy and flatten whats left..

I always regard the city centre, the part of the city inside the modern ring road the heart of the "old" cutlery industry (earlier still, as you know, most of the work would have been done up the river valleys using water power), the place would have been heaving with steam powered engines..the Neepsend area, Kelham Island etc, would have been developed in its present form slightly later C1850s ? and been an area with more steel & tool production..Sheffield is/was a facinating place for sure.

I took my own daughter, 12 (poor thing !) to the Christmas Fair at kelham yesterday, the place was very busy..open throughout. As we meandered through the main museum, an awful lot to see..we literally bumped into the Rodgers "Year Knife" (hijacked by Stanley Tools..now named the Stanley Knife..!), looked around the Hawley collection then met Stan Shaw who was on duty in his workshop..quite amazed, he had four Bowies on display and he showed us seven special one-offs he'd just made..including one with pink fresh water pearl scales.

Mick
 
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