The Handforging of Spring Knife Blades in Sheffield

Description

A thesis on the handforging branch of the Sheffield cutlery trades, based primarily on fieldwork carried out in the workshop of Tom Merrill, one of only three men still forging pen and pocket blades by hand when the study was undertaken. The study is in four parts. Part One describes the forger's equipment, with sections on the anvil, punches, the hammer, tongs and fire bits, the fire and hearth and the bellows. Part Two discusses the forger's art, with sections on carbon steels, the forging process, annealing, hardening and tempering. Part Three presents reasons for the decline of the art of handforging, and the final part contains stories and customs connected with the trade. Appendices contain the text (in Sheffield dialect) of a description of the pen knife making process, the text of a song 'The Cutlin' Heroes', notes on anvils other than the pen and pocket blade forger's anvil. Photographs taken by the collector, and copied from originals held in Sheffield City Museum, show Sheffield handforgers at work, their tools and workplace, the stages in the production of pen and pocket blades and the finished article. The collector's line drawings of an anvil, tongs, bellows and types of knife blade points are also included.

Metadata

Identifier gvjxq8ht
IRN 410057
Class Mark LAVC/SRP/2/021
Level File
Type of Record Archives - ISAD(G)
Peristent Link http://prototype1.library.leeds.ac.uk/gvjxq8ht
Collection(s) Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Category Archive
Parent Record Undergraduate Dissertations
Creator(s) Atkin, K
Date 1966
Size and Medium 62 unbound typed leaves; 24 b/w photographs.

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