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Sheffield penknives


Adrian Cook

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Hi there trying to find out some information on the BARNS Cutler knife and the PARKIN&MARSHALL pen knife.I would like to find out what metal the blade is from ,its not magnetic.if it is stainless steel there should be markings for that and it would have to be austenitic stainless steel.If it's silver where are the silver marks?. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

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13 hours ago, Adrian Cook said:

Hi there trying to find out some information on the BARNS Cutler knife and the PARKIN&MARSHALL pen knife.I would like to find out what metal the blade is from ,its not magnetic.if it is stainless steel there should be markings for that and it would have to be austenitic stainless steel.If it's silver where are the silver marks?. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

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The reason the blade isn't magnetic is because it's probably made of Nickel and silver plated, hence no silver marks, this was usually done with fruit knives so yours could just be that. I'll check the names to see if I can answer your query.

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PARKIN & MARSHALL

This partnership starting date is a bit hazy but its agreed its between 1770 and 1778, it more or less started with Smith & Moorhouse, William Parkin bought the assets and then took William Marshall as a partner. Mr Marshall died on the 16th of October 1852 at the age of 45 years from liver disease, he was laid to rest in the General Cemetery. William Parkin took another partner, a certain Henry Beauvoisin up to 1854, when the partnership ceased. In 1855 he expanded his business by taking over John Browns old Atlas Works on Furnival Street for the manufacture of steel & files. Parkin & Marshall`s premises on Furnival Street were known as Telegraph Works, its main products were table cutlery & pocket knives. Around 1860 William Parkin launched an associated business, the Crown Steel, File & Tool Works on Arundel Street. His partner was Henry Riley, a traveller. This partnership was dissolved in 1861, William Parkin retained the name William Parkin & Co, Crown Steel Works on Furnival Street, selling steel, files & saws, the firm started selling E.P.N.S. goods after registering a silver mark in 1866 & 1885. The corporate mark was XL* ALL, this mark was granted in 1789 but wasn't registered until 1853, in 1874 the logo SHARP EDGE was granted along with a picture of a shell and a top hat.

William Parkin, died at his home at Endcliffe Vale in January 1873 aged just 49 in 1873, he was buried in the unconsecrated section of the General Cemetery, in his will he left just under £18,000. His sons William & Bernard took over the business, at that time they had just over 100 people including boys & girls. Sometime in the 1890s they re-located to Sylvester Street, but the firm was in decline by then. In 1909 William & Bernard dissolved their partnership, in turn the cutlery assets were bought by Michael Hunter, the Parkin & Marshall trade marks were bought by Needham, Veall & Tyzack, William Parkin & Co Ltd continued to trade as a saw maker in Sylvester Street, William Parkin Junior was still linked to the firm after the end of the First World War. William Parkin Jnr of Broomhill House, Watson Road, died in the 12th of July 1919 aged 73, he was laid to rest in Ecclesall cemetery, leaving £8,373.

This info came from Geoff Tweedale's Directory of Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers 1740 - 2010, a brilliant book and its my Bible. As for the Barns knife, there's nine cutlery manufacturers named Barnes in Geoff's book, so without a first name or a trade mark Im looking in the dark.

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Thanks for that valuable information. Have you any sort of date on the fruit knife.thanks

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I couldn't say how old your fruit knife is without more info on the maker. Has it got a trade mark at all?

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Hi there tozzin.sorry about the delay.Yes I've had a good look at the knife again and all it has is PARKIN & MARSHALL SHEFFIELD. on the tang nothing else anywhere.? Is this a rare knife or are they quite common.Oh by the way the BARNS CUTLER KNIFE has only BARNS CUTLER on the blade nothing more but the barns has no e between the N AND S

 

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12 hours ago, Adrian Cook said:

Hi there tozzin.sorry about the delay.Yes I've had a good look at the knife again and all it has is PARKIN & MARSHALL SHEFFIELD. on the tang nothing else anywhere.? Is this a rare knife or are they quite common.Oh by the way the BARNS CUTLER KNIFE has only BARNS CUTLER on the blade nothing more but the barns has no effect between the N AND S

 

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These knives were produced in their thousands, most men and boys carried one. The reason your other knife has what may be a silver plated blade is prior to stainless steel being used you could taste the metal, so the blade was plated because it was used for cutting fruit. Spoons and forks that were chrome plated you could taste that too. I can remember as a child if my Father had a Sunday tea treat of tinned Salmon, the smell of the Salmon on the fork and knife was hard to get rid of but taking them outside and just sticking them in the earth for an hour removed the smell and taste. Earth is brilliant for getting rid of smells, that's why the earth toilet worked so well.

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Thank so much for your help.it so good to beable to come to this website site and get answers to questions I would probably given up on.thank you again.Would it be OK for me to put a few more knives on here with questions  I cant5answer at a later date?.

 

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2 hours ago, Adrian Cook said:

Thank so much for your help.it so good to beable to come to this website site and get answers to questions I would probably given up on.thank you again.Would it be OK for me to put a few more knives on here with questions  I cant5answer at a later date?.

 

If I can answer your queries just ask away.

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Hi tozzin.have another querie that I can't answer so I thought maybe you could help again.I just acquired another saynor knife and really don't know what it could have been used for. It just has saynor on the blade and saynor sheffield england on the tang.has what looks like a shoe horn on one end and a single blade the other end.My other knife has saynor Cook and rydal on the tang.her are 3 photos. 

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12 hours ago, Adrian Cook said:

Hi tozzin.have another querie that I can't answer so I thought maybe you could help again.I just acquired another saynor knife and really don't know what it could have been used for. It just has saynor on the blade and saynor sheffield england on the tang.has what looks like a shoe horn on one end and a single blade the other end.My other knife has saynor Cook and rydal on the tang.her are 3 photos. 

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I think you may have answered your own question, it could just be a shoe horn as small as it is.  It's a nice little Pocket Knife no matter what.

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12 hours ago, Adrian Cook said:

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This is just a Pruning Knife but what nice Stag scales it has, look at the size of the rivet heads, it's a well made knife despite the condition of the blade.

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ÌoSearching for help again my friend.Have this sheffield fixed blade knife for quite a while now and gave up trying to find out about it cause I was not very successful. Since finding out about this fantastic Webb site I've got it out of its storage unit hoping that you can help me again.here are some photos .I think the tang stamp reads/ vitesse sheffield england..Hope you will be able to shed some light on this knife.thank you. 

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I'm looking into this, I can't place the Vitesse name but I'll keep looking. These knives were just small sheath knives and quite a few firms made them. The handle is just made up of leather, fibre and brass washers of varying sizes and then shaped by hand.

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Thankyou tozzin.I appreciate your efforts. I've tried and failed to come to a conclusion. I know I've come to the right place to have any chance of finding an answer so thanks again.

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On 27 August 2016 at 11:40, Adrian Cook said:

ÌoSearching for help again my friend.Have this sheffield fixed blade knife for quite a while now and gave up trying to find out about it cause I was not very successful. Since finding out about this fantastic Webb site I've got it out of its storage unit hoping that you can help me again.here are some photos .I think the tang stamp reads/ vitesse sheffield england..Hope you will be able to shed some light on this knife.thank you. 

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The only reference to VITESSE I can find is a French company, I know that the French were making cutlery especially knives for a good few years and MAYBE the blade on your Sheath knife blade was imported from France already pre-marked and ground ready for assembly and finishing, this is just an idea but it may be true. I cannot find any Sheffield company with Vitesse as a trade mark yet. I did have a book containing all the trade marks used in Sheffield but I lent it someone and strangely enough it ended up in Guy DeGrennes cutlery company in Vire in France, I never saw it again much to my annoyance.

David Mellor imports kitchen knife blade from France and has done for around 15 years but they are terrible and prone to cracks in the blades, the best knife blades forged in Sheffield were made by Jessop and Smith on Sidney  Street but they only forged domestic knife blades, table, dessert etc. Not Bowie knife blanks.

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On 8/11/2016 at 10:14, tozzin said:

I think you may have answered your own question, it could just be a shoe horn as small as it is.  It's a nice little Pocket Knife no matter what.

Its a budding knife

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Used for transplanting buds from one tree to another, the shaped end was made out of ivory or plastic since steel not suitable for some reason. The blade would be used for pruning.

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