Jump to content

1980 Army fork. Slack and Barlow made?


Kalfred

Recommended Posts

Hello, this is a photo of the markers marks on the handle of a 1980 Army fork. The crow’s foot mark indicates issue by the War Department and their items always had a date on. I assume the Army fork was manufactured in Sheffield. From the limited amount of references I have found on line it seems that the Slack and Barlow concern were producing cutlery around that time. From 1947 they were Slack & Barlow Sheffield Ltd and in 1974 they were using the Silverpride Works in Matilda Street. Now here comes my “leap of faith”. There are web-illustrated marks of “S&B” being used by Slack and Barlow but not the mark “S&L Ltd”. Is there any knowledge in the forum to back up my thoughts? Is there anybody who was working at the Silverpride Works during the late 1970’s who could add information?

Thanks in hope.

Kalfredl

MILITARY FORK 1980 poss Slack&Barlow Ltd 012.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The code on the right of the stamp is part of the NSN (NATO Stock Number), the complete sequence being NSN 7340-99-942-4252. All military items have this identification code and where practical, it is required to be marked on the article, as with this item. First pass at decoding the item (just by Googling the NSN) comes up with the results 'Dessert Fork' and 'Hiram Wild', but this entry is dated 25 April 1991. Not all of the NSN decodes are in the public domain.

I'll ask one if the guys at work to do a search on CSIS Web, jwhich we use to access the entire NSN catalogue. This should list the complete details, specification and history of the part, including who made it, since the code was created. I'll post the decode info when I've had it downloaded.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

By sheer coincidence this single fork was in a box of Sheffield cutlery I picked up just a couple of days ago.

s_and_b_ltd.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello, thank you “RL” for your informative reply and “Boginspro” for your added photo. We can see that your long number is different from that on my fork.  I have added a photo of a 1986 fork that I had previously informally identified as very likely to have been manufactured by Hiram Wild and it has the same “stock” number as shown on my “S&L.Ltd” fork and as described by “RL”.  This “S&L.Ltd” fork and the “HW” fork are the same design and it can be seen their style is a different pattern from Boginspro’s fork.

Military flatware is not what I collect but I always wish to know as much as possible about the flatware I come across and it is all the better if that information can be made available for others to maybe glean use from. I have kept quite a few other photos of War Department flatware.

Thank you for your replies.

Kalfred 

Hiram Wild 1986 Army dessert fork.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 31/08/2017 at 06:20, RLongden said:

The code on the right of the stamp is part of the NSN (NATO Stock Number), the complete sequence being NSN 7340-99-942-4252. All military items have this identification code and where practical, it is required to be marked on the article, as with this item. First pass at decoding the item (just by Googling the NSN) comes up with the results 'Dessert Fork' and 'Hiram Wild', but this entry is dated 25 April 1991. Not all of the NSN decodes are in the public domain.

I'll ask one if the guys at work to do a search on CSIS Web, jwhich we use to access the entire NSN catalogue. This should list the complete details, specification and history of the part, including who made it, since the code was created. I'll post the decode info when I've had it downloaded.

Nope sorry, no more information on CSIS, other than what I found earlier. No reference to Slack & Barlow either. Just the two NSNs relating to the two types of fork and the manufacturer code for Hiram Wild (which we already know). Surely someone will know, either who worked in the factory, or with some connections to the company?

120-6107.JPG

942-4252_Decode.JPG

942-4252_NCAGE.JPG

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...