Kalfred Posted August 30, 2017 Share Posted August 30, 2017 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLongden Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 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 More sharing options...
boginspro Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 By sheer coincidence this single fork was in a box of Sheffield cutlery I picked up just a couple of days ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalfred Posted August 31, 2017 Author Share Posted August 31, 2017 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLongden Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 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? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boginspro Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Thanks RL. I never realized that such simple items could be so interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLongden Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Researching the orgins of MoD table forks..... these summer evenings fairly fly by!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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