What did a silver burnisher do?

[Guest CanadianEh]

Census records tell my that my great great grandmother worked as a silver burnisher from her teens some time before 1871 until her death in 1914. I know what silver is, and I know that burnishing involves polishing something to a shine...

There's a lovely site called "Old Heeley" at http://www.oldheeley.supanet.com/oldheeley2.htm. It is a treasure trove of memories of Heeley residents, originally published as booklets. Some have been put on line. In the edition posted under the above URL, I found:

Women worked in the cutlery trade as well, some as burnishers. "You see, a burnisher could work at home because they didn’t need machinery. But that was a woman’s job; wasn’t man’s job, burnishing. And no girl could go into a factory, you know, where they did plates, silver plate and that sort of thing, no girl could go into that factory unless she said she wouldn’t do any rough work at home. She wouldn’t black lead, wouldn’t wash pots, wouldn’t do any scrubbing or anything like that, because her hands had to be so smooth, her skin had to be so smooth that it didn’t scratch the metal work. So quite a lot of the girls used to like it beoause it meant they had no work to do at home. Can’t ask me to do the stair rods or black the Stove or anything like that because I’ve got to have my hands soft for work."

Up to the second World War many Heeley girls worked at buffing the heavy, dirty job of smoothing cutlery blanks on a buffing wheel. Rough girls, renowned through Sheffield, "they were a breed of their own, they were a marvellous breed, you know, buffers." During the war buffers were put on munition work and few went back to buffing.

The 1911 census confirms that, at least that year, my great great grandmother was working at home doing her silver burnishing.

Does anyone else have any further information about silver burnishing in late Victorian Sheffield, or can you suggest any other sources I might try?

Thanks!

CanadianEh

[Guest tsavo]

Not silver work, but buffering. See here: http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/i...amp;hl=diamonds