Not Made in Sheffield

[vox]

I was in the little tool shop on Chesterfield Rd today. They sell a lot of old and second hand stuff as well as new. A young bloke came in with his father who was visiting him from India. His dad liked old tools and wanted a pair of pliars with the Made in Sheffield stamp for his collection. Not a single pair. Nothing - even when he said "any other old tools with Made in Sheffield". Not even when he said a "new pair then".

[vox]

We rummaged through the old stuff for ages and found nothing. Nothing in the new stuff either. All made abroad.

Just thought it was sad.

My brother in law had a clothing factory up till the 80's. Similar size to SR Gents. He kept a distribution centre in England but moved his operation to Sri lanka because he couldn't compete here. He's now having to seriously consider moving elsewhere because China etc. are able to produce cheaper than Srilanka now.

[RichardB]

We rummaged through the old stuff for ages and found nothing. Nothing in the new stuff either. All made abroad.

Just thought it was sad.

My brother in law had a clothing factory up till the 80's. Similar size to SR Gents. He kept a distribution centre in England but moved his operation to Sri lanka because he couldn't compete here. He's now having to seriously consider moving elsewhere because China etc. are able to produce cheaper than Srilanka now.

What year would it be when you could buy a finished product made abroad cheaper than a manufactured item, hand-made in Sheffield ? Particularly relevant to files, hundreds of hammer strokes, young lads were 100+ hammer strokes per minutes as against "pressed" items.

Personally I still use my Grandfathers hammer and chisel, more because I know where to find 'em, than they are any better than mass-produced stuff.

[RichardB]

I love a rummage in an old market/shop for Sheffield stuff; a local Indoor market has a stall/shambles run by an "old guy" - he's 87, he shows up everyday.

As per his instructions, he phoned his daughter when someone showed up showing an interest in knives. I suppose she suspected kids and stuff - well she showed up and we were invited to the inner sanctum - my early posts in Made in Sheffield (before it became a thread in its own right) are knives I bought off the old fellow.

The daughter made a great offer for me to take all the knives, I don't look much like a teenage thug, but I was only after the Sheffield stuff. She was grateful that she'd got them away from the old fellow and into the hands of a responsible adult ... ish.

[Waterside Echo]

I was in the little tool shop on Chesterfield Rd today. They sell a lot of old and second hand stuff as well as new. A young bloke came in with his father who was visiting him from India. His dad liked old tools and wanted a pair of pliars with the Made in Sheffield stamp for his collection. Not a single pair. Nothing - even when he said "any other old tools with Made in Sheffield". Not even when he said a "new pair then".

Hi `vox`. After reading your post, just out of interest I thought I would have a look in our cutlery drawer. Out of 132 items there is just one that is stamped `made in Sheffield`. Called at my mum`s house today, 62 items in the drawer, all 62 made in Sheffield. W/E.

[vox]

Hi `vox`. After reading your post, just out of interest I thought I would have a look in our cutlery drawer. Out of 132 items there is just one that is stamped `made in Sheffield`. Called at my mum`s house today, 62 items in the drawer, all 62 made in Sheffield. W/E.

I know what you mean W/E

We've got a few things in our knife drawer, but that's only because I know a couple of people like Jack Adams so I've bought stuff direct from the factory. Without looking, I'd bet that, like your's, my Mom's drawer has plenty of Made In Sheffield stamps in it too.

RichardB "What year would it be when you could buy a finished product made abroad cheaper than a manufactured item, hand-made in Sheffield ? Particularly relevant to files, hundreds of hammer strokes, young lads were 100+ hammer strokes per minutes as against "pressed" items."

It obviously wouldn't have been an over-night thing but I'd say the 80's were probably the start of the general trend.

I did a few years at Surmanco around 1970. What they were producing at that time was cheap, cold forged stuff. I'm pretty sure that a high proportion of it went abroad, so at that time it was obviously still economic to export even poor quality stuff.

Someone may know different but I'm sure it was sometime in the 80's that I heard that Stanley had started importing stuff with their name on.

RichardB Personally I still use my Grandfathers hammer and chisel, more because I know where to find 'em, than they are any better than mass-produced stuff. Yes Richard, I don't think there's a case to say that hand made is necessarily better than mass produced. The skills just transferred from one lot of tradesmen to another, namely to the machine tool makers, jig makers etc.

And of course the quality of the steel used is of great importance.