Thread: Steals some of the romance...

I apologize if this has already been posted and discussed, but I thought it was sort of gritty and interesting. The question is " who made your old Sheffield razor?"

https://theshiveringbeggar.com/2016/10/who-made-that/

Now that was an interesting article! I had no idea that it was such a cutthroat operation and the workers were treated so poorly.

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Thanks a bunch for the link.

Voidmonster is a true scholar of razor making process and history. I’ve always wondered where to locate his work. Thanks for the link.

Yes, the notion of a revered master grinder making our Sheffield razors is, unfortunately, a fallacy.
Another point to note was that working conditions were awful for the grinders, most of which had a life expectancy of less than 30. "Grinders cough" was attributed to most of these deaths due to grinding with dry wheels. We now know this to be the breathing in of silica dust otherwise known as silicosis.
Factory owners would also play on the fact that many of the workers could not tell the time and fined them for being late , this led to the workers getting into work as early as they could and the factory owners getting free labour.

If we look back at history, and not that far, people were terrible and conditions were very bad for a lot of people. Human history is very dark.

Now you know the reason unions came into being.

Bob

Originally Posted by RezDog

If we look back at history, and not that far, people were terrible and conditions were very bad for a lot of people. Human history is very dark.

Don't want to go off topic but there are still plenty of sweatshops with people working in terrible conditions today. We even have sweatshops in the UK with workers getting paid less than the minimum wage.

I work in the publishing industry and have seen rooms in a publishing house where, if you replaced computer terminals with sewing machines, you’d wonder if you had stumbled into a third world sweatshop.

Even if you live in a so-called first world country, you don’t have to go very far to find exploited and underpaid workers who have to labour in miserable and unsafe conditions.

Originally Posted by DZEC

I work in the publishing industry and have seen rooms in a publishing house where, if you replaced computer terminals with sewing machines, you’d wonder if you had stumbled into a third world sweatshop.

Even if you live in a so-called first world country, you don’t have to go very far to find exploited and underpaid workers who have to labour in miserable and unsafe conditions.

One (wo)man's "exploitation...labour...conditions" is another's opportunity. As the saying goes, "It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it." (until they either quit, or get promoted... and the position gets filled, anew)