Thread: Blade forger Sheffield

Amazing old craftsman.
2 gross a day @ 14 to the dozen... 336 blades

Never seen anything like the folder he showed that went from a short to long fixed blade.
Anyone know what they're called?

"IXL Civil War Folding Bowie Knife" are the keywords to use in your search. You'll find some examples among all the pictures but there is some overlap in these keywords with normal folders that have a clip point blade. Like a normal folding knife with a smaller bowie shaped blade.

When folded this knife looks like a short bladed utility knife. When open it is a long bladed fighter. Wostenholm made a lot of them for export markets in the US.

Clarification: the folded knife looks like a normal 4 inch bladed fixed blade with a sheath, when unfolded it is an 8 inch bladed fighter.

Puma made one in the late 60s,pretty rare.

Here a pic shows open and closed cool knife

Originally Posted by rmalak

Wow! It's amazing that he is still doing this after 72 years. I think he said he was trained by the company Joseph Rodgers. A true craftsman!

Yes he did say he was trained by the J. Rodgers co for sure.

Another interesting video!

Interesting that they aren't using respirators or eye protection beyond their reading glasses. I guess he isn't worried about 'grinder's disease.'
Silicosis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Interesting that they aren't using respirators or eye protection beyond their reading glasses. I guess he isn't worried about 'grinder's disease.'
Silicosis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Well that's enough to make me feel the need to start wearing respiratory protection here at work.

Damn.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Interesting that they aren't using respirators or eye protection beyond their reading glasses. I guess he isn't worried about 'grinder's disease.'
Silicosis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Different times. People cared jack about their own bodies, and considered it just normal that a given job would wear out your body at a certain rate. Even today, many people like bricklayers and ditch diggers have the same attitude. I was told that using gloves and goggles and respiration masks on a construction site is a sure way to draw flak from old hands. It is still considered girly, although that is starting to change with the current generation of workers. And many workers I know don't even use goggles or a dust mask when using an angle grinder on concrete or tiles.

Anyway, in those days, people didn't think about it. People didn't even tie a handkerchief over their mouth when grading a new grindstone, which covered them from head to toe in a thick white coat of dust.

Razor grinder had it good, with their slow stones. That was a prestigious job. Next came knife grinders. And at the very bottom of the barrel came fork grinders. Due to the nature of their work, fork grinders rarely lived past 28 years. Lungs full of grit does that.

File makers had good lungs, but died mad as a doornail because they ingested lots of lead particles from the lead sheet on which they hammered divots in the files.

Good times...