Thread: Ever Heard of a Stiddy?

I stumbled acros reference to "a Stiddy" on the "Vintage Sheffield Folders" forum and thought that it may be of interest to some members. It was a small anvil with cut-outs, used by razor-setters to assemble the component parts of an open razor. Here are a few pics:



The one above shows Tom Renshaw's stiddy (he was Billy Hukins setter-in at J & W Raggs Little London works in the 1970s). The two white dots are cup-shaped depressions into which the pins were placed in order to dome the ends.



Above: Ernest Mills working at his stiddy.

The tapered square cross section of the stiddy was put into a hole on the worktop. The name may be a corruption of "Steady" because it 'steadied' the work and didn't move when hammered on. The blademakers used larger anvils called 'stithies'

The setter-in would also produce the domed washers for the pins - Tom Renshaw used a sheet of lead over which was placed a thin sheet of latten (an early type of copper alloy like brass, made into thin sheets by battering it with steam hammers). He had a "two circle" tool which he hammered into the latten, producing the following:



You can just make out that they are not pierced - the "two circle" tool must have been a round punch hollowed out into a cup shape but with another small circle (hence "two circle") in its middle, to produce a depression in the head of the domed washer through which the pin was driven. The washer/pin must have then been placed into the depression in the stiddy, the scale-blade-scale-domed washer assembled over it and the whole peened together.

The setter-in had other duties too, like decorative pin-work (called pique-work) and scale inlays:



Regards,
Neil