Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

THE CUTLERY INDUSTRY. 119 and scissors, except that the concavity in hollow-ground blades is made by holding the blade lengthwise to the stone instead of crosswise. Sheffield has a monopoly of the cutlery trade of the United Kingdom, and it is probably no exaggeration to say that up to twenty years ago Sheffield manufactured cutlery for the world. The passing of the McKinley Act robbed her in a moment of practically the whole American trade, the United States from that time beginning' to supply their own requirements. Of late years Germany has been a keen rival both in English and foreign markets, and a consider- able quantity of cutlery is now made in Austria, Sweden, and Switzerland, while Portugal and Russia are the latest com- petitors to enter the field. Remarkable instances might be given of the value of cutlery trade marks, due to the fact that it is impossible for the inexpert buyer to tell good cutlery from bad. Hence, if a really good knife is wanted, it is better to buy one bearing the mark of some firm of repute. A good deal of the foreign machine-made cutlery is of inferior quality. It must be admitted that serious dangers threaten the supremacy of Sheffield in her oldest manufacture. The trade suffers from the want of mechanical progress, and from the survival of antiquated methods which tend to check enterprise. Some indication has been given of the way in which the trade is split up amongst the “ little mesters,” and, although many firms have recently put themselves into a position to manufacture cutlery on more modern lines, the ill effects arising from lack of co-ordination are not altogether outgrown. The system of piece- work which still obtains is in many ways remarkable; even in a factory cutlers will pay rent for the place where they work, with some- thing for materials, light, and fires, receiving so much per gross for the articles they put together. They are not workmen in the ordin- ary sense, and this unusual relationship makes it difficult in some cases to apply the regula- tions of the factory Acts. The most serious danger menacing the trade is, however, the want of a proper succession of skilled workmen. It is in the most highly skilled branches, such as the making-up of pocket cutlery, that there is the greatest shrinkage in the supply of workmen. That the position is some- what serious may be seen from the simple fact that although the world’s requirements have grown enormously, there are actually fewer people engaged in the manufacture of cutlery in Sheffield to-day than at any time during the last hundred years, and the means of production are undoubtedly less. John Whitaker. AN IVORY STORE. (Photo kindly supplied by Messrs. J. Rodgers &• Sons, Ltd., Sheffield.}