Sheffield Branch

Visit to the workshops of Stuart Mitchell Knives - 19 May 2008

A finished knife from Stuart Mitchell. Features a 5 1/2" blade cut from 'Tight Twist' Damasteel - a very high quality stainless steel made by the powder metallurgy route. The scales are of premium Sambar over black liners, secured by nickel silver fittings to complement the bolsters

Following a packed January lecture held at TWI Yorkshire where TWI's Stephen Cater discussed the theoretical aspects of knifemaking and the selection of suitable steels, the Sheffield Branch's May meeting was a much anticipated evening visit to the workshop of Stuart Mitchell, one of Sheffield's last 'Little Mesters.' A third generation cutler who learned his skills the traditional way - a long and demanding apprenticeship to his father - Stuart works from traditional premises only a stone's throw from Sheffield United's ('The Blades') football ground. Stuart specialises in hand made custom knives, combining a deeply ingrained respect for the time honoured craft skills of Sheffield with an enthusiasm to embrace new technology to create knives that will both delight the collector and be worthy of the legend 'Made in Sheffield'.

Following a buffet supper in Stuart's traditional red brick Victorian workshop - where Harry Brearley brought his first stainless steel billet to be turned into cutlery - Stuart gave a brief history of the workshop and his family's place in Sheffield's knifemaking heritage. To a fascinated audience, some of whom had travelled from as far away as Newcastle, Stuart then explained the choice of steels available to a modern knifemaker and demonstrated the art of grinding a cutlery blank. Amidst a great shower of sparks, Stuart took a rough steel blank and, working solely by eye, ground a superb hollow edge profile into it - the first stage in what will undoubtedly become another exceptional knife. After answering a multitude of questions from the audience, Stuart moved on to show how the ground blade was next refined to take a razor sharp edge and polished to a mirror finish - again all by hand and eye, before being heat treated. One heat treated, the blade is ready for the furniture - handle, bolsters, guard and pommel, to be attached.

The selection of available handle - or 'scale' - materials that Stuart works with turned out to be every bit as fascinating as the blade steels. In addition to traditional natural woods such as yew, oak, walnut and birch, Stuart also works with more exotic woods such as thuja, desert ironwood and maples. More and more, Stuart now uses stabilised woods for knife handles. Stabilised wood is wood that has been vacuum dried to remove moisture and then infused with a resin. Once stabilised, such wood is very strong, dimensionally stable and even resistant to that arch enemy of good cutlery, the automatic dish washer! In addition to wood, Stuart also handles knives with giraffe bone, the finest Indian Sambar stag antler and even mammoth ivory - samples of which were passed around. More questions followed on the relative merits of each material and the ease - or otherwise - with which they were worked. A number of finished knives were shown to demonstrate how the rough blocks of timber and antler on the bench before us could be shaped and polished to compliment the blades.

When it came to discussing how the final furniture - the guards, bolsters and pommels - were fitted, considerable curiosity was shown by the audience as to how these were actually fixed to the blade. After close inspection of several examples, it was generally assumed that the nickel silver bolsters were soldered to the blade, but Stuart amazed those present by demonstrating that they were actually mechanically pinned in place with nickel silver dowels or 'pins'. The final fit and polish of the pinned bolsters were of such high quality that the pins themselves became invisible - and in over 20 years of making Stuart has never had a knife returned with a loose bolster!

Once each knife has been finished, it is individually serial numbered, provided with a certificate of provenance and lifetime guarantee, then fitted with a hand made leather or Kydex sheath moulded exactly to that particular knife. Buffalo leather sheaths are most popular, though Kydex - a thermoplastic - is widely specified by deer stalkers, butchers and other professionals who are now required by law to sterilise their knives and sheath before and after use.

A truly superb evening was brought to an end by yet more questions and a series of additional grinding demonstrations - and more than a thought or two about how one might finance the acquisition of, say, a sabre ground camping knife crafted from cryogenically quenched powder metallurgy steel fitted with nickel silver bolsters and mammoth ivory scales...