The Story of Pen and Pocket Knives

Shining the Spotlight on Little Mesters

This display within the Hawley Tool Collection celebrates the ‘Little Mesters’ who were, and still are, makers of quality pen and pocket knives in Sheffield. It highlights how the skills to make the knives have been passed down through the generations with a fascinating mixture of original scrapbooks, workbooks, articles, images and film.

These items are part of an enormous amount of paper and other ephemera in the Hawley Collection which add to the social story behind Sheffield’s cutlery and tool manufacturing history including catalogues, firms’ histories, photographs along with video and audio recordings.

The exhibition is the last in the series mounted as part of the National Lottery Heritage Funded project, “Sheffield Treasures: Celebrating 200 Years of Excellence in Cutlery Making”.