Thank you for understanding, it's not so much that it's off-topic, but I'd rather the thread didn't stray onto discussing other patterns, particularly with photographs, and a discussion about sharpening your knife probably would have to be specific to that pattern
I've only had one complaint, but they have always been very helpful when I've contacted them
Rosie The Riveter is an enduring icon my friend
Yes, all industrial production went towards the war effort. I have always wondered if a few cutlers didn't produce the odd penknife or two during WW2, but Stan Shaw strongly assures me that cutlery firms only did "war work" between 1939 and 1945. I suppose that using precious resources to make penknives for personal use or commercial sale might have been considered an act of black-marketeering or even treachery?
Thank you very much for that Barrett, it's greatly appreciated
Thanks Chin, the statue is outside the City Hall, and I regret that I did not know that at the time you visited my friend
Many of my family members were buffer girls of course, and I have that print on my wall
Great tale about Mary Dyson!
Thanks a lot Chin, really appreciate your efforts
Very helpful
Sadly, Sheffield cutlers were decimated in both World Wars, but many volunteered ahead of conscription. In WW2, cutlers above the age of 23 were classed as in a 'Reserved Occupation', but many cutlers signed up anyway, with the vast majority of men called up for armed service, there was a perceived stigma to not being in uniform, even for those doing essential war work. So many miners enlisted in the early part of WW2, for example, that many of those who subsequently enlisted for the armed forces ended up digging coal. Even the men in Reserved Occupations would still have had to do part-time military service when they had finished their day at work, even if that meant staying up all night looking for German bombers or putting out fires. There are many fascinating accounts from the period
