THE FIRST Sheffield City directory was published in 1740, but the most comprehensive Sheffield directory of the 18th century was the one of 1787. The 1787 directory includes an extensive classified section. For all the makers and factors of finished cutlery, the classified listings show name, address, and touch-mark.

A factor was a person (or firm) who sold cutlery made for him, which was marked with his brand by independent workmen called "little masters." In Sheffield, the factoring system was called "liver and draw." The workman (forgers, grinders, handle and fi tting makers, and "cutlers' or final assemblers) delivered the week's finished goods to the factor, and then drew their pay, as well as their parts and material for the following week.

Most of the knives made in Sheffield at that time were marked only with a maker or factor's touchmark. Therefore, to identify the mark on an 18th century Sheffield knife, you need to have a listing like the one included in the 1787 directory.

Within a generation of 1878, legal and guild rules had changed, permitting the use of the maker's or factor's full name on finished cutlery. If he chose, he could add his address, and he could include his word or pictorial mark, as well. Advances in di e-sinking technology made such elaborate stamping dies affordable.

Although the 1878 Sheffield directory was reproduced in 1969 (by Da Capo Press), those reproductions are now almost as difficult to find as original copies. Therefore, I have here reproduced all parts of that directory, which identify cutlers' touchmar ks. I would like to thank Tom Heitzman for permission to reproduce from his copy of the directory.

Knives in Excellent condition with any of these touchmarks are very rare. Their values range from High to Very High.

The high values are due in part simply to age and rarity. More important, however, is that the large majority of cutlery sold in the infant United States in the decades around 1800 was made in Sheffield by or for people listed in the 1878 Sheffield cit y directory. The contemporary American collector or historian, these knives are therefore of particular value.

EARLY SHEFFIELD BOWIE KNIVES

News of the sandbar fight and the American demand for "bowie knives" would have reached Sheffield before the end of 1827. Sheffield cutlers had long sold knives in the United States, but it was only after of the War of 1812, which had hurt their busine ss badly, that they had started to cater to American tastes.

By and odd coincidence, the first cutler factory in Sheffield had just been completed in 1826. It had taken 4 years to build, but had opened just in time for the bowie knife craze. This first factory was followed in short order by many more.

Sheffield's first factory was built for William Creaves & Son. Besides Greaves, some of the other important Sheffield firms involved very early in the bowie knife trade were William & Samuel Butcher, Samuel C. Wragg, James Rodgers, Enoch Drabbl e, Charles Congreve, and Georeg Wostenholm's Rockingham Works.

Wostenholm made his first cutler sales trip to the United States in 1830, and thereafter devoted all of his considerable energies to American sales. In 1848 he built Sheffield's largest factory yet, the Washington Works. Until the 1890s his I*XL cutler y dominated the American market.

The earliest Sheffield Bowies were characterized by an astounding variety of blade shapes, handle shapes, and decoration. The big, fancy, odd-shaped Sheffield Bowies of this early period (circa 1827 - 1845) are very nearly as rare and valuable as their plainer American counterparts, with values ranging from $2,000 up. Plainer early ones are worth at least $1,000.

By the late 1800s, scores of Sheffield firms were making bowie knives (and other cutlery) for America. Most of the Sheffield firms lists in the Pocketknife Grand List as active in the mid-19th century made, or least sold, bowie knives. Other firms, suc h as Woodhead & Hartley, Broomhead & Thomas, James Westa, and John Coe, seem to have specialized in Bowies.

Even in the factories, Sheffield cutlery was almost entirely handmade [see the introduction to the Sheffield Brand List for more information]. However, one lament of "mass-production" then prevalent in Sheffield contributed significantly to the great p opularity and relatively low cost of Sheffield Bowies in the United States. This was the production of fancy but inexpensive nickel silver furniture (mountings), and later entire handles, for these knives.

Nickel silver (or white "brass"), an alloy of copper and nickel, had been invented around 1810. By 1815 it was being rolled like silver into thin sheets which were then punched into three-dimensional decorative shapes with steel dies. These hollow shap es were then filled either with cutler's cement (made of rosin, beeswax, and bric, dust) or with lead.

Myriad designs of furniture and handles were stamped out of nickel silver by specialist firms in Sheffield. They sold their wares to all the cutlery makers there. Many designs were made for the Americana market [see Folding Bowies and Folding Dirks for more examples]. Collectors should be aware that some of the original stamping dies have survived, and are now used to make both reproduction and counterfeit knives.

Another form of Bowie decoration popular in Sheffield had the aspect of mass-production. This was decorative blade etching. The resist for these complex designs was applied with reusable brass stencils.