[9945] All Saints, Ecclesall : William Butcher

William and his young brother, Samuel, grew to become apprentices in the cutlery trade to their father and when he died in 1806, they transfered their apprenticeships to an additional cutler.

The brothers grew to become companions in 1819, obtaining premises in Eyre Lane. By 1822 they ended up melting their own crucible steel and producing a range of edge equipment.

The 1830s have been increase decades for the American trade and Samuel acted as the firm’s New York agent. They ended up giving hoes, chisels, saws, hammers and full software chests. The agency created a speciality of crucible steel slicing irons for American woodworking planes and quite a few New England manufactures proudly marketed their solutions as being made of Butcher’s Remarkable Refined Forged Metal.

In 1835 the brothers expanded their enterprise by obtaining a device and steel works in Furnival Road. By 1845 they have been also occupying the Philadelphia Will work on a web page by the River Don. The Furnival web site was extended in 1856 by the addition of a grinding wheel.

For the duration of the 1850s and 1860s they elevated their trade in The usa with the sale of the renowned Bowie knife. They turned the main exporters of information to the American market.

William Butcher was also associated in engineering initiatives and worked intently with the Pennsylvania Steel Organization in Harrisburg. In 1865 that business used him to supervise the set up of numerous Bessemer converters to develop bulk steel. Afterwards in the exact same calendar year William Butcher went to Philadelphia to established up his personal steel operates.

The works ended up opened in June 1867 less than his identify and produced the first steel castings designed commercially in the United states. Butcher’s intention was to develop crucible metal making use of the similar solutions as had been utilized by the Sheffield steelmen. To attain this he utilised craftsmen from Sheffield to established up and run the will work.

Unfortunately these functions failed as they could not compete with the new techniques of steel production utilized in the open-fireside course of action, now very preferred with the People in america. The operates were taken over by the American shareholders in 1871. Butcher moved his guys to a further ironworks close to Lewistown, Pennsylvania where by they ongoing their crucible procedures.

William Butcher was a member of the Organization of Cutlers, serving as the Master Cutler in 1845.

Samuel Butcher died on the 1st December 1869 in Sheffield and William died on the 8th November 1870, at the household household, 5 Oaks on Glossop Road. William is buried below in Ecclesall churchyard.