William Greaves and Sons Table Knife Set Stag Shear Steel Sheffield 1801-1825

Pre-Sheaf Works, William Greaves and Sons, early 19th-century-style 5-pin bone handle full-tang wide curved table knife and small two-tined fork. As the century progresses, knives typically get straighter and forks larger. Knife is marked Wm Greaves & Sons in a hand-cut hot stamp.

Like other Sheffield made table knives of its time it shows a 'puddle weld' near the bolster at the beginning of the blade opposite side as markings, almost looking like a thumbprint, this is where the hard shear steel is forge welded to the mild steel or iron bolster and tang. Forks were forged in a small mold and ground by hand, and the knife blade was forged by hand to shape, and then hand ground on a saddle grinder to finish the geometry, being finished on smaller buffing wheels. Many of these processes were in use for hundreds of years in Sheffield, which really held its strength through the massive amount of low-priced skilled labor available in Sheffield. 

Shear steel was a 19th and early 20th century steel that was made by case hardening bars of iron in ceramic boxes packed with charcoal, large numbers of these were heated for days on end at high temperatures and the resulting bars were broken up (it would break or shear rather than bend once carbon added hence 'shear' steel) and forged welded into a larger mass. This process was done twice on double shear steel, creating a steel with a higher carbon content.