Mole
Hello Peter. Thank-you, yes, a definite earlier incarnation.
I normally don't pay any attention to post 1800 swords as only Mole survived into that century... but how they survived!
Tens of thousands - if not hundreds of thousands of blades produced up until 1920 when WS merged with them. I have to assume there are a great number have survived and, given the size of our empire, can probably be found all over the world.
As I mentioned, I was looking for something a bit special and I certainly found it.
Incidentally, regarding the beginning and the end of the Shotley Bridge history:
'Bertram' was producing the finest steel in Europe and making sword-blades at his forge in Allensford nearly 20 years before the Solingen diaspora arrived in 1687, then the Wilsons were hilting and engraving them in the village.
So really, Bertram is the true beginning of the story; this is apposite because the Bertrams that moved back to Solingen, after making straight razors with a royal warrant from Victoria (we assume for Albert - but maybe not) in Sheffield, married into the poultry business in Solingen and started a company that would remain family run until the 1970s.
The Hen and Rooster Cutlery company were regarded by many as the finest producers of knives and cutlery in the world: pretty good going considering they were up against everyone in Sheffield and Solingen.
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