Sheffield Steel

October 25, 2010

A quick conversation on twitter got me wondering about Sheffield Steel

@Workshopshed The use of antique and vintage tools is a form of recycling- That and the steel is so much better at keeping a sharp edge. via @Gallopers

Gallopers @Workshopshed Just tragic the Uk steel industry has been brought to it’s knees.Our old steel is as good as Japanese steel at the moment.

@Gallopers @Workshopshed A master wheelwright told me you can always smell a good piece of high C6 steel.Smells strong like fresh blood & has a luster.

Whenever I think of the UK steel industry, I think of Sheffield. There is a reminder on most of the stainless steel knives in my kitchen and also it’s where I used to visit my gran when I was a lad. The other thing I remember about Sheffield is the hills and the trams. Unfortunately when I visited the trams had already departed but there was a roundabout at the end of the road with high flower beds and a slot right through the middle where the trams used to run.

Steel has been in the news recently with the sale of Corus first to India then to Thailand. What was British Steel is now Tata Steel Europe and is formed of plants in UK, The Netherlands, Germany, France and Belgium. Steel is still made in the UK and there are several mills for processing steel. However the decline in the steel industry started earlier with in the 1980s when Sheffield saw 70,000 jobs lost.

The other piece of recent news is the Government’s cancelling of a £80 million business development loan which Sheffield Forgemasters were offered to help with a 15,000 tonne press project to make parts for nuclear power stations. However the Forgemasters are doing their part to help with the recovery and have recently increased their intake of apprentices and has been successful in retaining and employing all of those who completed the programme over the last 10 years. The Sheffield Forge Masters also built some of the largest components of a reproduction of Titanic’s Anchor for the channel 4 series “We Built Titanic“

Reference
Sheffield History Forums
Sheffield Indexers
Stainless Steel History

By Andy from Workshopshed One Comment

  Posted in: Uncategorised Tags: shefield, Steel