Mr. Stan Shaw. ©Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust
Stan Shaw’s career as a cutler began in 1941 when he was fourteen and went to George Ibberson & Co for a job. His family did not have a cutlery background, but on a trip to Sheffield he saw pocket knives for sale in the market and decided he would become a cutler. Trained under Ted Osbourne, Stan learned to make multi-bladed knives using expensive materials, such as mother of pearl, tortoiseshell and ivory. As the cutlery industry declined Stan learned how to do many of the jobs that would make a knife, such as forging, grinding and hafting. Traditionally these tasks were separate subdivisions of the cutlery trade, carried out by single person. This meant that many different cutlers were involved in the making of one knife. Stan Shaw is unique because he can make a knife from start to finish on his own. After working at George Wostenholm, John Watts and John Clarke, he set up his own business in 1983 in a workshop in Garden Street. In 2009 he moved to a workshop in Kelham Island Museum, and is still working two days a week. Stan has a waiting list of four years for his knives, which are highly prized by collectors.
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Stan Shaw has a Little Mester workshop at Kelham Island Museum, to check what days he will be working contact Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust.