From the archive · Saturday, 19 September 2026

The daily pick

One work a day, drawn from the 4,801 works in the library with a copy you can open — the same one for everybody, and a different one tomorrow.

Book1913

The Cutlery Trades: An Historical Essay in the Economics of Small-Scale Production

G. I. H. Lloyd

Argues that Sheffield's cutlery and knifemaking trade survived industrialisation by staying organised as small, specialised workshops rather than centralised factories, because a knife's many distinct hand operations resisted the economies of scale that transformed other metal trades.

Level: Advanced
Access: Free
Length: —
Copy: link checked 17 Sept 2026
Filed under: Metalwork & Fabrication

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