Can anyone tell me what a 'scissor dresser' is/was?

[PAL215]

Well this thread has certainly brought some memories back, my first job in 1971 was as a “Putter Togetherer” (trainee really) and that is exactly how it was spelt. I worked at Thos Rudd & Sons on Woodfold.

 

Carosio is dead right a dresser did the final polish, inspection and packing, and your description of the assembly process is spot on, I haven’t heard the word stiddy for so many years it made me smile when I read it. We only made surgical scissors like the ones in your picture, each type had it’s own name, the umbilical scissors were a right bugger to get right and I hated being given them as a job, it was so easy to break the blade with the hammer.

[Chap BLADE]

http://g.co/maps/5m2k9

 

My mother, who was always at pains to say she wasnt a buffer but a Hollow Ware Polisher:) worked when I was a kid at Walt Bowers Scissor manufactures at the above location (hope the link works )on Well Meadow Drive as a scissor dresser, there was a court yard through the doors where a whole number of little Mesters and the like worked. The building is still there, possibly due for some conversion to flats but if you go down and see if you can get a look inside it was worth it up to a couple of years ago.Proper bit of old Sheffield

 

Re health and safety as an infant scholl boy on hols I was often taken to the shop and allowed to sit astride a massive grinding wheel with one of the skewers used to dip the scisors in the paint for the handles,and allowed to make sparks, no goggles no machine guards etcs:)

 

Mums family were the Hewitts off Powell Street ,No 8 which was where the car park for the BathField Pub (as was) is now and more or les opposite where the the original Bath Field (mam always called it naminskis after the landlord )was.

[AEGALE]

My mother was a buffer and worked at F.E.and J.R.Hopkinson on London Road,her aunt worked there as a scissor dresser.I was born on Wentworth Street and most of my family(Powells) lived there too.We were re housed to the then new Gleadless Valley when the slums were cleared in 1957.I now live up the road from yourself in Exeter.

 

Hi shazbut44, May I ask which number of Wentworth Street. Did you know the Booths? You may pm me if you don't want it up on here.

Thanks. Annette.

[carosio]

Well this thread has certainly brought some memories back, my first job in 1971 was as a “Putter Togetherer” (trainee really) and that is exactly how it was spelt. I worked at Thos Rudd & Sons on Woodfold.

 

Carosio is dead right a dresser did the final polish, inspection and packing, and your description of the assembly process is spot on, I haven’t heard the word stiddy for so many years it made me smile when I read it. We only made surgical scissors like the ones in your picture, each type had it’s own name, the umbilical scissors were a right bugger to get right and I hated being given them as a job, it was so easy to break the blade with the hammer.

 

There was also the name "bow dresser", not quite sure what the distinction was but scissor bows, particularly the insides, were difficult to polish and finish to the desired standard.

 

You may have known my father as he worked there, but can't remember whether it was as early as 1971.

[shazbut44]

Hi Annette,it was,if I remember rightly,number 26,court 6 or maybe the other way around.Much of what I know about the families days in Netherthorpe were learnt at my Grandmothers knee.The name Booth rings a bell and Im sure my mum would have known them,sadly she passed 8 years ago.

[PAL215]

There was also the name "bow dresser", not quite sure what the distinction was but scissor bows, particularly the insides, were difficult to polish and finish to the desired standard.

 

You may have known my father as he worked there, but can't remember whether it was as early as 1971.

 

Let me know his name and I'll see if I know him, PM me if you don't want it made public.

 

I never tried it myself but bow dressing was a tricky job usually done by women, the insides of the bow the trickiest. A narrow band of of sand paper in a continuous loop about the width and length of a bicycle inner tube , would be threaded through the bow and then the ends would be fed over spindles at either end that would drive the belt and grind the surface down, This would be done again and again on a succession of smoother parers and eventually buffed.

 

Here's me telling you that, if your dad worked at Rudds I'm sure you know that already.

[carosio]

PAL215, thanks for the info on bow dressers, I always wondered what the process was. Many people really don't know how good Sheffield hand made scissors are/were compared with some of the junk sold today.

 

I remember my father letting me see some scissors which were destined for hospitals in Saudi Arabia, they had special ceramic blade inserts and the bows were gold plated.

 

Pm sent.

[AEGALE]

Hi Annette,it was,if I remember rightly,number 26,court 6 or maybe the other way around.Much of what I know about the families days in Netherthorpe were learnt at my Grandmothers knee.The name Booth rings a bell and Im sure my mum would have known them,sadly she passed 8 years ago.

 

They lived at 184. This is a bit off topic but; I'm trying to find anyone who lived near them or knew them.

Everyone seems to have lived in the teen early twenties numbers. The 'courts' and numbering is mind blowing.

Does anyone know where 184 was on Wentworth Street. begining of road end of road, middle? And if possible what was at the back.

The family had 2 boys and a girl in 1953.