Print Register of Trademarks of the Cutlers’ Company, Sheffield. 1953 Edition September 16, 2010 Found this gathering dust in the back of a local charity shop. Branding for chisels and churns, anchors and axes indexed in fifty easy-to-read categories. Fifty. A timely reminder that once upon a (not-too-distant) time, if you could use it, Sheffield made it.

After the introductory adverts, the book is a catalogue of the symbols used to identify which factory did what to each piece of steel. The actual logos themselves are a strange combination of British modernism, Latin vocabulary, masonic crypticness and  Victorian esoterica. I’m a big fan of the tiger.

Forget train spotting this weekend. I’m gonna identify me some cutlery.