This firm can be traced to Shortridge, Howell & Co, a steel and file maker in the Wicker, which was founded in 1853. One of the partners, John Bennett Howell (1818-1904), launched his own business. By 1880, it had two locations: Brook Hill Steel Works, Brook Lane (which dealt in steels and tools); and Sheffield Tube Works, Wincobank (which specialised in tubes for locomotives and steam engines).  J. B. Howell’s son – Samuel Earnshaw Howell (1847-1928) – joined his father in 1870.  Samuel was Master Cutler in 1888, and became a JP, Conservative town councillor, and president of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce.

The problem of corrosion in steam tubes meant that Samuel became keenly interested in rustless steels.  After stainless steel’s discovery in 1913, Samuel Howell became ‘an early convert to stainless ... [and] … was one of those who contended that an efficient cutting edge could be obtained with stainless knives’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 16 April 1928). An advertisement in The Ironmonger in 1915 emphasised that Howell’s ‘Non-Corrodible’ steel for cutlery cuts!  Samuel Howell had decided to manufacture table-knife blades of the new steel. Howell’s acquired a ‘Table Blade Manufactory’ at Nassau Works, which fronted John Street (off London Road). The previous occupants had been table-blade forgers J. G. Cutts & Co.  Nassau Works was described as a ‘complete forging manufactory’ (Sheffield Independent, 3 February 1894).  It seems that Howell’s produced goffed (machine-forged) blades for various customers. It was a small-scale operation and apparently a brief one: by 1925, Howell’s Nassau Works was no longer listed.

Samuel E. Howell died on 15 April 1928 at Sheffield Royal Hospital, after he was knocked down by a tramcar at Nether Green terminus (Sheffield Independent, 16 April 1928). The funeral service was at Ranmoor, followed by cremation at City Road.  He left £86,914 (net personalty £77,587).