Hadfields Ltd was one of Sheffield’s leading steel and armaments firms, which was based at East Hecla Works at Tinsley (the present location of Meadowhall Shopping Centre). The company was particularly noted for its alloy steels, which had been developed by its famous chairman Sir Robert Hadfield (1858-1940).  Hadfields had several trade marks, including ‘GALAHAD’, which was used on cutlery and edge tools. However. the company was not a cutlery manufacturer (though it was a stainless steel producer). Like a few other Sheffield steel firms, it evidently sometimes marketed its own cutlery (bought in from local makers). ‘GALAHAD’ table knives were presumably made as an advertisement or loss-leader to ensure that Hadfields’ name was in the public eye. Pocket knives have also survived, marked ‘HADFIELDS PATENT STEEL’, which was doubtless a reference to Sir Robert’s famous discovery of manganese steel. An Australian visitor, who met him in the mid-1920s, observed that: ‘His first act was usually to give any stranger who turned up [at his office] a valuable penknife’ (The Bulletin, Sydney, 16 October 1940).