Cam & Birks operated in the 1820s.  It was listed in 1828 as a merchant and manufacturer of cutlery (table knives and razors), and steel converter and refiner, Workhouse Lane.  According to the report of the firm’s dissolution in the following year, the partners were Joseph Cam and Ebenezer Birks Jun.  The former had been listed in 1822 as factor and manufacturer of ‘cutlery in general’ in Workhouse Lane.  He may have been the Joseph Cam, who had partnered John Priston Cutts, as a manufacturer and factor, before the arrangement was dissolved in 1820.  Later he apparently lived at Pye Bank.  Joseph Cam & Co, cutlery manufacturer, Bridge Street, was listed in 1833.  The directory (1837) listed Joseph Cam, cutler, Globe Works (Ibbotson Bros), but it has not been possible to establish the identity of these ‘Josephs’ or to find a link with other Joseph Cams (see James Cam & Co).

Ebenezer Birks Jun. was apparently the son of Ebenezer Birks (c.1772-1851), a grocer of ‘high respectability’ in Fargate (Leader, 1876).  He was apparently groomed to follow his father into the trade, but instead became a cutlery and tool merchant.  After ending his arrangement with Cam, he traded alone in Union Street, Sheffield, and New York.  However, in 1836 he sold his stock, which included files, white bone and sham  (cheap) table knives, and pen and pocket knives (Sheffield Independent, 30 January 1836).  He was bankrupt in 1841.  Ebenezer Birks Jun.’s death has not been traced, but it may have been in 1845.