A start date of 1841 is recorded in the trade literature for this company.   John Blyde (1828-1899), a Sheffield-born scissors and surgical instrument manufacturer, was baptised at a Methodist New Connexion Chapel.  He was the son of James Blyde, scissorsmith, and his wife, Caroline, the daughter of George Gregory of Norton.  The Blyde family business had been launched by John’s father.  Between 1851 and 1857, it operated as James Blyde & Son, with John as the ‘son’ in the business.  John apparently purchased the business and by 1860 was listed at Norfolk Street Works, Norfolk Lane.  James Blyde remained at Hallcar Street.  

By 1866, John Blyde was at Clintock Works, Burgess Street, where he traded in surgical instruments, scissors, and trusses.  In 1871, he employed 27 workers.  In 1878, the business moved to Clintock Works, Milton Street (the same address as John Greenhough).  In 1881, Blyde employed 18 men and three boys.  He lived at Crescent Road, Sharrow.  In directories in the 1880s, Blyde was described as a ‘Manufacturer of Fine Scissors, Pen, Pocket, and Table Knives; Razors, Horse Scrapers, Clipping Scissors, Singeing Lamps’.   One showpiece knife made by the firm in 1879 contained 23 working parts, some of which were forged from sovereigns and half sovereigns.   John Blyde died ‘very suddenly’ on 15 December 1899, aged 72, at his residence Craigmore, Brincliffe, and was interred in the General Cemetery.  He was a Wesleyan Methodist.  He left £11,893.  Blyde’s son, Arthur John Blyde (1856-1920), continued the business.  According to local chronicler Henry Tatton (1986)¹, John Blyde’s son, James, was remembered as the first man in Sheffield to drive a motor car.  

A. J. Blyde died on 24 April 1920, leaving £8,378 (over £1,000 of which was left to Harriet Elizabeth Driver, a manager in the business).  Blyde’s successor was his managing director, Harold Bryars (1877-1955), who in 1918 had registered the firm as ‘Ltd’ (capital £5,000) and taken over Greenhough.   Blyde’s switched almost entirely to hand-forged surgical scissors.  A profile in Quality (March 1957) stated that it was the last surgical scissors house that could hand forge scissors of any description.  In the 1970s, Blyde’s was wound up.  The corporate marks were the planet Saturn above the word ‘GENIUS’ (used on scissors and cutlery); and a golfer (‘SURE & FAR’) on pen and pocket knives (formerly Greenhough’s mark).

^1. Tatton, Henry, Heeley Notebook Editors Jos Kingston and Melanie Smaridge (Sheffield, 1986)