The brothers were John Thomas Hale (1853-1919) and Samuel Stafford Hale (1855-1948), who were the sons of John Hale, a fender manufacturer in Shalesmoor.  In the 1880s, Hale Bros was at Allen Street, then Moorfield Works, Smithfield/Snow Lane, as makers of table and pen and pocket knives, files, horse-clipping shears, scrapers, and horse-singeing lamps (for removing hair on a horse).  Apparently, its earliest trade mark – dating from 1791 – was ‘650’, associated with William Hale.  However, Hale Bros made more use of the horse’s head mark (granted 1842) of George Deakin – also a seller of cutlery and singeing lamps.  Hale Bros later acquired the ‘TIP-TOP’ mark of Henry Crookes, the fish hook of Robert Bateman, and the names/marks of Samuel Hancock & Son and S. & G. Stringer.  J. T. Hale died in Upperthorpe on 3 March 1919, leaving £12,528. 

The firm was incorporated in 1920, with £25,000 capital.  Samuel continued to run Hale Bros Ltd and Hale & Pennington (steel stockholders); and travelled to South America until at least 1926.  He died on 14 February 1948, leaving £79,555.  The firm produced stainless table knives marked ‘INOXIDABLE’ and (in Spanish) ‘NO SE MANCHA’.  In the twentieth century, the company produced (or marketed) a range of mass-produced cutlery, including pocket and utility knives, from Snow Lane.  In 1969, Hale Bros was acquired by the Kutrite Group.  The latter continued to list Hale Bros Tools as a maker of painters’ tools as late as 1972.  The factory can still be seen in Snow Lane – little changed from the nineteenth century, though its crucible furnaces were dismantled when Kutrite took over.  A makeover as residential property was planned in 2022.