This pen and pocket knife maker was famous for his ‘Stafford knife’, which was described as similar to a Barlow, ‘with a long bolster with a long straight blade, about all the length of the haft’ (Sheffield Independent, 11 May 1874).  John Stafford was apparently first listed in a directory in 1797 at Red Hill, using the trade mark ‘560’.  However, the Stafford knife was known before then, because Thomas Youle was listed as a maker of the knife in Pinston Croft Lane in 1774.  By the late 1820s, Stafford’s address was Wheeldon Street (Court No. 7).   He lived in Crookes, where he died on 29 December 1839, aged 68.  He was buried in St Paul’s churchyard.