1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class VIII.: Reeves, Greaves and Co
244. REEVES, GREAVES, and CO., 28 Bartholomew Street, Birmingham — Manufacturers.
Officer's dress sabre and field-sword. Officer's dress sabre, with scabbard and mounting of the finest cast wrought-steel; and field-sword, blade, scabbard, and hilt of the finest cast steel, wrought; Scotch claymore.
Series illustrative of the manufacture of sword-blades, of cast-steel.
[While Sheffield is the great source of supply for the best cutlery, Birmingham is the place where the great bulk of swords and matchets for home purposes or for exportation are manufactured. The manufacture calls into requisition no small proportion of the industry of the district. Swords are made by hammering out pieces of steel received from Sheffield, and called sword moulds. In each of these there is sufficient steel to form two swords; the flutes or creases on the back of the blade are formed by means of various shaped pieces of steel fastened to the anvil, corresponding to the indentation to be made: they are then curved or fitted, if straight, into a gauge; the process of "deadening " succeeds, which consists simply in heating the iron very regularly, and immersing it in water; it is then tempered (brought back to a straw colour), tested by striking on the back and edge against a wood block, and if it stands this, is passed to the grinder, who, seated before an enormous grindstone, speedily removes all the irregularity of the hammering. To clean the grooves, stones with raised beads are used; glazing follows on bobs of wood with emery attached thereto by glue; and the sword is finally polished on a wheel with fine emery and oil; powdered iron-stone, or crocus, gives the brilliant polish. Where the swords are highly ornamental, the deep rich blue is produced by heat: the gilding of the ornaments on blades, when introduced, is said to be a secret process. Damascening, however, with precious metals, a more intricate mode of ornamentation, is known, and consists in making an incision in the article to be adorned, and introducing by pressure threads of gold or silver. This affords an opportunity for the exercise of taste, and as such it was eagerly embraced by the middle-age artists. Proofs of their excellence therein is testified by numerous specimens in public and private collections. Etching, another mode of ornamentation, is performed by covering the blade to be etched with a ground upon which the design is sketched, and finally cutting through this to the steel. A suitable acid is applied (acetic and nitric); this, after remaining a sufficient time, is removed, the ground cleansed off, and the design is found on the weapon perfect in proportion to the skill displayed by the artist. Steel sheaths are made by bending thin plates of steel round suitably formed mandrils; they are soldered at the junctures, are ground, and finally polished by the processes already described as being used in the polishing of swords. — W. C. A.]