The Trueloves were pocket-knife blade forgers, who were based in Greenhill – a small hamlet near Abbeydale on the outskirts of Sheffield.  Herbert Truelove (1882-1938), who was born in Heeley, followed the family trade.  He married Sarah née Hallworth and they had six children, including Stuart who was born on 14 June 1922.  By 1926, Herbert’s forge was at Crabtree Works, Annesley Road, Greenhill.  This was a seventeenth century stone building, which had been a file-cutting workshop.  The building and its garden served as residence and workshop (Wainwright, 2012¹).  Herbert died in Greenhill on 24 June 1938, aged 56, leaving effects of £750 to Sarah.  One of his sons, William (1908-1972), then operated the business.   He can be seen forging in Unwin & Hawley (1999)².
 
Stuart Truelove worked originally as an engineer, but in 1973 after William’s death he returned to Crabtree Works.   At that time, only four or five hand forgers worked in Sheffield.  At first, Stuart made hand-forged blades for hunting, pruning, cutting whale meat, and for work on tea plantations.   Later he benefited from the demand for Bowie knives.  These were hand-forged and stamped with his name or, occasionally, an Apple tree mark.  He was featured in a Sheffield trade journal (‘Where Is His Follow-On?’, Quality, May/June 1977), which highlighted the skill and labour involved in hand-forging knife blades.   Each Bowie blade needed 70 blows with a 6-pound hammer.   This meant that the forger had to lift a ton per blade (or 30 tons for a day’s work forging Bowie blades).  Stuart Truelove retired in 1980 and died in 1997, aged 74.  The family’s forging business died with him, but Crabtree Works survives as a listed building and private residence.

^1. Wainwright, Fiona, Greenhill: A History of Greenhill and the Surrounding Area (Dronfield, 2012)

^2. Unwin, J, and Hawley, K, Sheffield Industries: Cutlery, Silver and Edge Tools (Stroud, 1999)