Louis (Henry) Osbaldiston was born in Sheffield on 11 November 1835.  In the parish register, his name was Henry Lewis Osbaldeston; his father was Henry (a metalsmith) and his mother was Jane.  In the Census of 1841, Jane (a hat trimmer) and son Louis were living at Siddall Street, but there was no mention of Henry.  In subsequent Census enumerations, Jane (who died in 1893, aged 83) stated that she was either unmarried or a widow.

In the Census (1851), Louis was a teenage saw maker.  In 1863, he began trading as a merchant with James Marshall.  This was dissolved in 1865, when Louis appeared in Sheffield directories as a dealer in saws, files, edge tools, machine knives, loom and legging springs, and busks.   The address was Glasgow Place, 1 Porter Street, Moor Head.   By 1876, the business was in Eldon Street; then in about 1880 Osbaldiston relocated to Challenge Works (a building which still stands in Arundel Street).  He considerably expanded the premises.  By then, Osbaldiston also advertised pen, pocket, and table knives.   Louis Osbaldiston built Grange Court, a large house with an ornamental stone gateway at the top of Ashland Road in Nether Edge.  Louis was his own salesman and had only one or two employees.   In 1879, at Ecclesall Church he married Kate Eleanor, the eldest daughter of John Ulleart, Edge Hill House, Nether Edge.  She died in the following year, aged only 26.  In 1901, Louis announced that he was leaving Sheffield to live at a country residence in Hathersage.  He began letting the workshops and hearths at 92 Arundel Street.   On 11 November 1901, however, he died from heart failure on a train at Grantham.  He was aged 65.  A Churchman and a prominent Freemason, he was buried in Ecclesall.  He left £9,181.  

Osbaldiston’s trade mark was ‘HYDRA’.  Another mark was a foot kicking a ball, above the word ‘CHALLENGE’, which once belonged to Kay Bros, tool manufacturers, of York Works, Eyre Lane.   These firms occupied the same page in the Foreign Buyers’ Guide (1895).  Osbaldiston had acquired the mark by 1901.   After his death, L. Osbaldiston & Co next appeared at Bath Works in Bath Street.  The owner was William Fells, a ‘steel manufacturer’, who lived in Oakbrook Road.  In 1919, Bradfield-born Thomas William Hutchinson (1871-1949) was listed as the director.  The firm appeared in directories until 1940.   Hutchinson, a retired steel merchant, died at Carlton House, 113 Langsett Road, Oughtibridge, on 26 January 1949.  He was aged 78 and left £6,534.