A five-line advertisement in the 1868 directory announced Kilner Bros & Co, manufacturers of table cutlery, besides other knives (butchers’, cook, palette, putty, spear point and dagger).  The location was Sheaf Island Works; the owner was John Kilner of Broomhall Street, who may have been involved with Kilner & Ramsden (see William Ramsden & Co), which was based in Albion Works, Cambridge Street.  By 1871, the address of Kilner Bros was also Albion Works.  It employed 20 workers.  In 1873, John Kilner and Samuel Charles Friston registered an ‘improvement’ in the handles and scales of butchers’ and dagger knives.  However, John Kilner, Field Head Road, died on 6 November 1874, aged 36.  He was interred in the General Cemetery. 

By 1876, the business was under Triston Kilner, who lived at Fieldhead Road (John Kilner’s former address).  It briefly relocated to Holly Street in 1879, then Continental Works in Milton Street during the 1880s.  Its trade mark was a lion and shield.  It appears to have ceased trading by 1890, when William H. Firth was a partner.  The mark was acquired by Edward Pearce.