© Ken Hawley Collection Trust - K.1873
‘Busy Buff’ was originally the name of a patent knife cleaner, which had been formulated by John William Merrill (1872-1960). He was the son of John Merrill, a spring knife maker (and later jeweller), and his wife, Eliza. John William became a jeweller’s assistant – presumably helping his father – but in 1893 he started his own business as a wholesale toy and novelty dealer in South Street. His later address was Sheffield Moor, where he opened a shop ‘at which every child would like his or her parent to make a call’ (Sheffield Independent, 16 November 1902). He had no capital, however, and in 1909 he became insolvent with losses of £1,800. He blamed shortness of capital and bad trade (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 9 March, 9 April 1909). In the Census (1911), Merrill was enumerated as an ‘exhibition salesman. Toys and hardware’. He was discharged from bankruptcy in 1916.
Presumably, it was in the interwar period that Merrill marketed stainless knives marked Busy Buff Co., He worked as a ‘cutlery dealer and exhibition publicist’, living on the London Road (Register, 1939). He founded a company known as Sheffield Advance Publicity, which in the 1930s operated a stand at various exhibitions. For example, in 1935 Merrill set up his stall at the Home Life Exhibition in Leicester, where he displayed leading brands of Sheffield cutlery (Leicester Evening Mail, 6 September 1935). As he told the readers of The Daily Independent (Sheffield), 3 April 1936: ‘It has long been the privilege of the writer to represent Sheffield advance publicity, at home, in London, and in the provinces, and his enthusiasm has increased year by year in this idea of propaganda in the home market. Last year, Messrs George Clark (Sheffield) Ltd sent him to Bournemouth to advance the popularity of their peculiar cutlery productions. The success was prompt and pleasant, securing the Bronze Medal from the Royal Sanitary Institute for its hygienic construction’.
Merrill often wrote to the Sheffield newspapers, not only in relation to publicising cutlery, but also regarding religion (he was a president of the Christian Evidence Society). He continued to operate Sheffield Advance Publicity into the 1950s, when his address was 44 Hill Street. He died on 17 December 1960, aged 88, and was buried at the General Cemetery.