Gillott & Buttery was established after the First World War by Joseph Gillott (1851-1939) and Sydney Charles Buttery. The firm first appeared in a Sheffield directory in 1922 as a steel manufacturer at 12 Mowbray Street. Little is known about Buttery. But Joseph Gillott had been born in Sheffield, the son of a Richard (a file grinder) and his wife, Harriet. Joseph was apprenticed to a steel merchant, but later left Sheffield. In 1911, he was living in London, with his wife Jessie and son, Joseph Hayton Samuel (1907-2001), known as Sam. Joseph was working as a commercial traveller in wine.

Gillott & Buttery may have briefly melted steel – it advertised for a cellar lad (presumably to work in the crucible furnace) in 1920 – but it was essentially a factoring business. Its steel products would have been ‘bought in’ from other makers. The business was short-lived. By 1925, Joseph Gillott & Co was listed at 12 Mowbray Street as a steel manufacturer. The firm had no steel-making plant, but made a speciality of factoring tool steels.  By 1933, when it was restyled Joseph Gillott & Sons, Sam was running the firm. Joseph Gillott died on 26 January 1939, aged 87, at Grange, Crescent Road. He left £24 to his wife, Jessie, and was buried in the General Cemetery.  During the War, Sam Gillott and his managing director, Bob Young, marketed the first version of an American high-speed steel containing molybdenum.  Sam Gillott sold the firm to Cardinal Steels in 1953 and later lived in Australia.