This firm traced its origins to Thomas Weldon in 1780.  The trade mark was ‘WELDON’ – which first appeared in directories of 1774 and 1787 alongside the name of William Weldon (Thomas’s father?), who was a maker of wool shears and edge tools in Colston Croft.   In the 1790s, Bishop, Weldon & Carr had appeared in Bridge Street (see Bishop, Carr & Co).   By 1811, Weldon,  Furniss & Co was operating in Castle Hill.  Eventually, the Weldon mark passed to Furniss, Cutler & Stacey in Castle Hill.  The firm was a merchant, which sold saws and edge tools and was described as a converter of bar steel and cast steel refiner.   The partners were apparently John Bernard Furniss (Belle Vue) and Albert Furniss; Hiram Cutler (Broom Spring); and John Stacey (Church Street).   J.B. Furniss died on 7 September 1834; and John Stacey (merchant, Church Street) died on 4 April 1836, aged 43, and was buried in Ecclesall.

In 1836, Hiram Cutler (1788-1867) began on his own account in Castle Hill as a merchant and steel converter, selling edge tools and table, shoe, and butchers’ knives.  Catalogues issued by Cutler (one of which is in the V&A, London) listed tools for engravers, skinners, tanners, weavers, bookbinders, carpenters, and gardeners.  Cutler described himself as a ‘foreign merchant and dealer in ironmongery articles’.  He traded extensively with North America, particularly through the American Fur Co in New York (Hanson, 1994).  In the 1830s, he sold traps, pistol flints, and general cutlery.  He also exported fire steels (for striking a fire) and scalping knives, which were shipped in casks or barrels containing 100 dozen knives.   These knives – used for skinning and butchering meat by the North American ‘mountain men’ – sold at cost for as little as 9¢ each, but on the frontier made a large profit for the importer.  Cutler was quick to recognise the demand for fighting knives.  Russell (1967) notes that in the autumn of 1836, after the fall of the Alamo and after the news of the Bowie knife had reached England, Hiram sent to the American Fur Co a sketch of a ‘Texian knife that would probably suit Indians’.  

The firm’s trade marks were counterfeited.   Cutler’s trade catalogues warned against fraudulent goods and emphasised ‘the moral: Buy Cutlers & Co, and remember none are genuine unless stamped WELDON’.  By 1849, the business had been restyled Hiram Cutler, Son, & Chambers at Castle Hill Works.  The son was Hiram Cutler Jun., who had joined his father as a teenager.   The other partner was Charles Chambers, a merchant, who lived in Woodside.   Hiram Cutler Jun. (his father’s second son) died on 26 April 1857, aged 33, at Port Louis, Mauritius.  Another son, John Edward Cutler also started a career as a merchant.  By 1863, Hiram Sen. had retired and the partnership with Chambers was dissolved.   Hiram Cutler Sen. died, aged 80, in Clarence Street on 16 August 1867.  He was buried in the family vault in Ecclesall churchyard.   

In 1863, the business became Charles Chamber & Co, which continued to sell tools, cutlery, and ironmongery.  The partners were Charles Chambers and his sons Frank Smith Chambers (Collegiate Crescent) and Charles Albert Chambers (The Cottage, Park Lane, Broomhall Park).   Charles Chambers died at his residence on 9 Decem-ber 1884, aged 72, leaving £3,684.   Charles Albert took over the firm, but he died 14 October 1889, aged 51.  The firm was already defunct.  Frank S. Chambers placed an advertisement in The Sheffield Independent, 16 March 1889, offering for sale the firm’s trade marks (and the pattern books, labels, and account books from 1780).  These marks included – besides ‘WELDON’ – a Maltese Cross above the letter ‘F’ (granted in 1831) and ‘A.1.’ (granted to Charles Chambers in 1840).  Frank, who became a brewer, died on 5 April 1892, aged 55.   The Chambers’ family members were buried in unconsecrated graves in the General Cemetery.