When Eddie Chapman died in 2004, he was aged 102, and had spent his life living in Heeley.  He was born on 1 January 1902, the son of Henry Chapman, and his wife, Lily née Ibberson.  For several generations the family had been pen knife grinders.  Eddie’s father rented a trow at Shirtcliffe’s pearl scale works in West Street (see John Shirtcliffe).  On leaving school, Eddie worked briefly as a dray boy and then in a pawn shop, but soon joined his father as an apprentice.  Until he was 21, he worked on cutlery for his father, but then started a 60-year career as a self-employed cutler (he later reflected that he had never been paid wages by a boss).  Eddie was a cutlery finisher, who did not undertake the initial grinding of blades (on a sandstone wheel) but glazed and polished them on an emery wheel through to completion.  He would sometimes sell the manufactured items himself.  These included dinner, table, and dessert knives in cardboard rack boxes, and pen and pocket knives.  He helped launch the Heeley History Workshop, which later commemorated his life by publishing It All Happened in My Lifetime (2007).  This limited edition paperback mixes details and anecdotes about Eddie’s life and times, alongside many technical descriptions of the old grinding and polishing processes.