In 1841, Luke Firth was a pen-blade grinder in Hanover Street.  In 1845, he was making spring knives and operating a beer house in Scargill Croft.  He was listed solely as a spring knife manufacturer in Silver Street in 1849.   By 1851, he had moved to Broad Lane and employed seven men.  In 1867, his cutlery – alongside those of Butcher, Rodgers, Frederick Ward – was distributed by E. Robbins & Bradley in Memphis, Tennessee.   According to Goins (1998)¹, the knives were marked ‘FIRTH’S CELEBRATED CUTLERY’.   In 1871, Firth employed 15 workmen.  In the 1870s, he moved to Sheaf Island Works in Pond Hill, with his residence at Rutland Villa, Burngreave Road.  In 1883, he was bankrupt with liabilities over £1,000.  He died at Sunderland Street on 27 December 1892, aged 72.  

^1. Goins, J  E, and Goins, C, Goins’ Encyclopedia of Cutlery Markings (Indianapolis, 1998)