This company, which supplied cutlery blanks for spoons and forks, was founded by Edlington Oldfield (1881-1951).  He was born in Sheffield, the son of Thomas Oldfield – a hairdresser – and his wife Emma.   Edlington was a traveller, then manager at a silver rolling mill (possibly Old Park Silver Mills in Club Mill Road).  In about 1921, he launched Nickel Blanks Co in Chester Street with Herbert B. Green.  In 1931, the firm was registered as a limited liability company, with £3,000 capital (of which £1,500 was in ordinary shares; £1,500 in preference shares).  Oldfield lived at Overdale, Drury Lane, Dore, and died on 23 May 1951, aged 70.  He was cremated at City Road, leaving £23,948.  

In the 1960s, Nickel Blank’s address was still Chester Street and the trade mark was ‘ENBEECO’.  The firm was acquired by Percy Raymond Brownhill (1929-2011), who increased its profile in the late 1970s, as the number of Sheffield cutlery producers dwindled to less than a dozen.  To survive in a world of mass production and Far Eastern imports, these firms needed a reliable local source of cutlery blanks.   Originally, Brownhill made all or most of the blanks for Smith Seymour, which supplied high-volume orders to mail order houses.  Gradually, he acquired Turners (Eyre Street), Sheffield Metal Co, and Jessop & Smith and became the sole producer of spoon and fork blanks for the Sheffield trade.  This made him reputedly one of the wealthiest men in Sheffield.   John Price (1997) of Arthur Price – one of Brownhill’s customers – described him as ‘a major force for good in the table cutlery business … A lot of Sheffield cutlers owe their survival to him, and he has never had the recognition he deserves’.

Gradually, Brownhill’s silver, forging, and retail outlets – several featured in this Directory – began to resemble a coherent whole.  Besides the blank-making firms, his group included Classic Cutlery (polishing and plating), Osborne Silversmiths (tableware), Beatson Drake (handles), Rutland Cutlery (blade grinding and polishing), Dynasty (retailing at Sheffield Scene), Hallamshire Knives of Sheffield (cutlery retailer), A.S. Fairest (cutlery retailer), and Old Park Silver Mills.   By 2008, however, Brownhill had retired through illness and his business was acquired by entrepreneurs, David Kynman and Paul Coleclough, who said that they intended to resurrect what they regarded as a failing business.  Their ambitious plans centred on Osborne Silversmiths (see Percy Osborne) and the launch of a new ‘upmarket’ brand known as Osborne Tableware Ltd (Imperial Works).   The latter was launched with a glossy brochure, which claimed a history back to Joshua Osborne in 1709.  Kynman’s and Coleclough’s plans were well trailed in the Sheffield press in late 2008.  However, by January 2009 the former Nickel Blanks companies were in administration and its seventy workers redundant.  Carrs of Sheffield acquired what was left of the assets and re-launched the Osborne brand.   Ray Brownhill died on 7 November 2011.  The funeral was at City Road Crematorium.