A manufacturer of table cutlery and butchers’ knives, this partnership appeared in 1898 (when it registered a silver mark).  It was based at 47 Eyre Lane and the partners were Ernest Bamford Robinson (1867-1938) and Thomas Oates (1869-1937).  Robinson was a Sheffielder; Oates had been born in Doncaster.  By 1911, the address was Challenge Works, 47 Eyre Lane.  The marks included ‘909’ (granted in 1791) and the names of George Hancock & Sons, Ramsden & Co, and Harrison Bros.  In 1932, Thomas Oates withdrew from the partnership.  He died on 29 August 1937, leaving £6,025.  Ernest B. Robinson, of Briarfield, Curbar, Derbyshire, died in the following year on 19 November.  His estate was £3,003. 

Robinson & Oates proved an enduring enterprise: it was based at Challenge Works, Tenter Street by the 1950s; and Pompton Works in Garden Street by the 1960s.  By then, its ‘909’ mark was owned by Mottershaw & Rowe Ltd.  It sold cutlery in stainless steel, EPNS, and chrome, besides scissors, butchers’ and painters’ knives.  The firm was still listed in the early 1970s.