Isaac Read, a scissors manufacturer, was listed in 1828 in Lambert Street.  The enterprise remained there for over forty years, with the product line eventually including scissors, tailors’ shears, table cutlery, razors, and pocket knives.  The company apparently prospered.  By 1852, Isaac Read was living at Mount Pisgah and his sons, Isaac Jun. and James, had joined the business.  In 1851, the Census enumerated James in Lambert Street as a scissors manufacturer, employing 25 men, eight women, and seven boys.  Isaac Read Sen., Newbould Lane, died on 27 December 1860, aged 70, and was buried in the General Cemetery (his widow, Mary Ann, died in 1866, aged 69). 

The enterprise continued under the sons.  Isaac Read Jun. employed 40 workers in 1861, when he was living in Crookes Road, Mount Pisgah, next door to his brother James.  Their partnership was dissolved in 1865, possibly because of financial difficulties.  Isaac left to become an iron and metal merchant.  The scissors business continued under James in Lambert Street.  Isaac Read Jun., iron merchant, died, aged 49, on 10 May 1877 at his residence in Parker’s Road, Broomhall.  He left under £3,000.  By 1879, the Read scissors firm was based in a courtyard in Upper Allen Street.  In 1881, James was living in Havelock Square, and employed two men and three women.  He apparently soon ceased trading.  James Read, Grange Farm Cottage, Ecclesall, died, aged 85, on 30 December 1913.  He left £954 and was buried in Ecclesall.