An Unwin & Rodgers’ advertisement provided an establishment date of 1820.   The earliest artefact evidence dates from the activities of James Rodgers (c.1758-1829), who apparently established James Rodgers & Co.  Neither James Rodgers nor his firm were listed in directories, but razors with that company name and the date 1825 have survived.  Certainly, James Rodgers was joined by Philip Unwin (1800-1878).  In 1825, the latter was listed alone as a pen knife manufacturer in Green’s Square, Charles Lane.   Three years later, Unwin & Rodgers appeared in a Sheffield directory as a manufacturer of pen, pocket and desk knives, pearl slides, clasps, and buckles, in Charles Street.   

Unfortunately, James Rodgers died on 7 February 1829, aged 60, and was buried in St Paul’s churchyard.  Henceforth, Philip Unwin and his descendants operated the business.   Philip had been baptized on 12 October 1800 at the parish church.  His father was John Unwin, a joiner, who in 1841 was living in Burgess Street, close to his son.  Apparently, John Unwin was married first to Elizabeth (Philip’s mother) and second to Mary (d. 1837), by whom he had another son John (born 27 April 1812).  John Unwin Sen.’s daughter, Eliza, married cutlery manufacturer John Walters – and it was at their house in Wilkinson Street that John Unwin Sen. died on 27 May 1848, aged 76.

Under Philip Unwin, the firm expanded with the burgeoning American trade.  By the end of the 1830s, Unwin & Rodgers was marketing ‘Self-Defence Knives’ – in other words, the type of knives beloved by the American frontiersman, such as lock and sneck knives, daggers, and dirks.   The firm was one of the earliest manufacturers of Bowie knives.  It also advertised ‘Indian Hunting’ knives, though whether these were for hunting Indians, or for Indians hunting, was not made clear!  

Philip Unwin’s early career is obscure.  He apparently had no practical experience as a working cutler and never became a Freeman of the Company of Cutlers.  His interest in the American market would suggest that he was a regular transatlantic traveller.  But there is no evidence that he ever visited the USA and his firm’s products were usually sold through agents.  On the other hand, Unwin & Rodgers’ products show a close familiarity with American tastes.  Unwin was intrigued by combination weapons, which united a pistol with a fighting blade.  Such weapons were enjoying a vogue at this time.  In 1837, George Elgin of Georgia, USA, patented a Bowie-type knife-pistol.  But it was a clumsy fixed-cutlass and firearm device that never caught on.  Unwin apparently copied this idea.  American dealer Norm Flayderman once had a finely-engraved Unwin & Rodgers’ cutlass-style pistol, marked ‘EXP’L CUTLASS No 4’, that is virtually identical to the Elgin weapon.  Evidently, Unwin abandoned this idea and opted for a pocketable combination weapon, which had a folding dagger with a small percussion pistol built into the handle.   This pistol-knife became Unwin & Rodgers’ most distinctive product (Spooner, 1965-7¹).  In 1839, when the firm was located in Burgess Street, the pistol-knife was advertised as a ‘Life and Property Preserver’.  It had an unscrewable horse hook for use as a ramrod, with a threaded screw underneath as a trigger (Zalesky, 2016²).   The advertisement suggested that the trigger could be screwed into a door post, ‘with the mouth of the piece projecting over the door, so that upon any attempt being made to open it, an explosion immediately takes place sufficiently loud to alarm a whole family, without producing any injurious results’.  It was said to be capable of killing at fifty yards.

In 1843, Philip Unwin married Ann, the daughter of the late George Hall.  In the following year, they had a son: Philip Henry Unwin.   At the start of 1849, Unwin & Rodgers vacated its workshops and warehouse in Burgess Street (Sheffield Independent, 20 January 1849).  It moved to Rockingham Works, Rockingham Street, after Wostenholm had vacated it.  The firm’s products included table knives, agricultural knives (such as fleams), pen knives, razors, scissors, gadget knives – all of which were displayed in a fine trade advertisement that the company placed in a Sheffield directory in 1852.   It featured the same engraving of the factory that had once graced Wostenholm billheads!  Bowies and folding dirks were a speciality.  The company liked to stamp them with the words ‘Royal Cutlery’ and the design of a crown over the monogram of Queen Victoria ‘VR’.    The company also used the name ‘James Rodgers & Co’ (or simply ‘James Rodgers’), both on pistol-knives and Bowie knives (Sheffield Independent, 26 February 1842).   This accounts for the marked similarity of knives made by James Rodgers and Unwin & Rodgers (Adams et al, 1990³; Flayderman, 2004⁴).  Why Philip Unwin would stamp on his blades the sole name of his dead partner (who ironically had departed before the Bowie craze began) is a mystery.  But probably the Rodgers’ name (with its echoes of the illustrious Joseph Rodgers & Sons) was too good a marketing opportunity to miss. 

Unwin & Rodgers was the most prolific advertiser in the cutlery industry, with its illustrated advertisements featuring in nearly every Sheffield trade directory between 1837 and the 1870s.  The company made a fine showing at the Great Exhibition in 1851 and won a Prize Medal.  A Guide-Book to the Industrial Exhibition (1851) gave the company’s products – notably its patent pencil-knife and pistol-knife – extended coverage.   A London newspaper reported that:

One of the most remarkable features of the [Sheffield] collection of cutlery is the great display of ‘bowie knives’, of the most murderous-looking description, apparently intended to attract the attention of emigrants to California.   Amongst the exhibitors of these un-English looking weapons, Messrs Unwin & Rodgers of Sheffield are conspicuous.  One of these dagger-knives has engraved on the blade ‘Heigh for California!’ and in one instance, as an additional means of defence, in case the possession of the emigrant’s hard-earned dinner should be disputed, a pistol is introduced into the handle of the knife, so that a man may not only cut and stab alternately, but fire also without relaxing his hold (Morning Post, 13 September 1851).

Philip Unwin lived in Hanover Square.  He was helped in Rockingham Street by his brother John Unwin (1812-1895).  They registered patents on pocket knives.  In the early 1860s, John Unwin Askham (1831-1915) and Philip Unwin Askham (1838-1905) – brothers and Philip Unwin’s nephews – became involved with the business for a short time.  In 1860, the trio patented a ‘saloon barrel pistol-knife’, which modified the previous version into a breech-loading model for cartridges.  According to The Merchants’ Magazine and Commercial Review (December 1861), it could be discharged and fired twelve times per minute and could kill at 170 yards.  Some pistol-knives had pearl handles and were sold in presentation boxes; rare examples had a switch-blade, which was ‘fired’ by a button in the handle (Punchard & Fuller, 2012⁵).  At the International Exhibition in 1862 in London, the company won a medal for a ‘good assortment of cutlery’.   

Unwin & Rodgers continued to rely on the American market.  In the 1850s, Charles Congreve acted as its New York agent.  It also shipped rugged Indian trade knives to North America, through Jukes Coulson and the Hudson’s Bay Co (Levine, 2012⁶).   During the American Civil War, Unwin & Rodgers’ products still found their way across the Atlantic.   The company’s knives and pistol-knives were amongst the items salvaged from the wreck of the Modern Greece – a Confederate blockade runner, which sank in North Carolina in the summer of 1862 (Bright, 1977⁷).   When the US trade slumped during the Civil War, Philip Unwin tried to turn the setback to his advantage by occupying Globe Works and purchasing John Walters’s trade marks, after the latter’s bankruptcy.   In 1865, Philip Unwin moved his home to Globe Works, with his enterprise continuing to occupy premises in Rockingham Street (where John Unwin resided).  According to the Children’s Employment Commission (White, 1865⁸), the firm employed about 150 at its main works and about another hundred in other parts of the town.   The report noted that ‘some of the workplaces are cramped, with dark and inconvenient approaches … [but are] … considered good in comparison with many cutlery work places’.   Bands and shafts in the factory, however, were unguarded and dangerous.  John Unwin told the commissioners: ‘The night watchman fires a pistol at 5 a.m.  and 10 p.m., and any person found on the premises between those hours would be considered as being there for an unlawful purpose’.  

The founder’s son, Philip Henry Unwin, was evidently being readied to join the business.  He became a  Freeman of the Company of Cutlers in 1868, having completed his apprenticeship to his uncle, John Walters.   In the early 1870s, Unwin & Rodgers was still making a splash at exhibitions.  At the London International Exhibition in 1873, the firm was amongst the largest exhibitors of cutlery.  Its display of over 250 items was praised for the ‘absolute honesty of the work’, because it eschewed unnecessary showiness (Sheffield Independent, 19 May 1873).   Besides the usual pistol-knives, South American daggers and plantations knives were displayed, as an indication of the firm’s interest in new overseas markets.  In the same year, Unwin & Rodgers offered for sale the freehold of the Rockingham Street workshops, as a prelude to complete removal to Globe Works.  In 1875, Unwin & Rodgers adopted limited liability, with a nominal capital of £40,000 (with £26,000 initially paid up by the vendors).  Average profits over 15% on turnover were claimed in the prospectus.  The flotation was prompted by the elderly founder’s withdrawal from the firm (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 6 October 1875).  Philip Unwin, ‘gentleman’, Collegiate Crescent, died on 26 October 1878 (aged 78) and was buried in the General Cemetery.  He left under £2,000.  He had taken no part in public life and his newspaper death notice was no more than a couple of lines.  

Philip H. Unwin became managing director of Unwin & Rodgers Ltd, with John Unwin as the company secretary.  The company’s prospects now appeared uncertain.  The product line had become dated, with its reliance on pistol-knives (always more a novelty than an effective weapon) and Bowies.  Unwin & Rodgers  needed a new direction – perhaps into the emerging electro-plate market.   John Unwin appears to have recognised this and he became involved in John Brook & Son and Sheffield Nickel & Silver Plating Co (see Edward G. Draper), which he accommodated in Rockingham Works and Globe Works.  They soon encountered difficulties, as did Unwin & Rodgers.   In 1882, the company auctioned 8,000 dozens of fine pen and pocket knives and ‘expensive show knives’.   In the following year, Unwin & Rodgers was bankrupt.   The chairman of the directors complained that he regretted his involvement as a shareholder, because he believed that the enterprise from ‘the first had been a fraudulent swindle’ (Sheffield Independent, 21 July 1883).  

To raise cash from the public, John Unwin had launched a bizarre Tara Trust Fund to hunt in Ireland for the deeds given to the prophet Jeremiah (Sheffield Independent, 8 September 1883).  He had debts of £6,735 against assets of £242.  The liquidator’s report revealed that Unwin & Rodgers utilized only part of Globe Works and that ‘a considerable portion of the grinding wheels and premises are let to respectable tenants’.  Amongst the assets were the company marks, including ‘NON-XLL’, which the company purchased in 1860.  (This I*XL look-alike mark was officially registered by the firm in 1876, though it had been used previously by William Broadhurst with the date 1838 sometimes alongside the mark.)  In 1865, Unwin & Rodgers had acquired Walters’ name and its Pegasus (flying-horse) and ‘Superlative’ marks.   A picture of two horses’ heads and the letters ‘U & R’ were also used by the firm.

Joseph Allen acquired the NON*XLL mark in 1883.  ‘Pegasus’ apparently passed to Henry Rogers & Sons.  Some of the company’s old stock seems to have been acquired by Warrington Slater, as a Slater advertisement in 1884 illustrated Unwin & Rodgers’ products, including the pistol-knife (the advertisement even used the same printing block).  However, Unwin & Rodgers was not quite moribund.   In the same 1884 directory, Unwin & Rodgers at Globe Works advertised exactly the same products! Unwin & Rodgers advertised again in  Sheffield directories in the late 1880s, though the glory days had clearly gone.  No illustrations accompanied the advertisements and the only product on offer was ‘cutlery’.  Trade directories reveal that it was Philip H. Unwin, who was still trading as Unwin & Rodgers (using the ‘Superlative’ mark).  He lived in Lydgate Lane (where his mother died, aged 77, on 31 May 1893).  John Unwin, after a chequered business career, had died in Whitby, aged 83, on 15 December 1895.   Philip H. Unwin continued the business until his own death on 2 November 1909, aged 65.  He left only £11 and was buried in the family grave in the General Cemetery.  His passing received no mention in the Sheffield press.  

The company was finally extinguished.  The ‘Superlative’ mark was acquired by S. & J. Kitchin.   When the arms historian G. Boland Spooner visited Globe Works in the 1960s, he was shown archives relating to the history of the company, including old circulars pinned to cupboard doors.  Sadly, the records appear to have been lost, though many of the firm’s pistol-knives and Bowies have survived in the hands of collectors and museums.

^1. Spooner, G Boland, ‘The Unwin and Rodgers and Other Knife Pistols’, Journal of Arms and Armour Society 5 (1965-67)
^2. Zalesky, Garry L, ‘The Unwin & Rodgers Knife Pistol’, Knife Magazine (December 2016)
^3. Adams, W, Voyles, J  B, and Moss, T, The Antique Bowie Knife Book (Conyers, Georgia, 1990)
^4. Flayderman, Norm, The Bowie Knife: Unsheathing an American Legend (Woonsocket, RI, 2004)
^5. Punchard, Neal, and Fuller, Dan, Art of the Switchblade: The World’s Concourse Examples (Bloomington, Minnesota, 2012)
^6. Levine, Bernard, ‘Whut Izzit?’, Knife World (May, July 2012)
^7. Bright, Leslie S, The Blockade Runner ‘Modern Greece’ and the Cargo (Raleigh, NC, 1977)
^8. White, J E, Fourth Report of the Children’s Employment Commission (London, 1865)