Sheffield steel in Chaucer

Phil Harding, who helped to make a knife for this programme using traditional steel-working techniques, is only one of the more recent owners of a blade from Sheffield. Reference was even made to a similar knife in Chaucer. In The Reeve's Tale, written in the 1380s, he tells of the miller of Trumpington possessing a 'Sheffeld thwitel baar' in his hose:

Ay by his belt he baar a long panade,
And of a swerd ful trenchant was the blade.
A joly poppere baar he in his pouche;
Ther was no man, for peril, dorste hym touche.
A Sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose.
Round was his face, and camus was his nose.

In modern English, that translates as something like:

Always in his leathern belt he did parade
A sword with a long trenchant blade.
In his pocket he carried a pretty knife;
No man who dared to touch him, on loss of life.
A long knife from Sheffield he carried in his hose;
Round was his face and turned-up was his nose.

No comparison with Phil then …

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