Description
Trevor William Ablett was born at Beighton, Derbyshire, in 1942. His father worked on the land in Lincolnshire, but moved to Sheffield to work for a plating firm in West Street. Trevor owed his start in knife making in 1957 to his uncle Emil Berek, who made folding knives in Athol Road. Trevor acquired experience in Berek’s workshops and worked for razor maker, C. Myers, in a workshop on the floor below. However, Trevor credited Harry Ragg – a long-serving cutler, who worked for Berek – as the man who taught him most. After Emil’s death in 1974, Trevor and Harry continued to make folding knives, first at Stag Works in John Street, then by 1980 at Joseph Elliot, Sylvester Street. Later Trevor moved to Egerton Lane and began sharing a workshop with Bowie maker, Reg Cooper (who died in December 2022, aged 91).
They moved next to Edmund Road in Little Sheffield. Finding their upper-story workshop involved walking up a car ramp, then through a showroom filled with expensive cars. The contrast with Trevor’s and Reg’s workshop – with its buffing wheels, hammers, vices, and air of the nineteenth century – could not have been greater. Trevor specialised in folding knives, which were sold to be used. He made dozens of attractive (but modestly priced) one/two-blade pocket knives a week. They were hafted in natural materials, such as wood, stag, and buffalo horn. Like many cutlers, he was extraordinarily dedicated to his craft. Long past retirement age, he worked a twelve-hour day, starting at 7.00 am, and told this author that he had never been abroad. He was profiled in The Guardian, 23 January 2010. Trevor and Reg featured in Great British Railway Journeys with Michael Portillo (Series 2, Episode 14, screened BBC 2 on 22 June 2012).