Benjamin Huntsman

[4] Huntsman started business as a clock, lock and tool maker in Doncaster, Yorkshire.

[5] The growing competition of imported French cutlery made from Huntsman's cast-steel alarmed the Sheffield cutlers, who, after trying unsuccessfully to get the export of the steel prohibited by the British government, were compelled to use it in the interests of self-preservation.

Huntsman had not patented his process, and his secret was discovered by a Sheffield iron-founder called Walker.

[5] Walker, according to legend, entered Huntsman's works in the disguise of a starving beggar asking to sleep by a fire for the night.

[5] At Sheffield's Northern General Hospital one of the original main buildings is named after him, and in the city centre is a Wetherspoons pub called The Benjamin Huntsman.