The Master Cutler is elected by the freemen of the company on the first Monday of September of each year and the position taken in the first Tuesday of October.
Despite the title, the Master Cutler does not have to be involved in the cutlery business, or even the steel industry, to be elected.
In the early years of the company, the Election, Installation, Church Service and celebratory meal (which eventually became the Cutlers’ Feast) all happened on the same day.
[15][16] The then Master Cutler, A Balfour, later the 2nd Lord Riverdale, rode on the footplate of the inaugural train.
Known to staff simply as "The Cutler", the train carried a restaurant car and was generally hauled by a Gresley A3 Pacific.