[urbanspaceman]

Gentlemen, what about my proposition that the hollows were hammered-in and ground smooth? Shotley Bridge nearly went bankrupt paying Den Haydon for stock, so to waste all those grooves' worth of finished steel ground into filings does not make sense. Far better to spend time hammering them out on an anvil - or smuggling them in from Rotterdam. I am sure Solingen would feel the same way, as they were buying their steel from the Swedes. Was a man's time more expensive than steel stock?

That's why I keep banging-on about hammering in the hollows, as maybe there never was a machine anywhere! Otherwise, why not make a one at Shotley Bridge; those guys knew what it looked like, how it worked, and had all the skills and materials needed to build a one.

So far, I am unable to envisage a machine that can grind a gradually tapering groove into the side of a triangular cross-section length of steel; and I'm usually pretty good at that sort of thing. I'll keep trying.

Speaking of steel, something I discovered yesterday was that there were two Bertrams: William and John; I can't find my notes telling me which one was shipwrecked off the mouth of the Tyne. They were both from Remscheid, which was a Lutheran suburb of Solingen back then. So, a Bertram was obviously sent-for to run the forges and provide steel in 1690, which - at least - was the date of the shipwreck. The other Bertram (and I'm thinking the father, as the shipwrecked Bertram was only 20) may have come earlier to help Vinting, then sent for his son.

Vinting was Swedish by the way, and descended from the 'Ingenious Artisans' that Queen Elizabeth tasked with finding, mining and working metals around the country. The Vintings started work back in the 1500s organising the mining of lead at nearby Ryton.

Thomas Carnforth, the Newcastle cutler, commandeered the current Vinting to help set up the works at SB back in 1685; Vinting almost certainly supplied the recommendation to Dell regarding the suitability of the Derwent valley.

As Hounslow was still making blades into the early 1680s, Dell, who was the principle German blade-mill owner, would be selling to Carnforth. And delivering - as payment had to be collected; which put him in Newcastle well in advance of 1685, when he set up the syndicate and brought up Hoppe and Heneckels, who had moved back to Hounslow from Oxford.

I am quite certain that Carnforth would be buying from Dell at Hounslow, because there was the high duty on German imports via nearby Rotterdam; so, assuming the machine existed - and only in Solingen, the hollow blades would be the one thing that Dell could not supply... hence the initial plan.
Is the picture coming into focus? Are you all following me so far? Please pick holes in the above if you see any flaws in the picture: I need the best editors.