CHEAP CUTLERY.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 February 1924, Page 4

CHEAP CUTLERY.

SI! EEI'MEED, Nov. 27 Plant at some of the leading cutlery ami plate works is miming continuously day and night to keep pace with a bigger influx of orders than has been experienced for many months. A pro- ■ portion of these are on Christmas trading account, London stores being big buyers of best stainless and tarn-ish-resisting specialities. A notable feature is the marked expansion in foreign purchases. Cheap spoons and forks are being sent abroad in hundreds of thousands. One contract from South America specifies 10,000 gross. Buyers in the United States, France, Australia, and New Zealand arc in the local market for New Year supplies. Several makers of small cutlery cabinets and cases have hooked contracts covering the whole of their output for three to six months ahead. A scheme is under consideration for the establishment of the latest plant for the intensive production of knives on a mechanical basis. It is suggested that a central establishment should make forging, grinding, and bolstering a mass output speciality, and that knives should then he distributed to individual firms for finishing processes. By the latest mechanical devices four men can forge 2,000 knives a day, and one operator can grind 800 a day : while finishing plant can turn out 120,000 in 300 days at a cost for that operation of less than a halfpenny a knife. The rapid growth of broadcasting has brought a big local demand for cheap receiving sets. Engineering trades arc quietly optimistic. Rustless steel castings are in demand for ships’ propellers, railway cariage fittings, joints and valves for marine engines, and water taps.