Vanessa, your ancestor was working at a very difficult time for Sheffied cutlers. The newspaper archive contains hundreds of articles from the period on Xylonite, Little Mesters and the American politics which severely dammaged the industry (McKinley Tariff).
Xylonite (nitrocellulose) was the first plastic to be used to simulate ivory.
There are many reports of fires (even explosions) and of court cases where men were punished for selling Xylonite knives as genuine ivory. There was a thriving and honest trade in mass producing such knives for export, until McKinley stepped in.
There is one report that traditional cutler objector to the use of Xylonite put a match to a knife in front of the home secretary and it virtually exploded.
Be careful where you store your knife.
Dave
Thank you so much for all this info.
It's all really interesting.
I do know that there are more knives that other family members have got and my great grandad was a cutler too hence the William Goddard and sons on the knife itself.
But I am so grateful for the information you have given me as there's very little regarding his work.