Smithfield 'Chef' Cooks Knife

What makes it worth buying

• forged or stamped forged
• maker Samuel Staniforth

Where this comes from

The part other shops don't tell you. Three separate questions, kept separate on purpose, each with its source.

• UK company

  Registered at Companies House as Samuel Staniforth Limited, number 04006548. Checked 2026-08-29.

  Means the business is a British legal entity, not a British-sounding name owned elsewhere. It says nothing about where anything is made.

• UK operations

  Stated by the company: "Samuel Staniforth Ltd. of Sheffield, England are manufacturers of The Smithfield range of knives. Born in the 'Steel City' itself Samuel Staniforth Ltd. is a traditional, endemic company With over 150 years experience in the design and manufacture of forged cutlery for professional and amateur users." Source.

  Means people employed here, or premises they actually work from. We keep this separate from the company badge because a registered office can be an accountant's spare room, and a company can be registered in Britain while everything it does happens somewhere else. Where we have not looked, we say so rather than assuming.

• British-owned

  No majority shareholding traced outside the UK. Companies House.

  Read from the register of people with significant control, following the chain of holding companies. It does not gate anything: a firm can be made here and owned elsewhere, and that is worth telling you rather than hiding.

• Made in the UK

  The maker states: Experience - Established in 1864, Samuel Staniforth Ltd has over 150 years of experience in the production of quality forged Sheffield made knives. As a result, we are able to produce quality products with speed and efficiency. Source. Their words, not ours; we have not independently verified it.

  This is about the individual product, not the company. A British firm can sell things made abroad, which is normal and not a criticism. We would rather tell you which is which than average them into a score.