My Grandad. When I started designing with steel I was tipping my hat to my Grandad, Eric Barnett. Mamnick is a celebration of his life as a Sheffield steel worker. 

Tony Sweeney. The man who introduced to me to the bike. He taught me how to pace myself on long rides, group riding etiquette, how to balance the pleasures of riding hard and taking in the view, why a bike with the right 1970s design beats a modern bike on form and function and a host of other aspects of cycling that might make you think he'd gone mad! But trust me - he's always on the money!

He showed me the silent 'back-wack' roads in Derbyshire - the places where you can ride for hours and only see a handful of cars. He was the person who told the me to "do one thing at a time as beautifully as possible" (which I slightly modified). And he was the person who told me a road called Mam Nick existed.

David. Our steel guy. A man who listens to me with patience when I'm excitedly rambling on in the factory about an idea I've had last night. A man who knows what can and cannot be done with steel. A man who'll spend hours getting a prototype right for me even though my cardboard model isn't to scale or doesn't even make sense. 

The women at the factories that manufacture my shirts. People like Marion who trims and sews our buttons and Emily who counts these same buttons and then dyes them exactly as I want them. Sharon who irons the final shirts, blows every spec of dust off them, folds and then packages them.

All these people make us who we are. It's about people. 

I went for a walk around Fox House on Wednesday afternoon with a friend who wanted to tell me about the Grindstone heritage of Sheffield and how this industry played it's part in the Sheffield steel industry. I have perviously been informed that there was the remains of a Gritstone quarry overlooking Burbage and that It is now seen as somewhat of a mecca for local climbers, due to the steep nature of what remains of the quarry. Can i also just say that the weather couldn't have been any worse that day. It was horrid! 

Gritstone played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution and Peak District millstones were considered to be the best quality for crushing lead-ore. This fine textured Gritstone was used to make the Grindstones which were vital to producing cutlery and other tools in Hathersage and other Sheffield areas. 

These stones were cut out of the rock in rough blocks and after doing a bit of research online i found a good quote informing me of how this was done. 

“The manner by which grinding-stones are here procured, appeared to me remarkable enough: the size is first traced on one of beds of free-stone, and all the stone about it removed; when the general form is obtained, several horizontal holes are pierced, half a foot into the stone towards its base, according to the intended thickness; dry pieces of wood are driven into these holes, and in a few days swelled by humidity, they cause the stone to split.” - J.J. Ferber, 1776. 

You can still find stone that's been pieced by the wood laying around at the base of the wall like in the image below. 

After this process the stones were then shaped and finished by skilled craftsmen at a quarry such as the one we were now stood in. Lives could depend on their skill for finishing as fractured foreheads and broken limbs, from the breaking of unsound or sometimes over-driven Grindstones were extremely common around Sheffield. Moving the stones from the quarry was a major undertaking and it's the ones that never got sold that are still lying below the Grindstones edge. 

I must thank Andy McCall for his best tour-guide impersonations and inspiring this writing. Plus a special thank you must go to the residents of Parson House Farm, for letting us take a short-cut through their land. 

Although I'm not a member of Rutland CC - Sheffield's oldest and best

cycling club - I have done a few miles with them, my favourite being

the Saturday morning 'Tea-Cake' club run. It's a decent 40 miler that

covers some of the Peak Districts best roads, including a road I've

grown to love that leads into Pilsley. I like that road so much I've

decided to name a shirt after it that will be released later in the

year.

A regular climb on the tea-cake is over Cressbrook. This is when the

'blue touch paper' is lit and anyone with the legs will mix it up -

unless they are saving themselves for a race the next day. I expect

that Brendon Tyree will have done his share of screw turning on that

ride over the years. Brendon's the lad who took these photos of the

Mam Nick hill climb from last year. He is a classy rider who raced for

GB back in his younger days and reliable rumour has it that he's had

the better of Sir Bradley Wiggins.

It made sense for us to sponsors the event as it took place at Mam

Nick. So we made a handful of exclusive Mamnick cycling cap for best

times of the day.

Here are a few photos of the hill climb by Brendon himself. 

See the full-set on Brendons website by clicking here.

I'd like to think we've built a good relationship at the back of 2012 with the chaps over at Weavers Door, Liverpool. They became only the second stockist of our 'Made in Sheffield' stainless steel collection and just before Christmas, we decided to put our heads together to create a unique item exclusively for their store. 

The result is below, a lovely hand-made shirt folding tool that has been hand-made from the same brushed stainless steel that our Everyday clips and Everyday Holders are made from. It now takes pride of place in their store, hanging on the wall ready for use. The cardboard utensil they had been using previous has now been retired to folding board paradise. 

It's a real pleasure to work so closely with such fine people. Thanks Lee and Ciaran. 

Sheffield has always be known for steel, in the same way as Manchester is known for cloth. It's at the heart of the city and something that has played its part in putting Sheffield on the global map, along with the seven-hills on which Sheffield stands - it's the city's unique characteristic. It was an industry, much like the mining towns of the north, that brought people together and gave the community a heart, spirit and togetherness. 

Cutlery has been made in Sheffield since the 13th century. Harry Brearley developed (by accident) what has now become widely known as stainless steel. It's a material that is (probably) largely taken for granted by a new generation but before stainless was invented, cutlery was made from a carbon steel composit that stayed sharp but would also rust. Stainless steel revolutionized the entire steel industry, as it was the first steel with a 'rustless' quality that can be wiped clean and does not readily corrode or stain. Now a large part of the industry itself has been sold off to other European countries. That said, parts of the industry still remain, to which we at Mamnick are privileged to use today, to develop new products and explore new designs. 

David, our factory manager said "it wasn't that long ago that every morning the streets round here would be full of people walking to work before the sun had come up, ready for a day of honest hard graft, but that doesn't happen anymore". For 45 years my grandad was one of these people and the the reasons why I continue to design and make using stainless today. 

Mamnick's continually expanding 'Made in Sheffield' collection is all manufactured by David. Every product is made by human hands. In fact, when you buy a Mamnick product it's good to know that every process from the start to end is all done by hand. From the designing of the products on paper (and sometimes models made from bits of scrap cardboard), through to the actual manufacturing and hand-stamped packaging, the final product that you will receive will have been touch by no-more than three people. Me, David and possibly John (David's assistant). 

David still uses the machines he was using back in the day, they are an extension of him and we are grateful that he has now become and extension of Mamnick, allowing us to manufacture small runs of stainless-steel pieces that have been carefully blanked, filed and brushed using tools that have been in David's family for years. Hopefully these pieces will now stay in your family for years to come too. 

Photos by India Hobson

Our first shirt, entitled the 'Backtor' shirt [pronounced 'Back-Tor'] was designed in Japan with Osam and Ko of WestWarts, Tokyo. 

Manufactured in England. Limited to x100 pieces, only x30 are available in the UK. 

One pattern over two fabrics. Both 100% cotton, white oxford and marine stripe with engraved Mamnick buttons cup from trocas shells in on the outskirts of Sheffield.   

Proud to say every weave of fabric, stitch and button was made in the North of the UK. 

Simply a collection of imagery from our first few months of starting the brand.  We'll probably look back in years to come and think this is where it all started.