Born in Staveley in about 1822, Septimus Machin was a pen and pocket knife maker in Trafalgar Street by 1846.   In that year, he was charged with stealing a hammer and glazer belonging to Joseph Law, Trippet Lane.  Machin offered an explanation and was discharged.   He later worked in Milton Street as a spring knife cutler, and sometimes had the help of a boy.   Machin was an obscure maker, but his career illuminates the murky world of trade marks.  He was a witness in the trade mark case, Rodgers v.  Jackson (see Joseph Rodgers & Sons; William Jackson).  Machin testified that he made many second-class goods, even for Butcher, using the stamps Littlewood & Bingham; and for Wostenholm, stamping the name ‘Fisher’.  He had also stamped goods ‘Richard Rodgers & Son’.   Often the marks Machin was asked to stamp – such as ‘Best English Cutlery’ – were fictitious (Sheffield Independent, 3 May 1872).  Machin’s last address was Hill Street, where he died on 16 May 1889, aged 69.   His burial was in City Road Cemetery.