In September, 1828, a patent was taken out by Mr. Charles Sanderson, of the Park Gate Iron Works, entitled "A new process or method of making shear steel," which, the specification informs us, consists in forming shear steel out of very small pieces of bar steel, instead of pieces from one to two feet in length, as heretofore, whereby he is enabled to form shear steel with fewer heats, and consequently with less waste, and without the use of silicious sand, as heretofore practised. The patentee describes his mode of operation in the following words: - "I take bar steel in the state in which it comes from the converting furnace, and break it into very small pieces of one inch to two inches long; a quantity of these small pieces being ready, I procure a round stone of any quality winch is capable of withstanding the strong heat of a reverberatory furnace without cracking or breaking; and upon this stone the small pieces are piled as closely and compactly as possible; the whole is then inclosed in a fire-clay crucible, and placed in a reverberatory furnace, where it is allowed to remain until the whole mass becomes of a high welding heat.

It is then taken from the crucible and placed under a heavy cast-iron hammer, usually called a metal helve, and exactly the same as those used in the manufacture of bar iron: this hammer is driven by machinery, and from the circumstance of the whole mass being in a semi-fluid state, it is almost instantaneously hammered or manufactured into one solid mass or bloom of steel, of from three to four inches square; this bloom is placed in a furnace, or as it is more generally termed, a hollow fire, of two or three feet square, heated with coke, and the heat increased by the application of a blast of air; and the whole mass or body of steel so hammered or manufactured as aforesaid, is raised to a high welding heat; it is then taken from the furnace, and placed under the same metal helve or hammer before mentioned, and drawn into a bar of shear steel, ready to be tilted or rolled into the various sizes or shapes which may be required. For shear steel, to be used for inferior purposes, it might be too expensive to place the piled steel in a crucible, but it might merely he placed in a reverberatory furnace, and drawn thence, when it is of a complete welding heat."