What tools do we make in Britain now?

[boxedin]

Good spot DWD still family owned and sheffield based
http://www.marples.co.uk/about-joseph-marples.html (no chisels)
Irwin own the chisels now and they are made in China good history here
http://www.williammarplesandsons.com/ch ... ouges.html

Think Record merged with Record Ridgeway then got bought by Irwin who are now part of Stanley Black and Decker
https://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/i ... 013-a.html

[Dave54]

Desoutter dropped out of the electric drill market in the late 1950s/early 1960s AFAIK. They are incidentally still around making various air over electric*, air over air*, etc drills for industry which are often attached to production machinery for drilling. Very accurate, very durable, very expensive. Sorry I missed them

That date would figure with what we had. Large powerful drills with a morse taper for the chuck. The drills were still going strong until the place closed in 1980. We had some Wolf drills as replacements. Getting power tools out of management was like trying to get blood out of a stone.
We were still using and buying in new Desoutter electric "nibblers" up until the early 80s. They were the "electric tinsnip" type.
Very good.

That is probably the rabetter. Arcoy, Stanley-Bridges, etc made these until the mid-1970s - the German firm Wolfcraft (no relationship at all the British firm Wolf) still make something similar, I believe

Arcoy Rabetter 001_01.jpg

Mine came with a steel blade (no TCT in those days) and a set of wobble washers to turn it into a somewhat limited variable width groover.

Looking mine's actually a Wolfcraft from the mid 70s. Still works OK. I've either looked at some Arcoy kit somewhere, or my dad had something. I didn't inherit most of his tools.

Good to see all the stuff that is still being made on this thread though. It depressed me a bit when I saw all that kit by long gone makers, but it looks like we still have a thriving, if smaller, tool industry.

[Job and Knock]

Has anyone mentioned Marples?..... ..... I think they are still going in Sheffield. Also Record tools, are they still going,they used to be in Sheffield too.

A potted history: That Marples (William Marples) was bought by Record and William Ridgway (50% each) in 1963. Over the years Marples had acquired John Moseley (planemakers), Thomas Ibbotson (edge tools) and Turner Naylor (trading as I Sorby).

Record and Ridgway eventually merged in 1972. Record had also previously acquired other well-known marques such as Woden, Gilpins, etc over the years. Bahco bought Record-Ridgway out in 1982, but in 1985 the Record-Ridgway management bought the company back from Bahco. They finally went into administration (bankruptcy) in 1998 and the firm was then sold the firm to the American Tool Companies (Owners of Irwin) who immediately started to shut down operations in the UK and shipped most production to either China or (in a few instances) Italy and Eastern Europe (Poland?) by about 2005 or 2006. Record Power Tools, who had been formed when Record-Ridgway bought-out the woodworking tools part of Startrite Tools of Gillingham in Kent, were not part of the Irwin deal and were a separate management out. They manufactured very little in the UK (only really the drills) and have continued to outsource their manufacturing to Eastern Europe, Italy and China (to the cheapest bidder at times based on some stuff I've seen). Irwin were themselves bought by Newall-Rubbermaid (American) in 2002 who in turn sold their tool businesses to Stanley Black & Decker in 2016. TBH quality went through the floor from the Bahco take-over onwards and is now absolute pants in the main (in other words I couldn't recommend planes or chisels from Irwin Record). Oddly enough Stanley still make chisels in Sheffield - including all those sold in the US market

In contract the current Marples firm is the tiny firm of Joseph Marples and has absolutely nothing to do with William Marples or Record. Fantastic tools, however, in the best Sheffield tradition. Some of the stuff they make (like the Trial 1 tools) are gobsmackingly beautiful - but then as a joiner I would say that, wouldn't I?

Marples Trial 1 Mortise and Marking Gauge 001_01.jpg (36.9 KiB) Viewed 3097 times

[Dave54]

^That's a beautiful mortice gauge J & K.
If I had one (I do, but it's a less posh 60 year old version with two brass strips on the face), I'd have to replace the crosshead screws though.
Just me. I don't like crossheads on "traditional" stuff.

[Job and Knock]

Then how's about some modern British tools. Can I point you in the direction of a small British firm called Superior Levels who hand make absolutely stunning spirit levels? These can be customised by the factory with your name engraved into them:

Superior Levels 001_01.jpg (1.23 MiB) Viewed 3080 times

Superior Levels 001_02.jpg (920.22 KiB) Viewed 3080 times

The timber used is plantation-grown iroko (therefore sustainable), but they also do a "AllTrades" variant with composite compact resin inserts instead of the iroko and black powder-coated aluminium frames:

Superior Levels 001_03.jpg (42.25 KiB) Viewed 3080 times

They offer either square edges or bevelled edges to suit your trade on all their levels and there are magnetic versions of the AllTrade levels in 600, 900 and 1200mm lengths which would be good for dry-lining/MF work, etc. For the general construction trades (e.g. concreting, dry-lining, groundwork, etc) they have recently introduced the all-aluminium OneLevel (initially only in 2 metre length):

Superior Levels 001_04.jpg (24.03 KiB) Viewed 3080 times

This is not an old established firm, in fact they started up a recently as 2015. I for one wish them success

[BSM-Williams]

yes i knowits an od topic but snadvik has a massive factory in hagley birmingham, not sure what it produces but its a big factory

[Job and Knock]

I thought it used to make electron-beam welded steel coil and hacksaw blades, the head office is down in Halesowen. It's probably more warehousing these days as Sandvik got the tool steel interests of Uddeholm (which included the former Stora Steel), didn't they? Sandvik aren't really a hand tool company any more (more industrial carbide tooling and cutter heads for engineering machinery) having sold off the engineering/mechanics tools (Belzer-Dowidat) in the 1990s (now owned by Apex) and sold Bahco off to Snap-On in the mid-1990s.

[Argyll]

Although DeWalt is a US company and many of their tools power tools are made in China I believe they still have a factory in Spennymoor Co Durham. I bought a few of their tools when I lived in the North East and have been smitten ever since.

It would be great to buy good quality british tools but much of the stuff is cheap chinese shite now.

Not tools per se but on similar lines many british clothing lines were bought by fat Ashley from Sports direct and are now made in China. I was still buying Karrimor, Dunlop and Firetrap for years before I found out. I wondered why the stuff wasn't lasting as long.

[Job and Knock]

Although DeWalt is a US company and many of their tools power tools are made in China I believe they still have a factory in Spennymoor Co Durham.

Sadly, no more. They actually used to make quite a lot of the Elu and deWalt accessories there (like the dovetail jigs) as well as some of the Elu and deWalt cordless drills, etc. They've moved site to a smaller unit where power tool development, spares and returns, tool reconditioning and factory shop now is, but the manufacturing has all gone abroad. One hope is that with Brexit some manufacturing might return to the UK. Who knows?

[Hitch]

Does Axminster count? They have a manufacturing facility in Devon where some of their own gear is made, like the Clubman woodturning chucks...

Carver & Co... Some of the heaviest duty clamps around.

Fisco... Measuring gear, rules & tapes.

Lucas... seriously posh paintbrushes .

King d*ck... Sockets, spanners etc.

Snail Brand, not 100% sure on this one, but they used to be.

[Job and Knock]

I think that Axminster count - and they export their stuff (like the UJK router accessories), too. All the Ax-made stuff I've had has been good quality

BTW - King d*ck got mentioned of the first page

[boxedin]

Don't know if these have been mentioned Thor Hammers. Westmidlands Based for over 100 years
https://www.thorhammer.com/

[Dave54]

Does Axminster count? They have a manufacturing facility in Devon where some of their own gear is made, like the Clubman woodturning chucks...

Carver & Co... Some of the heaviest duty clamps around.

Fisco... Measuring gear, rules & tapes.

Lucas... seriously posh paintbrushes .

King d*ck... Sockets, spanners etc.

Snail Brand, not 100% sure on this one, but they used to be.

Snail Brand brings back some memories. First tool I think I ever bought was a Snail Brand 3/16" X 1/4" Whit, double open end spanner. It was 3/6 IIRC. mid 1960s.
Not much sense really, there were plenty at home, but I wanted one of my own!
http://www.smithfrancistools.co.uk/doub ... enches.htm

[Hitch]

Does Axminster count? They have a manufacturing facility in Devon where some of their own gear is made, like the Clubman woodturning chucks...

Carver & Co... Some of the heaviest duty clamps around.

Fisco... Measuring gear, rules & tapes.

Lucas... seriously posh paintbrushes .

King d*ck... Sockets, spanners etc.

Snail Brand, not 100% sure on this one, but they used to be.

Snail Brand brings back some memories. First tool I think I ever bought was a Snail Brand 3/16" X 1/4" Whit, double open end spanner. It was 3/6 IIRC. mid 1960s.
Not much sense really, there were plenty at home, but I wanted one of my own!
http://www.smithfrancistools.co.uk/doub ... enches.htm

Looks like they are still made in UK then from that.

I have a set of Snail brand podger spanners, good strong spikes on them, not bent one yet.