Gränsfors Bruks

Hand-signed blacksmithing In 1868, the scythe smith Johan Pettersson (JP) moved to Gränsfors at the age of 33 with his family and his 18-year-old brother Anders Pettersson (AP) and set up the Gränsfors scythe smithy. Gränsfors lies 350 km north of Stockholm in the north of the Hälsingland region near the Gulf of Bothnia between Hudiksvall and Sundsvall, about 100 km west of the E4 highway. The first concrete evidence of an axe forge in Gränsfors dates back to the middle of the 19th century. At the end of the 19th century, there were around ten axe factories in Sweden producing large quantities of axes. The best known axe forges, from the south of the country to the north, were in Forserum, Kölefors, Åby, Arvika, Säter, Storvik, Gävle and Edsbyn.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Axel Bäckstöm was managing director and Axel Wennerström was head of production. Although they and all other Gränsfors Bruk employees spoke no language other than Swedish, the company exported mainly to the USA, Argentina and Colombia during this period. Business continued to be good during and after the Second World War, and in 1952 Gränsfors Bruk celebrated its 50th anniversary in good shape.

In the 1960s and 1970s, logging declined and chainsaws were increasingly used for logging work, first for felling and later also for delimbing the felled trees. There were fewer forestry workers and fewer people using axes. As a result, the demand for axes in Sweden fell dramatically in the 1960s and early 1970s. The remaining axe forges could only survive and even temporarily increase their production because competing forges were closed and the export of axes offered growth potential.

In 1982, the Eriksson family decided to sell Gränsfors Bruks AB. Unfortunately, the new owners and managers had no interest in manufacturing axes and focused entirely on investing in and manufacturing chain links with government support. The plan was to subsequently sell these links to the listed company Ljusne Kätting in Söderhamn, whose customers included the offshore industry. However, this plan did not work out. The sizeable new forging machine never worked properly and production never got off the ground. In 1985, Ljusne Kätting went bankrupt and dragged Gränsfors Bruk down with it.

In 1985, Svedbro Smide bought Gränsfors Bruk. Svedbro Smide forged cow feet and forestry tools in Gnarp using a technique similar to that used in Gränsfors. The two companies merged under the name Gränsfors Bruks AB. Although competition between axe manufacturers remained very strong in the 1990s, Gränsfors Bruk became an increasingly large company in the axe market. It improved its production and began selling to an increasing number of countries. The idea of taking a step back towards a more thorough, quality-oriented production gradually bore fruit.

Several other axe manufacturers copied the "Gränsfors method" and began to produce axes in a similar spirit - a clear sign that the changes were right. At Gränsfors Bruks, piecework was abolished; instead, skilled craftsmen were now allowed to take their time. The most important aspect became quality, not quantity. The emphasis was placed on ensuring that the forging was done well, which greatly reduced the need for subsequent grinding. All paints, varnishes and solvents were also eliminated, as well as the epoxy glue that had previously been used to attach the handles. A by-product of this major change in production was that in 1990 Gränsfors Bruk won a prize in a competition for environmentally friendly designs organized by Svensk Form and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.