 When the chainsaw
was introduced in the 1960s and replaced the axe in forrestry, axe manufacturing
as an industry suffered severely. Sales dropped dramatically. Many axe factories
and forges closed. Those left were forced to painful rationalizations in
order to lower production costs and to survive. Gränsfors Bruks, like
many other manufacturers, began producing axes as fast and as inexpensively
as possible, often at the expense of function and quality. The working environment
was poor, the smiths worked on commision, and faults in the forging was
covered by grinding, polishing and painting. Large quantities of energy
were consumed in the post production process and the profitability of production
was low.
At the
end of the 1980's Gränsfors Bruks took one step back to the more traditional
and craftsman like production that had been the standard a long time ago. |
 Knowledge about axes, their
function and environmental concern became guidelines for the new axe manufacturing
at Gränsfors Bruk. The restructuring was based on the belief that when
all unecessary steps are taken out of the production process you end up
with a more functional and evironmentaly sane product, and at the same time
a more appealing one. Today the commisions are gone. The profesional craftsmanship
is allowed to take its time. Quality is important, quantity is not. But
its a lot more then just the commisions that are gone at the Gränsfors
forge; gone is also the unecessary grinding, painting, varnishing, gone
are the dangerous epoxy-plastics and all the other pollutive components.
The energy consumption it takes to produce one axe has been cut in half.
Today several other ax manufacturers have followed the "Gränsfors-method"
and have begun producing axes identical to Gränsfors'. We think that
a good indicator that our restructuring has been successful. And good for
the environment. |
