Axe to grind: toolmaking father and daughter revive lost Sheffield tradition

Axes are being forged in Sheffield again for the first time in decades, after a father-and-daughter team revived the city’s lost tradition.

Robin Wood, 59, and his daughter, JoJo, 30, teach courses in spoon carving, a craft that requires the use of an axe. The Woods became frustrated that there was no UK-produced axe they could recommend to students. The best option was made in Sweden, which was expensive and often difficult to source.

So they decided to create their own, which after almost six years and many design tweaks is now being produced in Sheffield and is available to buy for £185.

Their company, Wood Tools, which also produces the curved knives used by spoon carvers, is popular in the craft market and receives orders from around the world. They hope their axes will have wide appeal.

Toolmaking has declined drastically in Sheffield over the past 40 years and the Woods believe that consumers have become frustrated with cheap, poor-quality tools and are now prepared to pay for something well made, produced locally, and that will last for generations.

Robin is the founding chair of Heritage Crafts, the charity that supports and promotes traditional craft skills, and was awarded an MBE for his work in 2016.

He said toolmaking “is a huge, important part of Sheffield’s heritage … It seemed a real shame to us that living near Sheffield, and teaching with tools, we were recommending people to buy tools from Sweden.”

For 10 years Brian Alcock, Sheffield’s last jobbing grinder, finished many of the company’s tools. Zak Wolstenholme, Wood Tools’ 28-year-old grinder, worked alongside Brian for four years learning the skills to hand-grind axes.

When Alcock died last year, Wolstenholme took on his workshop and historic grinding gear at the city’s Beehive Works, preserving the skills and knowledge for another generation.

“It’s an honour to be carrying on this tradition and keeping Brian’s memory alive,” said Wolstenholme.

Their axe heads are made from high-quality ball bearing steel forged in Sheffield, the handles are made from ash, and the heads are held in place with an oak wedge made from a whisky barrel.

The axes are sharpened to a razor edge and protected by a sheath made from leather from Clayton’s tannery in Chesterfield, or by a vegan option made from recycled firehose.

“At the end of the day, it’s something that people are going to be spending quite a bit of money on,” Robin said, “and to have it really fit the hand beautifully, and to look like a sort of small sculpture in its own right, that’s what we’re aiming for.”

Robin has been involved in the industry for more than 30 years, and his daughter joined him in business about a decade ago – although she has been spoon carving for as long as she can remember.

JoJo was first involved in Spoonfest – the Peak District festival that celebrates the craft and draws visitors from around the world – at the age of 18. She noticed that the experts on the lineup “were all blokes”.

“I kind of got into it out of feminist rage,” she said. Although spoon carving attracts a much more diverse audience than other types of woodworking, she said, “at that time the only people doing it professionally, or teaching, were all blokes”.

“So I stubbornly decided that by the following year I was going to be good enough to teach,” she added, “so I went away and spent a year carving spoons, and the next year I was teaching.”

As well as being a tool for spoon carvers, the axes also have multiple domestic uses, such as chopping firewood for log burners.

“A hundred years ago, every one of our grandparents, the shed at the bottom of the garden would have had an axe in it,” Robin said. “It’s just a tool that you need for shaping wood with.”

JoJo added: “I think everybody should have an axe, just because they’re cool.”