Axes manufacturing - a piece of Swedish industrial history
1880, Sven Axel Wetterling started manufacturing axes, broad-axes and bark shovels for the then-thriving forest industry. At first he was situated in Bäckefors Mill in Dalsland. 1882 Sven Axel’s brother, engineer Otto Wetterling, came home from America where he had spent several years studying industrial axe manufacturing. Otto was very technically talented, was appointed foreman and immediately took responsibility for the production and development of the company. 1885 Wetterling’s moved the business to Storvik – a small town with an important railway for the transport and handling of raw materials. In 2007, Gabriel Brånby, who, from 1985 to 2009, owned and managed Gränsfors Bruks AB, purchased Wetterling’s axe forge. He sold the latter in 2009 to Adam and Daniel Brånby, two of his four children. What unites the company’s employees is an interest in axe manufacturing and axe culture. Axe manufacturing, a piece of Swedish industrial history, is still alive and spreading its products throughout the world.