Axe throwing

Thursday 16 June 2005

The Swedish Axe Throwing Society organises an annual championship competition, as I learned from the excellent website of Gränsfors Bruks AB, makers of hand forged axes.

Axe throwing

Setup for axe throwing targets: 1: Distance from target to throwing line = 6.1 m. 2: Height of target centre = 1.5 m.

The website pitches a story of Gränsfors Bruk reinventing itself. Loggers don’t use axes now, but craftspeople, campers and householders do. The website doesn’t have a mission statement, but it does set out five fundamental theses. There is no smiling mugshot of a CEO in a suit, but there is a picture of the blacksmiths in their work clothes. Each axe head is the work of one of these smiths, and is stamped with his initials once he is satisfied with it.

Workers

The people working at Gränsfors Bruk in Sweden are (from left to right): Mikael Sundberg, Rune Andersson, Mattias Mattsson, Lennart Pettersson, Lasse Eriksson, Anna-Karin Pettersson, Jan Elfstr öm, Kjell Åke Sjölund, Per Henrik Bylin, Ove Sjödin, Jonny Mohlén, Siv Lundholm, Gabriel Brånby, Mats Åke Järnberg, Gunnar Mohlén, Rune Ahlbom. (Yes, it was a dark and cold Monday morning when we took the picture.)

Lars Enander, Daniel Gräntz, Ulrik Nilsson, Rose-Marie Jansson, Mats-Ola Hansson, Klas Sjöberg, Anders Sjödin, Joakim Eriksson and Bert-Ove Andersson were not present.
[quoted from the website].

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