Made in Tasmania – scythe attachment rings

Yep, we’ve finally done it. We’re now offering our first locally-made product.

These stainless steel rings are 41mm wide x 30mm long x 47mm deep.

The truth is, we can buy attachment rings from Europe at a fraction of the price that we can make them (and I mean a fraction – think in tenths). But add shipping to that, and the potential of being sent the wrong items (which has already happened to us twice), and it’s not quite so inexpensive. Plus, we’ve designed these to our own specifications to suit our snaths and blades, and we’ve used a bucketload of local expertise to get them done.

But we also knew it was no good making an attachment ring that we’d have to charge $40 for just to recoup costs. So that’s where some good old-fashioned hard work came in; we did a lot of the fabrication ourselves to keep the cost down.

Here’s the marketing spiel – why you should buy these rings:

• Extra width (nominally 41mm) allows more adjustment in the hafting angle. It also allows us to fit a rubber guard to the snath itself.
• Set screws are positioned more centrally so that regardless of whether the tang is at extreme adjustment, or centred, the set screws make more contact with the tang.
• Made to last – everything on the ring is stainless steel. The ‘U’ band is 304 stainless, as are the 20mmx12mm set screws (1.75mm pitch). The 6mm base plate is marine grade 316 stainless.
• Made in Tasmania. Here’s the list of Tasmanian businesses we engaged directly to get these units built:
  • Prochem – supplied the 6mmx30mm stainless for the baseplates
  • Nuts & Bolts Tasmania – supplied the set screws and hex keys
  • Rowfit International – supplied and bent the stainless U bands
  • Valley Welding – performed the TIG welding of the baseplate to the U bands

And don’t forget us – our own fair hands did a bit of work too, which is why they won’t cost you as much as a blade…  Each ring has cost us $13.17 in raw materials and third party labour to make – and that doesn’t include our tools, consumables, one-off expenses and our own labour (which was around two days for the first batch of 50). And we’re offering them to you at $15. Pretty good deal, huh?

When you’re shopping for attachment rings, choose the ‘Tassie-made’ option! Here’s a gallery of some of what we did ourselves in the process.