Value for Money

During times of economic challenges, we are all out there trying to identify the best and most frugal way to spend our hard earned money. But while low prices can appear enticing, is cheaper always better value?

We are often asked why our hand made items cost more than say, items people have seen on Amazon or other on line retailers and even in stores, after all, these items look similar to what we produce, so it's a fair question.

Some of it is the economics of scale, we are not, nor will we ever be a mass production wood shop, it's just not why we do it and we like our pieces to be individual and unique, we also operate out of a 200 sq ft workshop, so no room to automate much in there.

Another thing that drives cost is quality, quality of materials, quality of craftsmanship and the degree of care given to producing a piece.

We feel everything we make reflects on us and how we want The Lost Axe to be seen.

Let's start with materials, we use wood that we source from a few local lumber dealers and saw mills, specialists in providing furniture grade hard woods, all smaller independent businesses that supply a premium product. For other materials we source the best we can, always trying to buy Canadian and as local as possible. Some things we even make ourselves, like our Lost Axe Board Wax.

Then there's the craftsmanship, we pride ourselves in the quality of what we produce and base our standards on whether we would be happy with it if we had bought the item.

We are always learning and looking for better ways to make our products the very best we can.

But back to that thing on cost, well we like to look at it a different way, we like to look at the Value for Money, is something good value for money or not?

Without going too far down a rabbit hole, when we buy something expecting it to last, and ultimately within a few years or less it is broken or worn out, we think this is poor value for money, not just the cost to us but the cost to the environment of these "throw away" goods, poor quality items are overflowing our landfills, very bad value for money!

Let's use an example that relates to what we make. While growing up, I remember the cutting board at home, and the knife my farther would use to carve the Sunday roast, that knife and that board were there throughout my growing up and well beyond, they were no doubt an investment at the time they were purchased, but with simple care they lasted decades, indeed a generation. What great value for money!

Jump forward several decades to 2022, we had been looking at a nice cutting board to go next to our bbq, we found one we liked but we thought it expensive at $110 so we waited and it went on sale for $85, so we grabbed one, though we still felt this was a lot for a quite small board.

Keep in mind , this board is designed for use outside at the grill, sold under the name of a premium grill manufacturer by one of Canadas best known stores.

This will last us for years was our thought. Our grill is undercover, so no rain or direct sunlight, we were confident it would be good.

Well we couldn't have been more wrong, 1 season was all we got and well these pictures speak a thousand words.

The splitting started after a couple of months

It got worse

and despite oiling and following care instructions it continued to split

So yes we should have returned it, but we didn't, we decided that we could do a better job! Having worked with wood for years we knew that this wasn't indicative of how wood boards are.

What would cause this, well a few things, first up material, but it's maple! Not all maple is created equal or should I say harvested and cared for equally.

You see when you by wood that has not been dried correctly by the mill then its still moving, settling in to its natural shape, in efforts to drive down cost at the expense of quality, large production mills create a less well managed final product that is force dried too quickly and prone to movement and warping.

Craftsmanship is next up, or total lack of it, this board will have never seen a human hand. Automated assembly and CNC cutters, producing mass amounts within a pre determined quality standard, designed to keep failures and returns to an acceptable level, while ensuring the customer will be back in the market again in a year or so.

So ultimately this was a bad value for money purchase.

It's really good for nothing but the fire pit now, but we keep it as a reminder and a good example of why our boards do cost a little more.

A little more investment, and we stand by our products.

Made with premium woods, hand selected, machined in our shop and hand finished so they are ready for a lifetime of use. Now that to us is Good value for Money.