理事会工具业务发展经理沃尔特·格雷, 左, and Vice President of Administration Cameron 委员会 are pictured in the Lake Waccamaw manufacturing facility holding the company’s Flying Fox hatchets, the model used by 2020 World Axe Throwing League Champion Ryan Smit.
作者:新闻记者托马斯·谢里尔
The last two champions of the World Axe Throwing League’s hatchet division have had something in common.
Both 2019 champion Sam Carter of Clemmons and 2020 champion Ryan Smit of 维吉尼亚州 Beach, 维吉尼亚州, 扔哥伦布县制造的斧头.
这斧, 被称为飞狐, 已成为委员会工具的巨大骄傲来源, a five-generation Lake Waccamaw-based company that specializes in non-power, 重型, 美国制造的手工工具. These tools serve a variety of purposes, from forestry to firefighting to military.
“It’s incredible and for it to be two years in a row and for it to have been thrown by two different throwers in those two years shows how great of a throwing axe it is. 我的意思是，这肯定是不可思议的。. 委员会, 行政副总裁, secretary of the 委员会 Tool board and the fifth generation of 委员会s in the company. “到目前为止，它给我们带来的曝光率非常高. 这是一件你几乎不相信的事情. You almost laugh at it, but then you realize, ‘Wow, this is real.’”
Developing a throwing axe is just one of the ways 委员会 Tool has diversified recently.
“这么说吧，这些年来我们已经发生了变化. 作为一家老公司, you can’t stick to what you’ve done 135 years ago and expect to still remain in business委员会说.
公鸡的创意
Developing an axe-throwing tool certainly wasn’t on the radar a decade ago, 但这项运动近年来越来越受欢迎.
“About three to four years ago, we started hearing about axe throwing and how popular it’s getting. 我们只是在这里或那里听到了有关它的谣言，”委员会说.
一个叫克雷格·罗斯特的全职远程员工, 也被称为“公鸡”,他在密苏里州生活和工作, 设计了后来的飞狐, 带1的.头重6磅，柄长16英寸.
“It’s basically a perfect head weight and handle weight委员会说. “It’s not too heavy; it’s not too light. And it was intentionally designed by our employee Craig Roost to be more aerodynamic than what you would typically have in an axe.”
From its creation, the word about the Flying Fox started to spread in axe-throwing circles.
“We started selling this thing, I want to say, two and a half years ago委员会说. 的确是这样, 到目前为止, 很长一段时间以来我们制作的最受欢迎的斧头之一, 在过去的十年里.”
委员会 said word spread about the Flying Fox through Facebook groups dedicated to axe throwing, as well as 委员会 Tool’s dealers promoting it through social media, 目录和通讯.
“It’s not expensive; the retail price on it is below $50委员会说. “I think these guys probably bought it after reading about it and said, ‘嘿, 我要试一试，然后开始扔，说, ‘嘿, 这太棒了.’”
委员会 said that the Flying Fox is still a functioning hatchet that can be used as a tool. The poll-end is heat-treated and can be used to drive in tent stakes or wedges for a camping purpose while the axe end can cut kindling for small fires.
In the world of competitive axe throwing, there are two major leagues. 一个是全国掷斧联合会, 另一个, 更大的是世界掷斧联盟.
“如果你去任何投掷斧头的场所, 不管是在威尔明顿, 或罗利, 夏洛特, 亚特兰大, 无论你走到哪里, 他们要么是WATL要么是NATF成员委员会说.
The big break for the Flying Fox came when Carter used it to win the 2019 World Axe Throwing League Championship in November 2019.
“It’s been really neat because it’s got a lot of international recognition委员会说, 他解释说，扔斧头是一个“全球社区”, 但这只是一小部分追随者.”
委员会 said that the company “sold a bunch” of Flying Fox hatchets in the first half of 2020. 斯密特的胜利在12月12日的ESPN上播出. 4-6个，所以理事会预计2021年还会有一次增长.
“我相信我们很快就会收到一些订单, 但可能还需要一两个月,委员会在12月初说, 在Smit获胜两周后. “It’s kind of how our business works; it doesn’t happen overnight.”
Edward Williamson of 委员会 Tool poses with a box of Flying Fox hatchet heads at the company’s Lake Waccamaw manufacturing plant.
以家族遗产为基础
这种商业繁荣是委员会 Tool的骄傲, 它以100%美国制造而自豪, 所有的原材料都来自国内.
“Our only location in the world is right here in Lake Waccamaw委员会说. “我们是家族企业. I’m the fifth generation; my father is here, and he’s fourth generation. 我有个哥哥也在这里. 我们把一切都留在家里. 我们仍然是100%美国制造. We support American businesses, and we don’t plan on changing any of that.”
目前, 卡梅伦理事会的父亲, 约翰委员会, is the president of the company that was founded in 1886 by Cameron 委员会’s great-great grandfather John Pickett 委员会.
“We started making turpentine tools in the 1880s and up until the early 1900s. Then we got into what we call wholesale hardware distribution business. 这是我们长期以来的业务. 我们将作为制造商向批发商销售产品, 然后谁会把工具卖给五金店呢委员会说.
委员会 Tool is the starting point in a tool’s journey from creation to purchase by a customer.
“我们锻造工具. 我们购买生钢, and we’re heating it mostly in induction units which is largely electrical heating to a high temperature, 我们在体力上战胜了它, forging it on a drop hammer in an open die setting and making an axe out of it, 或者一把锤子, or like a bar you would use for a forcible entry tool for a military application or a fireman or a SWAT team or any application such as that委员会说.
理事会工具公司生产五种工具, 无论是野火还是市政消防, 包括创建美国军方使用的工具.S. 林务局. The company is also still in the hardware business with retailers such as Ace Hardware. 理事会工具也有私人标签, as well as having a separate company across the street that specializes in wooden handles.
“We also do finishing work; we’re featuring, 绘画, 涂漆, 把锤子楔入某物, 品牌, 锐化, 包装, 等.委员会说.
展望未来, 委员会知道, business evolves and the possibility of developing a second hatchet dedicated to axe throwing is possible, 但暂时还不会.
What is likely happening soon is making the Flying Fox bigger to compete in WATL’s Big Axe Division, which 委员会 said would mean a heavier head and longer handle — more change for a company that’s been evolving for more than a century.