Every high-rise condo, luxury office, executive suite, ranch house, and farmstead must have a Best Made axe in it. Axes shouldn’t only be in the hands of lumberjacks: anyone who respects the merits of an axe should have one in their name. An axe is indispensable and sublime, the epitome of fortitude and strength, a perfect design object, a timeless instrument.

The Axe is where it all begins, it is a perch from which a new and exciting world is being born, and in this sense Best Made Co. is more than just axes. We are in the business of putting our axes and our message into the hands of people that also want something more, people that want to join us on the adventure.

All our axes are made to order, designed, painted and polished individually in a small workshop environment in downtown New York City.

PETER & GRAEME

Best Made Co. was founded by designer and author Peter Buchanan-Smith, and outdoorsman and environmental entrepreneur Graeme Cameron. The two first met in 1984 at Camp Ahmek, a legendary boys camp in Algonquin Park in Northern Ontario; and it was there they learned—with love and respect—to wield an axe. As men they have both gone on to forge their own way in the world: building hand-hewn log cabins on the shores of Stoney Lake, tree planting in Kapuskasing, winning Grammy awards, getting married, having children, military life, book publishing, Scotland, rugby, whiskey, slingshots and hardwood fires that can melt glass.

NOTES FROM GRAEME AND PETER:

The Formation of Best Made Co.:

There was a mythical character who used to roam around our camp (camp Ahmek), who taught canoeing at a Phd level. Most memorably he would disappear for extended periods into the bush (like 20-30 days at a time) with only the clothes on his back, a canoe, a paddle and an axe. His name was Dave Conacher (son of the famous Lionel Conacher). Dave taught us by example that with just our wits and a good axe, we could live, and we wouldn’t need anything else but those 2 things. Fast forward 30 years and here we are living in Manhattan and Toronto, surrounded by iPhones, flat screen TVs, incandescent light bulbs and ergonomic pillows, and one day we both realized all we really wanted was just a good axe: so we got to work.

The World of Best Made:

Best Made is crucially dependent on other people: not just their desire for our products, but their enthusiasm for nature, hard work, design, and tools. Selling all our axes to customers on an individual basis we are inviting them into that world (not necessarily “our” world); this may be their first time, or they could be a seasoned vetran. It’s not about membership or exclusivity: this world is a universal one, something that has no borders (hence our tag line: “everywhere”). We spend a great deal of time reaching out to people on a one on one basis, and no one leaves without having heard from us directly.

The Axe and Our Inspiration:

Before someone picks up a tool, any tool, why not ask why first? Ask yourself: how am I going to use this tool. We are inundated with tools, every step of the way. Tools are specifically and often ingeniously marketed to appear as though they will make your life better. The notion of “mastering a tool” is a bit of fallacy: master your desire, and then the perfect tool will present itself.

Our inspiration comes from all walks of life, big and small, high and low, animal, object or human. There’s no point in segregating inspiration, best to mix it all up until it feels just right. Influences—like experience—should be diverse and evocative to the inspiree, and there’s no point ever worrying what other people will make of it because more often than not it won’t make sense to them. Besides, it’s the end result of those influences and inspiration that count.

Our Process:

Color, pattern, and play are the guiding factors in everything we make. Even though it’s “just an axe” it’s a blank canvas with endless possibilities. When the axe is finished we sit down and think of names. The naming process is crucial: it’s where we give the axe the beginning of its story, albeit a very short story (we purposefully do not caption the axes, just give them names) because we know our customers are inventive enough to create the real ongoing story.

On Courage, Compassion, Fortitude, and Grace:

Everyone has a few words they carry around as their emblems, held up high to guide them, and remind them of what they are here for, and these are ours. When it comes to an axe courage and fortitude are somewhat expected. We want the world to know that an axe can be used for the good of the world. An axe is an inanimate, harmless object until someone picks it up. We want people to be compassionate when they raise an axe. There is nothing more awe-inspiring than a truly compassionate man or woman who wields a very big and sharp axe! And grace is just a lovely name that we want to someday call our first company mascot.