SNA Europe, part of Snap-on Incorporated, is the leading pan-European manufacturer of hand tools and saws.
They design and manufacture hand tools and saws that meet the most stringent requirements of professionals, focusing on innovation, performance and ergonomics. As innovators, they have developed the most advanced tool in the world over the last 165 years. And they sell it through distributors with whom they build long-term partnerships. The majority of Bahco products are manufactured in their own factories in Europe and are offered by their distributors to professional users. In order to offer high quality tools to their partners, they share common values of safety, health, quality and ethics throughout the organisation.
Why ... do Bahco products have a fish and a hook?
After Göran Fredrik Göransson founded his steelworks in 1862, the European steel sector went through a long recession in the 1970s, with low prices for general and crude steel products. Prices for processed steel were much higher, which increased interest in processed steel. In 1876, the existing rolling mill was exchanged for a so-called grinding mill.
When the production of saw blades started in 1886, there was a need for a brand that could show the special characteristics and quality, and of course the choice was made for the fish and hook.
"Give me the saw with that little fish on it."
Everyone understood that steel with the quality for fish hooks was perfect for sawing and other cutting tools. It was a great advantage: a logo without letters, language or complicated figures, which was easy to recognize. Until the 1950s, forest workers could still be heard asking for a 'saw with the fish'; and in illiterate countries this is still the case today.
A fishhook must be hard and strong, but must not be fragile. At the time, producing a 'hard but durable' metal was a changing and difficult metallurgical task, but the 'Bessem steel' at Göransson's steelworks provided steel of optimum quality.