The young man who makes tools that hardly exist anymore: “I love that Argentinian industry breaks down barriers”

Each of the tools they make has a blue and white label printed on it, with the legend: “Industria Argentina”. Thomas Schenfeld He is 23 and is dedicated to artisanal manufacture of tools for carpentry, carpentry and violin making. He spent his entire childhood in Bellavista, in the San Miguel district, and the same workshop his father used to make furniture is the one he currently uses for his own company. In the midst of a pandemic teams up with his best friend and they were encouraged to create a prototype gauge, and when they saw the final quality they went further, until it became a full time job. Audacious, committed and very perfectionist, he tells GlobeLiveMedia the path they traveled to create a catalog of 50 craft products.

He remembers and makes sure from the age of six he felt the “love of wood”, and at eight he was already making coat racks for his grandmother and coasters for his mother. “My father had his administrative job, but as a hobby all his life he tried his hand at carpentry, and 80% of the furniture in my house was made by him,” he reveals. With admiration for the results of each project he has seen started and completed, he has no doubt that he has inherited his attention to detail. He also attributes to him the cultural heritage of his mother and his grandparents, great precursors of the forge and antiquities. “Both on the maternal and maternal side, I learned a lot and they passed on to me this passion for trades that were unfortunately forgotten or lost,” he testifies.

You may be interested: ‘Mature women’s story time’: She’s 70 and told her craziest thing in a dating app on TikTok

With humour, he assures us that he has always At family dinners, they talk about two things: tools and soccer.. He listened to them carefully, and even though he was pressed for time due to his university routine, he found a free hour to go to the workshop for a while. “I was studying a degree in urbanization, nothing to do with it, but from 2020 with so many months of quarantine, I made a personal change, and I was honest with myself: I didn’t like not what I was doing, and luckily I found what really suited me. I like it,” he admits.

He was 20 years old and at that time he was selling mirrors and decorative objects on the Internet to earn his own income, but since he launched his project he has put aside virtual sales. He talked to his childhood best friend and they pooled their resources to make the dream possible.. “His father has a lathe, and without him it would have been impossible because we needed a parallel lathe, and as we have always loved machines, he was the ideal companion and to this day, three years later it’s still the two of us who do the production“, he details.

When his grandfather told him about the method that was applied in 1900 to make tools, he was surprised because the least possible use of electricity was considered, and manual work was valued. He wanted to get into creating pieces, and when he investigated the domestic industry available, he learned that there was very little supply that rivaled the international brands, which were also inaccessible due costs.

“I realized that they were not available here, the quantity was very limited, and because of the question of the dollar and the taxes, the truth is that the price was too high to buy abroad, and it was impossible to have several or build up your own collection,” he comments. . They made the prototype of a gram and they were very pleased with the finish, functionality and level of detail they achieved.

“It’s a classic carpentry tool, number one for me, because you can do a lot of things and it’s still hard to find here because the good ones are very expensive. While we had already made several, I shared them on an Instagram where I uploaded carpentry and cabinetmaking stuff, and tool collectors, and also people who do beautiful solid wood work, that was a lot of fun,” he says of the audience he captivated during the launch, although later it expanded to other, less specific horizons. The idea of ​​a national industry They found this more than interesting: “We were very well received when we presented the proposal for do something of quality in Argentinawith Argentinian suppliers and do everything here”.

Later, his brother joined to manage online sales and social media -on Instagram @ts_woodtools-, as demand grew and so did his catalog. “We manufacture over 50 tools available right now,” he says excited and still in disbelief at what they have been able to accomplish. The challenge is not only the manufacture, but the prior study of all the characteristics of each one, and knowing how to use them all so as not to neglect any detail that affects the operational capacity, since it is not only a question of durability and durability. aesthetic, but also more or less fulfills the function for which it was created. At the same time, due to the lack of knowledge that exists around the theme, each release includes a demonstration of the uses that can be given to them, and little by little conquer other curious artists who wonder what each piece is for.

Another point to consider is the cost of the trial period, which is the first step in finding out what other products they can make. “Everything has its process, and 90% of our tools are in bronze brass, It is quite an expensive material, so you have to be very careful with the prototypes to use what is necessary and only once everything has been checked does production start to avoid any loss or waste,” he argues. Currently They make four different types of gauges, four types of hammers, six types of brackets, as well as scribe blades, machine accessories, sharpening guide and other accessories such as rulers, squares, compasses, beeswax, hairspray and adhesives for gluing wood .

You may be interested: The family who reopened a hardware store closed due to the COVID pandemic: “It was my father’s dream”

“We have an online store where you can see the prices of all the tools, and if there is someone from another province or another country, we can send it to you; and if it’s nearby, you can also go through the workshop to remove it,” he says. Putting an amount on the making of something that took many hours of effort and dedication, was another of the moral dilemmas the young duo had.”Sometimes we give up a bit of our profit to offer a product that people find useful and helpful.because we are just getting started and it helps us to be recognized for having good quality products at good prices, to reach a wider audience and to continue to grow,” he humbly projects.

These first three years involved constant investment, as they used the proceeds from the sales to further equip the workshop, buy machinery and thus offer an even more perfect finish. “There will come a time when we will not meet the full amount they are asking us for and we will have to find someone to help us, but it’s not so common to find someone who can do it, and younger than our age“, he remarks. When he told some of his friends what he was going to do, the vast majority did not understand him, and he reaffirmed the thought that the craft could be lost if future generations did not pick it up.

“I would like more people to devote themselves to it, to make quality tools, because they are very necessary, and we alone cannot cope with the number of tools that exist for carpentry. It’s good that they know they can feed you and you can work on it, as long as you love it and put some dedication into it,” he recommends. “I’ve always been very patriotic, and I love that Argentinian industry is breaking down barriers because we really have a lot to offer and there’s interest from other parts of the world; We receive orders from Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and once we even sent to Australia,” he concludes.

Continue reading: