A roundup of the tools we found at Makers Central 2024

There are tools to find everywhere.  So Jonathan recently decided to prove that theory by visiting the UK's biggest Maker's event.  Makers Central 2024 is one of the biggest events in the making community's calendar! Popular not necessarily for tool finds, we were blown away with how many hidden tool gems we managed to find.  And pretty much all made in the UK too!

About Makers Central 2024

The event always attracts a fantastic line0up of makers and creators.  It gives families, fans and enthusisasts the opportunity to engage with the makers in so many interactive ways.  From demonstrations, interviews and even getting hand's on trying out new skills. This year in particular seemed to offer a wider array of brand, products and people than ever before.  So it looked to be rich pickings for our tool hunt.

Our tool haul from the show

The Makers Central 2024 weekend got off to a great start when we found one of Jona's favourite hand tools, the Mango Shaviv deburrers on a stand.  When he got chatting with the owner of Xtreme Plasma it turned out he'd already seen some of our tool videos too.  He introduced us to a more current version of the tool we already had.  Plus also introduced us to a very nifty ceramic blade.  

Brokeswood Builds were a mine of glorious, handcrafted wooden mallets in every size imaginable.  Rather than bring back the beastiest big mallet he could find, Jona opted for a more useful smaller, but beautifully made woodworking mallet to add to his collection.

We had a tool sharpening lesson from inventor and entrepreneur G Sharp Tools. So we returned with one of their brilliant chisel sharpening innovations.  Plus we were super excited to find the Gyro Cut, and just had to come home with one of each of their offers to try out for ourselves.  

A big surprise for us was seeing our old friend Ben from Crimson Guitars. He was also hosting a vintage tool booth at the show.  Heaven for a collector and afficionado of tools like Jonathan.  At least a couple of finds from there came home with us for future projects too.

Other tools at Makers Central 2024

Of course we couldn't get everything we would have liked to at the show. But it was brilliant to do some window shopping!  Trend were there and we were excited to see their tool storage in the wild since our own range of inserts to go with them is set to launch really soon.

Our own stand was next to the brilliant Lumberjack Tools. You might have heard us mention these guys before as they are a UK based online store who offer a massive number of woodworking power tools, and they seemed really busy with a phenomenal show offer running all weekend.  

Jonathan was really impressed following a visit to the Famag booth where they were offering demonstrations of their Bormax drill bits which made incredibly easy work of boring through oak.  With sizes up to 120mm or 4.5" imperial, the results from the demo spoke for themselves.  

Thorn Wood Forge was a delight, with a wealth of stunning axe's for different purposes and it was great to hear about their supply chain with royal approval too.

So many tools, what to do with them

First up we'll be working on some give-aways with some of our brilliant finds.  And the items for our own collection will, of course, be organised and protected in our very own Shadow Foam. See more about the competition, and how our own tool haul project worked out right here:

If you're feeling inspired to try it out for yourself, you can find the Starter Kit Jonathan launched during the video on our Shadow Foam website. Check it out soon as for a limited time only we'll also throw in one of our very own quirky tools... our Shadow Foam zollstock.