Thomas Flinn & Co.

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Our company was started in 1923 by a man named Thomas Flinn. We believe he would not have had origins in Sheffield (due to his surname) but moved here during a time when industry was more prevalent in Sheffield. Frank Ellis (my paternal Grandfather) met Thomas Flinn when he was approximately 14 years old and began an apprenticeship with him. It was not until 1936 that my Grandfather went on to buy the business. My Father (Frank Philip Ellis) joined the business upon leaving school at 16 and has been here ever since (and has the grey hairs to prove it!!) Over the years, the business has evolved to suit the times. In Philip's early days, the business made very few types of saws but he had the foresight to continue creating high quality saws whose manufacturing may have died off otherwise. It is through this that we now make the Pax saws and also own the Garlick Saw Company, which was bought in 1999 for Philip's eldest son, Christian to continue. These two companies now work side by side in the same factory. From a small work force, we now produce a wide range of hand saws that are shipped world-wide and are held in great esteem by those who use them. As we head into the 21st century, you will also see that we have now gone ecommerce with "The World of Woodworking" website to ensure that as many customers as possible can gain easy access to our products and also many other great Sheffield tools. Our ideals mean that we feel it is important to fly the British flag when it comes to the tooling industry as it is through this mentality that we have found our great customer base and means we want to provide our customers with only the best products. Much of our company history now encorporates the history of the Pax and Lynx brands, which both have origins in the 18th century. This means that they are some of the oldest saws still in production today and it seems somewhat sad that some of our products, such as the William Greaves saws came from one of the largest and now diminshed company (of the same name)that was once prolific in Sheffield. We feel it is now a great honour to be able to promote the Pax and Lynx brands as a mark of true Sheffield quality. The latest addition to our product lines was added in June 2008 in the form of the Roberts & Lee saw company. This was the last other known saw manufacturers in the UK. This is now in operation from our factory.

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