FISKARS 1649 – 360 years of Finnish industrial history

Fiskars 1649
The finishing touches to Orijärvi puukko knives were always made by hand.
On the right: Iron-casting in progress at Fiskars’ Åminnefors works. The company’s original business interests, steel production,
were sold in the 1960s to Ovako as part of a restructuring.
passed in 1917, and an act on compulsory education
followed in 1921.
The time following the First World War was
a period of vigorous expansion and modernization
for Fiskars. Productivity was improved by
developing better steel refining methods and by
renovating the Åminnefors rolling mill. The
product range was expanded, and Finland’s first
metal spring factory was established. The company
bought the Inha ironworks in Ähtäri, a majority
holding in Salon Sähkö- ja Konetehdas Oy,
Billnäs Bruks Ab, Oy Ferraria Ab with its plants in
Jokioinen and Loimaa and in Pero on the Karelian
Isthmus, and Finska Bult- och Spikfabrik Ab. The
1929 stock exchange crash had an impact on the
Finnish economy which lasted till the mid-1930s.
The Depression put a stop to Fiskars’ growing
investments. A new upward trend began thereafter,
although this was interrupted by the Second World
War, postponing the planned transformation of
the small-scale corporate structure into something
better suited to mass production until the postwar
period.
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