Last spring, 2014, my wife and I hatched the idea of starting a business and came up with the name for our company, HagenWood Products. The name is to honour both our mothers who passed away too early from cancer. We put their two maiden names together, Hagen and Wood to come up with our business name. We also came up with a slogan, kind of a play on words “Our Roots are in Wood, as my family tree’s roots are indeed Wood. My grandfather, as well, built the most beautiful wooden traditional Dutch boats. www.jachtwerfbrandsma.nl We’re extremely passionate about wood.
We have aimed our product line on our love of life at the lake and creating with wood. Our first product was the result of many emails with the inventor of the Leveraxe, Heikki Karna in Finland. An axe with a revolutionary design which makes splitting wood easier, faster and safer. Late in the summer of 2014, we became the Official Canadian Distributor of the Leveraxe, and started selling them on our website www.hagenwood.com
Importing products isn’t without pitfalls so we volleyed around more ideas both to promote the Leveraxe product and create our own products. We purchased a large 50”X36” Laser/Engraver for our workshop to provide us with the versatility to make large products or do custom work for clients. With the laser, we added Engraving of the Leveraxe handles to our services.
This spring we started producing Book Marks in 3 different colours with our laser. We digitally create files of lakes and laser them out. Each book mark also includes an ‘enlightening’ caption. The lakes included are the many that surround Smiths Falls, Perth, and Carleton Place. We also plan to branch out with lakes from throughout North America. The book marks retail in stores locally, including Lake Effects in Westport, the Book Nook and Home Hardware in Perth, as well as the Chamber of Commerce in Carleton Place. In July we rolled out our newest product, Wood Key Chains. Each key chain also includes a lake ‘lasered’ out. We use maple wood machined in our humble workshop, to sport each lake.
We have been trying to use local resources as well as local businesses to build a thriving local economy while keeping in mind our Global environmental responsibility. Our aim with HagenWood Products is to also keep us out of the rat race and to help us plant our “roots” beside our own lake soon.
Chris Brandsma
Owner: HagenWood Products
Website: www.hagenwood.com
