THE STORY OF MADE BY SYMON
From passion to reality
One winter in Spain I bumped into a French man who had a wood stove in his van. This was a life-changing moment for me as until then I hadn't thought it were possible to have a wood stove in a van. After years of living in a camper van, battling the cold winters, I started to look for small stoves. I found one but it was too small, didn't have a glass window and was not really suitable for a van...but I bought it.
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Next winter, while in Spain, I happened to be in a car park while a friend, Juan, was welding his van. He asked if I wanted to learn to weld and I thought 'why not...!'. Upon returning home to the UK I decided to buy a welder in order to build my own stove. My main goal was to build a stove so I could see the fire. I bought some metal and made my first stove...
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Then came Covid! All my usual work as an Events Carpenter was cancelled. I took this time to make three wood-burning stoves, which I advertised on Facebook. Within one week I had sold them all! I was shocked by the quantity of messages I received regarding them. I reinvested the proceeds from sales into better metalworking tools and a new welder.
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THE FIRST STOVE
Making of the first stove
You could say the first stove I made was somewhat of an experience: I had a design in mind but with it being my first time working with metal, I learned a lot. Compared to carpentry, metalwork is very time-consuming but I've grown to love working with this material. I began by trying to understand how to work with it. Then, finally, I made my first stove. It wasn't the neatest but it worked and I finally had the stove I had been searching for.
PROGRESSION
Over several years I started to make stoves for friends while improving the design. I noticed my confidence in my metalwork skills growing, building on my existing carpentry experience...metalwork and the feel for the material started to feel somewhat similar to carpentry.
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Eventually I had a finished stove I could be happy with so I felt it was time to have a go at actually selling them. Initial feedback from the stoves was good: people were happy! I worked with whatever feedback I received to slowly improve the stoves into what we have today.
PRESENT
I currently have three models of small stove to suit different needs.
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This year I am looking to build a new solar powered workshop which should allow me to bring my lead times down. Hopefully this will free up space so I can work on product development.