G Gibson & Co in Leeds, one of the UK’s few remaining specialist tool makers supplying the stone industry, have reached an agreement to supply the revived Auriou brand of fine French stone and plaster tools.

Trevor Timmins, who heads Gibsons, says there is an overlap of 2-3% between Gibson tools and the Auriou range but most of the tools from Forge de Saint Juery (St Juery is small village in South West France) are not available in the Gibson range so there is no conflict.

Auriou rifflers, French drags and firesharp chisels are particular favourites of many masons, carvers and sculptors and the plastering tools will be used in the stone conservation market.

Auriou ceased trading in 2007 after a long and unbroken history of making highly regarded hand tools since 1856. Thanks to some committed European investors who wanted to preserve and revive the skills at the St Juery forge the Auriou brand lives again.

And now Gibson will not only be selling the stone and plaster ranges (but not the woodworking tools) in the UK through their UK distrubtors (Harbro, Avery Knight & Bowlers, National Masonry and BI Crawshaw), they will also sell the tools through their businesses in the USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Trevor says the association with Auriou arose from an approach to Gibson by Forge de Saint Juery. He told NSS: “There seemed to be an opportunity for us to forge a relationship without either of us encroaching on each other’s core strengths.” Gibson will be reciprocating by making chipping and frosting tools for Auriou.

Gibson have also just gone live with their online internet shop in the USA and say their UK website, which went live with online sales a year ago, is already attracting more sales than any one of their distributors.

As well as the Auriou range, Gibson have also just introduced carbide tipped dividers that they make themselves in Leeds.

“We want customers to be able to buy all their hand tools from us so we are the first place they turn to for their requirements,” says Trevor.