Please note, this site contains views and opinions that are my own, I am not sponsored by anyone or any company, I have no connections with any companies that I mention. The site does not make any money. I created the site purely for historical interest.
Thank you for visiting my Fretworker website. I hope you find something of interest within.
I have created this website because ever since I was a young lad I have had an interest in the hobby of Fretworking and in particular the history of the original Hobbies company created by John Henry Skinner well over 100 years ago. My interest started when as a boy I watched and 'helped' my late father making fretwork items on his Hobbies A1 treadle fretsaw, this was in the early 1950's when the hobby of fretwork was about to become almost extinct.
The machine my father was using was my Grandfathers Hobbies A1 which was purchased around 1900. My grandfather was also a very good fretworker who went on to sell Hobbies products in his shop in Chipping Norton, this was when fretwork was in it's 'heyday', he also gave fretwork lessons to others who were interested in the hobby.
There is very little information to be found about the history of the Hobbies company who were known throughout the world so I decided to do something about that and create this site.
As well as covering the history of the Hobbies company I also cover rival company Handicrafts together with some general advice for those interested in fretwork today.
Fretwork or Scroll sawing; what is the difference?
Basically they are the same thing. Ornamental design in wood or occasionally other materials. Generally in the USA, the hobby was called Scroll-sawing whilst in the UK it was always referred to as Fretworking.
The art of fretwork has been found as far back as ancient times. No one is quite sure when it was first practised, but history dates it back to at least 3000 years ago practised by the Chinese and the Tudor times in Great Britain.
Fretworking became a hobby in Britain around the 1880’s when John Henry Skinner decided that he could make a business promoting and selling items for fretwork. He formed a company in the town of East Dereham, commonly called just Dereham using the name Hobbies. Up until the late 1960’s all over the world the word Dereham was associated with the name Hobbies and likewise if you mentioned the name Hobbies people thought of Dereham.
The history of Hobbies Ltd can be found on another page. Hobbies History
Another company involved in Fretwork was the Handicrafts company formed around 1908 by Frank Skinner, brother of J.H. Skinner. The History of The Handicrafts company is Here
The hobby of Fretworking was popular in Britain between the late 1880's up until the late 1950's. Its peak was between 1890 until 1930. After WW2, fretwork was still a popular hobby especially as toys and gifts were not easily obtained in post war Britain.
By the 1960's it was all over and the fretwork hobby ceased to be of interest to people.
By 1968 the once famous name of Hobbies of Dereham had sadly disappeared. Fortunately the famous name of Hobbies was to reappear a few years later as you can read about on the Hobbies History page.
The arrival of the Hegner scroll saw in 1975 was largely responsible for the resurgence of the fretwork/scroll-sawing Hobby. The Hegner saw was patented in Germany by Helmut Abel in 1974 and is considered to be one of the finest quality saws that one can buy incorporating many innovative features. You can find more about the Hegner machines on the Hegner page.
The purpose of this site is to promote the hobby of scroll-sawing and hopefully encourage people to take up the hobby. In other sections I hope to offer advice on choosing and buying your first saw including what to look out for when buying and what things to avoid.
I also intend to have sections on using your saw including the types of blades available and which are best to use. There will also be sections on patterns, how to use them and how they can be adapted and changed to suit, plus there will be pictures of items that I have made with the saw hopefully to inspire others to give the hobby a try.
The arrival of the world wide web in the 1990's has actually helped in the resurgence of the fret-working hobby which apart from a few isolated enthusiasts had largely died out and the art of Fretwork consigned to the history books and the work itself forgotten by most people.
The Web allowed the few still interested in the hobby to get together to share their interests with many Fretwork/Scrollsaw sites and forums becoming available plus many groups on Facebook covering the subject not to forget of course the huge amount of videos published on Youtube all of which has created more people to take up the hobby.
In the older days of the fretworker we were confined to using a simple hand-frame or the better off ones a treadle machine as motorised domestic fretsaws were not really available. As you will read on another page the Hobbies company did create a few motorised fretsaws but they were never mass market or very successful.
In the last few years the number of motorised fret-machines has grown enormously and they have become very popular and allow the user to concentrate on doing the cutting rather than having to struggle to keep a hand frame at the correct angle or pedal a treadle machine.
Fretwork or Scrollsaw work should not be confused with Laser cutting. Much of the fretwork stuff that is sold in retail outlets has been mass produced using designs created on a computer and cut using a computer controlled laser cutting machine with little skill involved. this type of work can be identified by the fact that the cut edges invariably exhibit a burn mark whereas work created by a fretsaw blade does not.
The work created by craft-workers is sawn by using either a hand, treadle or powered fretsaw or scrollsaw and often takes many hours of time and a lot of artistic skill to complete individual work.
Fretwork back in fashion.
By the late 1950 the fretworking hobby ceased to be of interest but for a few people such as myself who still held an affection for it. In my case it was more that I had a fondness for the old Hobbies company because my late grandfather was an expert fretworker and had a trade account with Hobbies and sold Hobbies goods in his shop. I also admired the draughtsmen who designed by hand those lovely fretwork patterns.
So we had people doing fretwork in different parts of the country and throughout the world with no knowledge of each other. As I mention above the arrival of decent powered saws such as the Hegner encouraged folk to do fretworking again although the hobby is now more commonly known as Scroll-Sawing.
However I believe that the arrival of the internet in the early 1990's has caused the growth of the hobby more than anything by allowing those interested in the hobby to communicate with each other all over the world. Today there are many websites, Youtube videos, forums and Facebook groups dedicated to Scroll-sawing. I urge you to join one of the groups where you can show off your work or ask advice.
Next page Hobbies History