Heritage
Founded in 1919, the Adler factory builds on four generations of knowhow to produce world class axes—Made in Germany.
The cornerstone of today’s company was laid by Josef Schmitt when he founded a small village blacksmith shop in 1919 in southern Germany. His intuition and hand-on approach resulted in steel formed and hardened in a perfect manner. All aspects of axe creation were to his high-quality standards. Our axes today are fabricated with the same passion, exactness and high quality standards that our founder committed the company to 100 years ago.
Some important milestones for us over the last few years include the opening of our water-based paint facility in 2004 and our automatic drying kiln in 2006. We are also proud that wood waste is used to generate the energy (up to 700KW) that runs our factory. The newest generation of the Schmitt family are committed to modernizing the factory to meet state-of-the-art sustainability and production standards, while never losing sight of the heritage that makes Adler unique.
Our factory is located in the town of Waghäusel, Germany. Our home is close to the Rhine River in Baden-Würtemberg, just south of the city of Heidelberg.
All of our axes contain the “JSW” mark. The “JS” are for Josef Schmitt, the founder of our company. The “W” stands for the small village of Wiesental which is located just south of the current factory location in Waghäusel.
Certifications
Adler is a certified FWI facility ("Deutsches Werkzeug - made in Germany") confirming that the product country of origin is Germany.
Adler has been awarded a VPA GS Quality Certification. The VPA acts as an objective testing center to assess product quality and safety in accordance with the German Equipment and Product Safety Act.
Adler has been granted a Forest Stewardship Council Certification (FSC)© which the company renews each year.