Tool maker hits States with metal detecting kit
A metal detecting enthusiast who started making digging tools in his garden shed to help him find buried treasure has had his first bulk order from the United States.
A metal detecting enthusiast who started making digging tools in his garden shed to help him find buried treasure has had his first bulk order from the United States.
Arthur Cole, aged 65, from Rowley Regis, used to run his own toolmaking business, but when orders dried up in 1980 he turned to metal detecting to fill his time.
He now has famous customers on his books, including Rolling Stone Bill Wyman and his tools regularly appear in the hands of archaeologist's on Time Team
It was while out in the frosty fields of Shropshire where he and his fellow treasure hunters were trying to break through solid ground that he decided to develop a tool to make their lives easier. That tool is now set to go global.
Mr Cole from Buckingham Road developed the tool affectionately known as 'number 1' in 1982.
Since then he has developed eight trowels that cut through frozen ground, sift through sand and cut through roots.
He has now broken into the United States and this year received his first order from El Dorado Metal Detectors in Texas.
He said: "It's fantastic, there is such a huge market in America. The metal detector clubs over there have hundreds of members whereas here, each only has around 20."
He added: "It is hard to believe that something I started in my shed, has done so well. I love it, I don't make much from it at the moment, but it is very satisfying."
He said of the tools: "They are very strong, and have a guard to protect your hand and a serrated edge. It can easily cut through roots to get down into the soil. I have even cut through a breeze block wall with it." Initially Mr Cole just supplied the tools to his friends and other people he knew through metal detecting, but soon the number of orders increased.
The father-of-two set up his company called Black ADA in 1984, and started gaining orders.
He said: "Everybody just kept telling me how good it was, and how useful they found it. Then I started getting orders from British companies who asked me to supply them with the trowels."
His first orders were from Joan Allen Electronics and CScope detectors. Soon Mr Cole could not cope with the number of orders and asked Threeway Pressings Ltd on Malthouse Road in Tipton to help him make them.
He said: "It was tough though, because my first orders were small, so to have all the costs and production prices, it made it difficult."
But soon Mr Cole was supplying to three companies in the UK, and it is in the last decade that he has started gaining overseas business.
He now supplies to 30 companies across Europe in countries including France, Norway, Germany and Sweden.
