1950: First order of stainless steel plate and welding electrodes

With the end of the second World War, peace has returned to Europe. The war has brought a lot of damage but it has also resulted in more exclusive materials becoming available to the average Joe. This allowed Arie Sneeboer to purchase his first stainless steel welding electrodes in January 1950 and a 1x1m by 2mm thick ‘Weldanka’ stainless steel plate was acquired two months later. Weldanka’ was a stainless steel alloy produced by the Brown, Bayleys Steels Works from Sheffield in the United Kingdom.

Together with his three sons Kees, Paul and Teun, Arie embarked on a new adventure by producing garden tools from stainless steel. As such, we can state with certainty that Sneeboer innovated with new materials as early as 1950 when the first stainless steel garden tools were produced.

The main advantage of stainless steel is that it, in the worst case, will develop a slight oxide layer which in turn products the rest of the material below this layer from further oxidation or rust. Steel on the other hand, lacks the chemical components for this oxide layer and will corrode further. Given enough time, steel can rust away completely.