History

Yvens Decroupet 1865 - 2005

Foreword

We regard our past, our history and our roots with a certain sense of pride. Maintaining our traditions whilst moving forward, and tapping our rich vein of experience whilst still remaining innovative are fascinating adventures when you can draw your strenght from the durability of a business which has seen at least five generations of workers.

However, we are also aware of the fact that nothing is possible in industry without a close association between all those involved. Customers, suppliers, banks and administrative bodies have all contributed to our company's success and progress.

This article is a tribute to all those, past and present, who have made it possible for our company to celebrate its 140th anniversary and who are paving the way for the future. 

THE ARMOURERS AND NAILSMITHS OF THE LIEGE REGION

The fact that coal and iron were found naturally in Liège meant that the region had become the European cradle of forges for the manufacture of arms and nails well before the 15th century. In the 18th century, the Liège nail industry was providing employment for some 15,000 people. The nails were exported to the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Turkey and their colonies. In fact, Liège craftmen were held in such esteem that the Dutch East India Company specified that its nails had to be 'made in Liège'.

 

The excellent reputation of Liège nails was partly due to the quality of the iron ysed, which was generally imported from Sweden. Moreover, it was the Walloons Who taught the Swedes how to work with the iron alloys in the 14th century. Since then, Walloons have had the privilege of never having to doff their hats during their stays in Sweden.

THE NAILSMITH'S CRAFT

Up until the 19th century, each nailsmith owned a small forge employing four, six or eight workers. In order to make a nail, one end of an iron rod wa heated in the forge, and the nail shaft shaped on the anvil using a hammer. Then the nail was cut with a hammer on a piece of sharp steel callel 'the shears'. Once cut, the pointed end was placed in a cloyère (a kind of nail clamp), and the head of the nail was shaped using a hammer.

The 'lost head' (headless nail) for cabinet-making, only weighing 1.2g, was made yhis way, as was everything up to 37-cm nails used in shipbuilding.

 

In the 18th century it took two days for a nailsmith to transform a box of rods into nails, which meant making about 2,5000 average nails.

FROM THE FORGE TO MECHANICAL STRENGTH

Mechanical manufacturing, which started up at the beginning of the 19th century and became widespread around 1830, sounded the death knell for the nailsmith of old. Machines cut the iron rods and shaped the nail head without a hammer or heat being needed. But mechanical production was not the only reason of the disappearance of handmade nails. A number of nails were no longer made, even mechanically, because they were simply not used any more. Nails of ship were no longer built of wood, bellow nails were not needed since bellows had been replaced by ventilators, and nails for doors became redundant since doors were no longer adorned with large heads,etc.

 

When the nail production by hand ceased, so did the 'personality' of the nail.When nails were graded according to their weight, a mere glance at the nail in question was enough to tell you which forge the nail had come from. Machines ensured standardised production and did not allow 'factory makes' to be shown. This was one of the reasons of lettering or a hallmark had for a long time now been mechanically imprinted on the head of a machine-produced nail, enabling the new industrial nailsmith to make his product recognizable.

FROM 1865 TO THE PRESENT DAY

The Yvens family, heirs to this great Liège tradition, started investing in the mechanical nail industry in 1865. They established their business in premises in rue J.B. Cools in Liège. Production was not limited to wire nails, and the forge continued to be used to produce all the other products wich could not be made mechanically at this stage: shoe nails, horse-nails and special hooks for various trade associations.

 

At the same time, a new product was appearing: the slate hook. It was designed and patented as and when de developments were made by slate roofing craftmen, the Compagnons de France. It involved a new method of fixing slates, which made laying - traditionally carried out with square forged copper nails - easier and quicker. Although initially made by hand, it was no long before these hooks were manufactured mechanically, on wire cutting and bending machines. These machines would also produce springs, fine hooks, etc.

 

Customers began to become more targeted.At Yvens, more and more work was being done for the construction sector, roofers, carpenters, lead workers and galvanizers. There was now a small modern workshop, employing some ten workers. The customers were mainly from Wallonia, or more particularly, from Liège. The era of the great Liège nailindustry and its worlwide exports was over.

 

The othe Liège workshops, also heirs to the nail and armour forges, organised themselves into smal mechanical workshops which were to form the great industrial fabric in Liège in the first half of the 20th century, in the shape of subcontractors ans satellites of the iron ans steel industry and the collieries. The nut and bolt works, springs factories, precision metal piece workshops and other steel craftmen were numerous at this time.

But to our knowledge YVENS DECROUPET was the sole concern to maintain the age-old tradition and remained the last bastion of the Liège nail industry.

 

In 1968, the premises in rue J.B. Cools had become too dilapidated and the company moved to the commune of Harzé, 30 km from Liège, in a green location set apart from residential areas. With its present-day machines, nail production makes a lot of noise which represents a nuisance in an urban environment.

 

The new site made it possible for the workshops to be extended and modernised at the end of the 1970s. Major investments were made and the company became an industry in itself.

 

In 2005, 140 years since it was founded, we have not only survived the first industrial revolution in our profession (the mechanisation of nail production), but also the collapse of the Liège industry after Second World War.

 

Hence, whilst most of the small factories linked to steel were disappearing one by one, seriously affected by the major crises in the coal industry, and then the steel industry, our activities have found a new lease of life with international openings.

 

Currently leaders in Belgium in the production of special nails and hooks in copper, aluminium ans stainless steel, our products are exported mainly to Great Britain (where we have 35% of the market), France (25% of the market) and Germany (15% of the market). However, our products are also found in Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland and Austria.

 

In the context of our specific activity as manufacturer of quality products (nails, in particular), the main characteristic of which being resistance to corrosion due to natural agents such as salty coastal air, or the polluting agents of aggressive waste, our activity has also turned towards protecting the parts after production. Our automatic galvanising plants work mainly on the electrolytic zinc and chrome plating of steel nails. Theses steel nails, of the last generation, are intended for pneumatic nail drivers. They are manufactured in large plants in Belgium or abroad, the last great steel nailworks and staple factories in Europe, and are zinc coated at out premises.

So, these steel nails which are then exported throughout the world, from Guadeloupe to the United States, via Spain or New Caledonia, take with them a little bit of the know-how of Liège's nailsmiths.