William Smeaton and Philip Hanscomb founded the company in 1913 for the import of hardwood timber to the woodworking trade. In 1937, while Philip was in Switzerland on business, he fell into conversation with a man on a park bench. That man was Joseph Koberle.

Joseph was one of seven brothers, working in the family business of making cutter blocks. Each of the brothers had special knowledge in chemistry and metallurgy and this led them to investigate the properties of new steels and other hard metals and applying them to their cutters. They invented Koberlite for their cutterblocks and later developed tooling with brazed tungsten carbide tips. Philip Hanscomb recognised these technical advances and reached an agreement with Joseph making him the UK agent and forming a new company, J.K.O.Cutters Ltd.

In 1945 J.K.O. moved from London to the Smeaton Hanscomb site in High Wycombe. From a power feed manufacturer and sharpening service J.K.O. moved to cutter manufacture in 1947, and by 1952 had extended their range to other woodworking machines. 1954 saw J.K.O. start to represent Holzher woodworking machines in the UK and by the early 1980's JKO had stopped all machine manufacture to concentrate on representing other manufacturers in the UK. By the early 1990's they had also stopped the manufacture of tooling.

Now under the Smeaton Hanscomb & Co Ltd name we are continuing to provide quality products and services for the woodwork industry. Whether you're a large manufacturer or the small one man enterprise we have a team of experienced sales staff and highly trained engineers around the country able to provide a wide range of woodworking machines, products and service back up.

We are happy to give you help and advice if we can. So why not contact our office and speak to Stuart Stanley and we will do our best to make your job easier.