About

I am Steve Overthrow a traditional Sieve & Riddle maker (Sievewright), making tools by hand in the time honoured way from my small home workshop in Langport, Somerset.

In June 2017, just about to be made redundant I read about this crafts extinction on the first edition of the Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts. The last makers were operating under relatively new ownership until 2013 when they unexpectedly closed, and just like that the craft was gone.

I was looking for a new project, having just got a job back in the 'modern world' following the best part of a decade working with vintage cars and I thought that I would need something with historical links to keep my brain awake and interested. Gardening is my hobby and I said to myself, I could do with a good Sieve and it's really gone on from there.

In early 2018, after seven or so months of research, trial and error I finally made my first Sieve. There is no known
literature and very few pictures covering this craft like with so many others so progress was slow. Pictures from a few folk that had visited the previous makers were gradually sent to me so that I could use them to help piece bits together. The practices, all custom made tooling to actually make the Sieves and Riddles all had to be worked out at this point.

By a stroke of luck following Heritage Crafts sharing the picture of my Sieve on social media the sister of retired Sieve & Riddle Maker Mike Turnock saw the picture, and was then able to put us in touch. I received a huge amount of advice and guidance from Mike formerly of Hill & Sons in Derbyshire, he was so gracious and generous with his time and all the information I needed to know to get Riddle making and with that in September of 2018, having watched Mike make a Riddle earlier that afternoon I made my first Riddle.

So I had made one of each tool, but now was the time where I had to put in the work to make something acceptable for folk to use and to find suppliers that would deal with little old me ordering small amounts. Timber yards thought I had landed from the moon when I asked about could they supply straight grain, knot free wood and all but one could not help me. When usable supplies ran thin there I found myself again without a wood supplier, and then by another stroke of luck one found me. This was the winter of 18/19 and I still work with the same mill now.

With everything in place and people starting to ask for tools, the business was established in March 2019.

Each tool is made by one pair of hands from start to finish under one roof, from cutting the wood into strips, steam bending those strips into hoops and then either fitting a pre woven mesh (Sieve) or weaving a mesh by hand (Riddle), wire by wire.

Rugged and simple in their design, I make these tools with practicality and longevity in mind. Most of my tools are backed by a 15 year guarantee.

I have supplied many tool to all sorts of folk from the humble gardener, baker, shell fisherman, national gardens and nurseries, forges, food manufacturers, coffee and pasta makers, textile workers, fruit pressers and more.

Proudly a cottage industry, keeping small and working slow is allowing me to pay serious attention to each tool that I do.  I make up to 300 tools per year, mainly on a made to order basis with a short waiting list.