Where Haws watering cans are made

Still made by hand in Birmingham

Haws watering cans are still made by hand in our Birmingham workshop, as they have been for more than 140 years.

John Haws created the first design in 1886. That design is still recognisably the same. The long spout, the body balanced beneath the handles, the pronounced neck. They remain the defining features of what we make today.

The tooling that shapes these cans has endured across generations. The same presses and lathes that shaped the original designs are still in use today. They form the body, spout, and handle components as they did over a century ago.

This continuity of method and tooling is not sentimental. It is practical proof. It demonstrates that a design shaped to be quietly capable in use, executed with discipline, can remain relevant across time. 

How manufacturing happens

Our cans begin with a flat sheet of steel or, for certain ranges, copper or brass. The material is cut to shape, then drawn and formed on our presses. Components are assembled by hand, and seams are sealed or soldered to create a watertight structure.

For painted steel cans, this assembly is followed by a protective coating. For hot dip galvanised steel, the completed can is immersed in molten zinc by hand, coating every surface, inside and out, including every seam. The zinc chemically bonds to the steel rather than sitting on the surface, forming a layer that protects even if the outer finish is scratched.

Each rose attachment is assembled by hand under precise pressure, using methods refined across fifty years of making. The result is a tight, drip-free joint that holds through years of regular use.

This is not mass production. It is disciplined hand making, where the same methods, tools, and standards govern each can produced.

Why this matters

The labour and skill required to make a watering can by hand cost more than industrial automation. We continue to make them this way because we have learned --- through generations of making, through successes and failures --- what creates balance, stability, predictability, and control. This accumulated knowledge cannot be compressed into a process that prioritises speed or volume.

When a design works as well as ours, there is no benefit to changing how it is made. Change would introduce risk. Our commitment is to consistency: the same methods, the same discipline, the same standard applied to every can that leaves our workshop.