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The idea and motivation to start a company was the same as so many others before me. Being a passionate hunter and shooter, I have immersed myself in the technicalities of the sport. Before long I got interested in reloading and that opened a whole new world for me in terms of what is possible within the discipline. Being an engineer, I’m always interested to know how things work, and I naturally think about how I would build it and what I could improve. Even though there are lots of reloading tools and accessories for hunting and shooting on offer today, I still find things that I would like to change. Availability and price also play a part – you can’t always find what you want at a price that you are willing to pay.
A few years back I got interested in case annealing. Annealing with an electric drill by looking at the colour just wouldn’t cut it for me, since it’s not repeatable enough. So, I looked at what products were available on the market and here I was met with a problem. The devices were either very expensive, or only available in other countries which meant very high shipping costs and taxes, or just didn’t do exactly what I wanted it to. For a while I forgot about the whole thing. That is until I suddenly had some time during the lockdown of 2020 and got interested in the process again. Using this time, I decided to build my own case annealing machine.
During the design and development of the case annealer, I needed certain components and parts that I could only get from commercial suppliers, so I decided to register a company. This opened up the door for me to look at what other reloading tools and accessories for hunting and shooting I could make myself. This is where things slowed down for me. Between registering a company and launching a website has been a long road with many pitfalls, and life also sometimes got in the way. This makes me all the more excited to be able to finally share it with the rest of the world. For the start I have small accessories like trigger springs, but I’m working on other products and will be adding them to the website as they are ready. Watch this space, this journey is far from being over. I hope you will join me on it and visit my website every once in a while.
What does ‘insimbi’ mean?
‘Insimbi’ is a Zulu word that means ‘iron’, ‘steel’ or ‘metal’ in English. For the Zulu people, being able to refine and work with iron enabled them to make tools and weapons, which shaped their whole lifestyle and culture. It was a revolutionary technological advancement for them. At the same time, they were still very much bound to the earth. They lived from the land and their routines were in step with nature’s.
As an engineer with South African roots steel has special significance for me. It’s the material that forms the backbone of engineering, since it has very good material properties in relation to its cost. Its properties are well known, and we can achieve high degrees of precision working with it. As an avid hunter and a fisherman, I’m also bound to the earth. Using tools and equipment that enable me to pursue these passions, brings me closer to nature. And that is what ‘insimbi’ means to me – embracing modern technology and precision while in the pursuit of being outdoors in nature.