What we make it from

We work in stainless steel, plastic, paper, wood, felt, silicone and rubber, and we count a line here only where we state the material on it. It matters for the same reason the count does: a stainless tweezer and a plated one are different objects at the same price, and only one of them tells you which it is.

Material	Lines that state it	Share of range
Plastic	350	35.4%
Metal	256	25.9%
Paper	213	21.6%
Stainless steel	151	15.3%
Fabric	146	14.8%
Wood	134	13.6%
Glass	55	5.6%
Silicone	35	3.5%
Acrylic	33	3.3%
Bamboo	16	1.6%

Counted only where the product states the material. Where a line does not say what it is made of, we leave the material blank.

Why the table has gaps

We count a material here only where the product states it. Plenty of lines do not, and the honest thing is to leave them out of the count rather than to guess from a photograph. That is why the percentages do not add up to a hundred.

What each material tends to mean in this range

Material	What to expect
Stainless steel	Tweezers, scissors, blades and needles. Holds an edge and does not stain, and it is the difference between a tool that lasts a term and one that lasts a week.
Plastic	Badge reels, clips, organisers and party ware. Light, cheap by the piece and the reason a pack of fifty costs what one metal item does.
Paper and card	Notebooks, tags, envelopes and boxes. Bought by the ream rather than the sheet.
Wood	Pencils, stylus tools, craft blanks and handles. Warm in the hand and forgiving of being dropped.
Silicone and rubber	Grips, seals, wristbands and stoppers. Flexible, and the part that usually fails first on a tool that is otherwise fine.
Fabric and felt	Caps, scarves, craft sheets and towels. Sold by the set because one is never enough.