Home How it's made

The full label, the wood, and the wrapping paper

Most toy brands publish a paragraph about safety and hope nobody reads further. This page is the rest of it — which standards our toys are made and tested to, where the beech comes from, what happens when something breaks, and how the gifting works.

Safety standards
The wood
Our workshop
Repair promise
Gifting

Non-toxic water-based paint
FSC-certified hardwood
Ships in 48 hours
60-day returns
4.9 from 3,180 parents

Safety standards

What "tested" actually means
on a Whimble box

Every toy we sell is made and tested to the European toy safety standard EN 71 and, for the US market, assessed against CPSIA requirements. Here's what each part of that covers, in plain English.

Standard	What it covers	What we do about it
EN 71-1	Mechanical and physical properties — small parts, sharp points and edges, cords, drop and torque testing.	Any toy sold for under-3s must clear the small-parts cylinder. If a component doesn't, the toy is labelled 3+ — we change the label, not the test.
EN 71-2	Flammability — how quickly a toy's materials burn.	Solid hardwood with no textile trims, tested by the laboratory alongside the finish.
EN 71-3	Migration of certain elements — how much of nineteen elements, including lead and cadmium, can transfer from a toy if it's mouthed.	Paints and oils are batch-tested. We buy finishes specified for toy use and re-test on arrival rather than trusting the datasheet.
EN 71-9	Organic chemical compounds — solvents, monomers, preservatives.	Water-based finishes only. No solvent-borne lacquer has been used in the workshop since 2019.
CPSIA	US federal requirements — total lead content, phthalates, tracking labels.	Assessed for toys shipped to US customers. Every box carries a batch code so a specific run can be traced.
FSC chain of custody	Not a safety standard — a forestry one. Traces timber back to a certified forest.	Chain-of-custody number printed on the box. Our mill partner holds the certificate; we hold the paperwork for every delivery.

Testing is done batch by batch at an accredited third-party laboratory — not by us, and not once at launch and then forgotten. If you'd like the report covering the batch you received, email us the code from the underside of the box and we'll send the certificate. We'd rather you asked.

Cut sections of hardwood log and branch showing growth rings and bark, laid out on a pale surface.

The wood

Why beech, and why from forty miles away

Beech is dense, close-grained and boring — which is exactly what you want in a toy. It doesn't splinter along the grain the way pine does, it takes a radius without furring up, and it stays put when a two-year-old stands on it.

FSC 100% European beechMilled in Somerset, roughly forty miles from the workshop. One tree replanted for every tree taken, verified annually by our mill partner.
Water-based paint, food-safe oilNo solvents, no phthalates, no PVC. Painted pieces meet EN 71-3; unpainted pieces get a plant-oil finish and nothing else.
240 grit, 3 mm radius, minimumEvery edge is rounded and every face sanded to 240 grit before finishing. There is nothing on a Whimble toy to catch a fingernail on.
Grain is not a defectTone, figure and the occasional small knot vary between pieces. We sort out anything structural and let the rest through — it's a tree, not a moulding.

Our Devon workshop

Board to box, in one building
in Ashburton

Eleven people, one dust extractor that everyone complains about, and a spray booth that has never seen a solvent. Nothing is subcontracted.

See what comes out of it

Board in

Kiln-dried beech arrives from the mill in 50mm boards with the chain-of-custody paperwork stapled to the pallet.

Cut & shape

Dimensioned, profiled and radiused. Every batch gets a first-off check against the drawing before the run continues.

Sand & finish

Sanded to 240 grit, then either water-based paint or plant oil. Cured for 72 hours before anything is touched again.

Check & box

Counted, inspected by hand, batch-coded and packed in kraft board with paper tape. No plastic anywhere in the box.

Five-year repair promise

Broken it? Post it back.

Five years of free repairs on any Whimble toy, whoever bought it and whether or not you still have the receipt. We re-glue, re-sand and re-paint, then send it home. Roughly 900 toys stayed out of a bin last year because of it.

Email us a photo of the damage and the batch code from the box.
We send a prepaid label — kraft envelope or box, no plastic mailer.
It comes back repaired, usually within two weeks, with a note from whoever fixed it.
Beyond repair? We replace the part, or the toy, and the broken one becomes offcuts for a Devon primary school's workshop.

A hand-finished wooden freight train with a dark engine, coal wagon and open carriages on a rug.

Gifting

Wrapped, ribboned and ready to hand over

Free on every order — no tick box buried at checkout, no £4.95 surprise. Choose a paper, write the card, we'll do the corners properly.

Recycled kraft paper and cotton ribbon — no plastic tape
Handwritten card, up to 200 characters, free
Prices removed from the packing slip automatically
Ship direct to the birthday, we'll email you the tracking

Build a gift box

A child's playroom with wooden play kitchens, small tables and star-backed chairs in soft grey and beech.

Our 2025 numbers

Published every January,
audited every March

See the standards behind them

100%

FSC-certified timber

Every board traced to a managed European forest, chain-of-custody number on the box.

Plastic in packaging

Kraft board, paper tape, recycled void fill. Nothing to peel off and bin.

912

Toys repaired, not replaced

Free repairs for five years. Offcuts go to a Devon primary school's workshop.

1:1

Trees planted per tree used

Replanting verified annually by our mill partner and published in the report.