Exhibitor numbers may have been 20% lower than the pre-recession 2008 show, but with around 2,700 exhibitors, the 2010 Cologne Hardware Fair still dwarfed other shows.

Visitor numbers will not be revealed until Wednesday March 3, but most exhibitors diyweek.net spoke to reported brisk interest, and there was a healthy buzz about the exhibition - especially in the tool halls.

British tool distributor Toolstream made its Cologne debut, with the emphasis on its two recently-acquired Australian power tool brands: GMC and Triton. The plan is to develop GMC as a mid-market Black & Decker competitor with the emphasis on innovative features and high-tech materials, and to extend the Triton brand from a niche woodworking range into a broad top-end professional power tool range.

Sheffield-based Jewel Blade used the show to launch not one but two safety craft knives: one with a folding blade and safety catch, and one with a retractable blade.

Neill Tools, now free of the toxic US ownership which blighted its recent past, unveiled dozens of new lines under its Eclipse brand: bolt cutters, clamps, speedclamps, locking pliers and so on. The plan, said a spokesman, is to move the company towards more of a one-stop shop.

A last-minute show launch from Linic Products of Leicester was a stackable through-flow hose reel. MD Nick Burdett reported strong buyer interest within the first few hours of the show.

Carl Kammerling returned to Cologne for the first time in eight years, with a heavily revised screwdriver range, new high-spec kneepads, and a variety of updated merchandise displays.

Boa UK came up with one of those "why hasn't someone done this before?" ideas: a double-ended diamond-tipped bit for drilling porcelain tiles. Two ends means it has twice the life of a conventional bit - but it will cost substantially less than two conventional bits.

Never lost for a way to extend the choice of soft-faced mallets, Thor showed a new range of rubber mallets with glassfibre handles. "You can reverse a car over them," said a Thor spokesman.

Wolfcraft's big show story was a battery-powered caulking gun with a built-in torch. It's claimed to be far easier to use than a conventional gun, especially one-handed, which means better control and a neater finished job.

Finally, a couple of quirky items: we loved the locking plier display shown by a German company, with pliers painted to resemble tropical fish and wild animals; and we were intrigued by the manufacturer of contractor tools trading boldly under the brand name 'Australian'... followed in much smaller type by the words 'Made in Italy'.