The Nordic sloyd of today results from an educational development dating back to the late XIX century. The features of the subject vary according to the particularities of the educational system in the different countries. In this article the present features of the subject are considered to result from its relation to the socio-cultural development of Scandinavia. Sloyd was developed to support traditional social values before the increasing of industrialization; it was a person-centred subject from an early stage. The works of the Swedish pedagogue Otto Salomon gave sloyd an educative character that prevailed in relation to its utilitarian aims. The social demands on the educational systems at the end of the XIX century supported the international success of sloyd been introduced as a school subject in countries all around the world. The emergence of new pedagogical trends (progressive movement, Arbeitsschule) influenced the decay of sloyd that was also accelerated by the early death of Salomon. There is, however, a valuable educational heritage which might have implications for the subject development at an international level.