We hope everyone has had a lovely summer. If we had to guess what you have been doing, "using tools" would come top. We have kept sending out order after order, which is great fun. We have tried to switch off from work for at least a few days (moments) in July and early August. Closing the shop completely for a period has never been an option for us; we want you to feel you get the best service possible. However, the very large increase (more than 60%) between 2019 and 2020 has been clearly felt, and 2021 is continuing in the same vein. We feel our service has suffered a little from the enormous increase during the pandemic, and we want to put that right now with a little fresh start.
We get a lot of questions about whether you can drop by the shop, which we think is nice. There is something special about meeting customers and talking with them about what they are looking for and what they expect to find with us. However, as you know, we have been closed to walk-in visits throughout this period; sometimes you could come by if you booked a visit in advance. Now we feel it may be time to open for walk-in visits again. The hours will be quite limited, because we need time to handle all the web orders. The same goes for phone calls; we will probably have some limits there too. We will come back around September with how it will work. All information will be on the front page of our website.
We are also trying to plan an "open house" (open on a Saturday). Before the pandemic these were very well attended, and we hope they will be again, but with some restrictions. We were thinking of some kind of schedule you book into, so that not everyone comes at once. If anyone has ideas on how it could work, please get in touch.
As we have written before, Lie-Nielsen has had a tough time during the pandemic, cutting back the number of products they make and selling mostly through their own website. We have received a number of smaller deliveries during this time, and another arrives in a few days. Tom (Thomas Lie-Nielsen) wrote to us ahead of the delivery that they see light at the end of the tunnel, and that in the autumn they may be able to send a little more to a very few selected dealers, and we are one of them. We don't know who the others are, but we are honoured to be one of the chosen.
This delivery includes, among other things, their honing guide. The last time we got any was in November last year. We are also getting more saws and plane blades. As usual, you will find it all on our page of updated products: new products
Another piece of news is that we now have Julia Kalthoff's wonderful carving axe in stock. You will find it here:
Kalthoff Small Carver Axe
Hock Tools makes very fine replacement plane blades, and they also make marking knife and chip carving knife blades. Both are made so that you can make your own handle for them; perhaps a nice task for the autumn. Don't miss the kitchen knife blades we have received from them either.
Hock Tools
Veritas has now officially released its new honing guides. We will receive them around September/October. They have also spent a long time making their production more efficient, and it seems to have helped. It looks as though they will be able to deliver more and more over the coming months. It is worth remembering that Veritas (and Lie-Nielsen) are small companies that do almost everything themselves. They have 50–100 employees and have been very sensitive to the events of the past year.
Bahco is a supplier we have had for quite a long time. We started with their saw files and have gone on to bring in some of their other products. We have now received a Swedish-made try square. It is 200 mm (250 and 300 mm will come later in the autumn; they are back-ordered at Bahco).
Bahco
When we brought in the Crucible Tools Holdfast a few years ago, we were the first shop outside Lost Art Press able to sell it. Since then we have stocked all their tools (those they allow others to sell).
Crucible Tools
Incra is another manufacturer you ask a lot about. They now have about a year's lead time; the latest delivery we received from them was ordered in August last year. One product we got is their starter kit, a clever little box with parts and plans for making five different jigs easily.
Incra Build-It Starter Kit
We want to finish by thanking you all for believing in us and choosing to shop locally. It means so much, and we look forward to an autumn with lots of new and exciting things. Take care and we will be in touch again soon!
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