It has been so long that I had to reread the last newsletter. It hasn't been a deliberate wait; there has simply been so much to do. We wrote about opening the Shop, and we have now done so. Several of you have dropped by, which is great fun. There was a discussion in the Facebook group Swedish Woodworkers where one member, noting that Highline Woodworking has a very fine shop, asked: "Is there anything anywhere near that shop in Sweden? In Europe?" That struck a chord with a long-dormant thought: why is there no shop like that in Sweden? Rubank Verktygs AB turned 10 last year. For well-known reasons we couldn't celebrate publicly, but there has been a Shop ever since the start; it just hasn't been a real Shop. You could drop by, feel, try and buy over the "counter" if you wanted, but it was more like a stockroom you walked around in. Since we were first and foremost an online shop, things didn't need to be unpacked on shelves and presented nicely. When the pandemic meant we actually couldn't receive customers, we told ourselves: let's make the shop we would want to shop in ourselves, let's make a Highline Woodworking! Sure, there are lots of differences, but also many similarities. The biggest difference is that they have a shop unit, while we are still on the 7th floor of an office building. They have more space, but we have the view. Both of us are passionate about giving people looking for quality tools a place where they can actually find them.
We hope we have managed to create the feeling that the shop has that little extra you have been missing. Those of you who have dropped by have said that you think so. That warms our hearts, thank you!
But what is a shop without content? We have written about it before, and it may be repetitive, but trying to keep tools in stock for you has been a trial. Things are starting to brighten in several places, and we hope that more normal times will soon return. Just a few reflections on deliveries: the latest Incra delivery we received a week or so ago was ordered in December last year. It is still unclear when Lie-Nielsen will send any larger deliveries. Narex now has a lead time of just over 3 months, and York is about the same. Several others are at 2–3 months. But we are trying to bring in as much as we possibly can. We are also looking for new products and manufacturers, and several are coming soon. A new one we received a month or so ago is Red Rose Production. Red Rose dividers with pencil holder
Another thing we often write about is that we buy our products directly from the manufacturers. It may sound repetitive, but we think it matters. One reason is that we really want you to be able to buy products of the highest quality at as attractive a price as possible. There are a few exceptions: Flexcut and Brusso, which we buy from our friends at Classic Hand Tools in England. Another was Glen-Drake Tools, with their very nice marking gauges, which we bought via Lie-Nielsen. We now buy directly from Glen-Drake, which let us lower the price quite a lot and gave us much faster (and cheaper) deliveries. Glen-Drake and Hock Tools are only a block or so apart in Fort Bragg in northern California, so now we can get both in the same shipments. Which is good in many ways. Glen-Drake Tools
One delivery we started taking orders on a few days ago is from Veritas. They are currently sending us their largest shipment ever, which we think is great fun. It arrives after the weekend, after a short wait of a few days in Germany to get on a lorry heading north. Veritas has delivered regularly, but in smaller quantities than normal; they have now reorganised their production and are getting more products through. One that has been eagerly awaited is their low-angle jack plane. Veritas Low-Angle Jack Plane
We are getting just over 10 different planes this time. Not all in large volumes, but it does mean that many of you who have waited so long get the chance to get the plane you have been waiting for. Another is the dual marking gauge. Veritas Dual Marking Gauge
Lost Art Press is sending us some 20 books shortly, so we are filling the shelves for Christmas. We have also received several Swedish titles, which you will find here: Woodworking bookshop One of the new ones is the book Snickra steg för steg, which covers a lot about techniques, tools and so on. We keep looking for more wood-related books, and more will come. For example, Jögge Sundqvist's new book Karvsnitt (chip carving), which will arrive as soon as it has been launched.
In the next newsletter we will tell you about several new manufacturers. We think you will say, just as Gert Fylking did every year outside the Swedish Academy when they announced that year's Nobel laureate, "Finally!" when you see who they are. *cliffhanger*
One last relatively new manufacturer is M-Power Tools, from whom we are bringing in more products.
We finish with a small offer: 20% off Trend router bits and the small router table throughout October. A good friend of ours has built a workbench during the pandemic. We think it is stunning, and we know there are many, many hours behind that build! The build is described in more than 1,000 posts on the Knivtillverkning och slöjd forum at ifokus.se.
I will try to send the next newsletter a bit sooner. Nearly 2,000 of you now receive this, which also feels unreal. We hope you find them interesting and inspiring. Until next time, take care!
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