I am very glad and proud to work at a company that actively chooses to sell tools and other products of the highest quality. Not taking the easy route of selling cheaper copies to earn more money, while knowing that customers will probably be dissatisfied with the quality and need to buy it again. Or having to stand in the markets of the new age and try to shout loudest so that customers buy their goods from them, instead of trusting their own judgement and choosing the better product, which you know will make the job a little easier and at the same time feel good all the way down to the depths of your heart. Knowing that the majority of our brands are made in Europe, North America or Japan. They are companies that constantly try to take new steps in developing themselves, not take easy routes by cutting back on controls or service. Knowing that what you buy, you will be able to get a spare part for after several years, usually without anyone questioning what has happened. Our manufacturers have no problem with the user of their tools contacting them directly with questions or seeking help. Try doing that with the manufacturer of the cheaper copy.. We got an email from one of the manufacturers with some news coming in the autumn; about one of the products they write like this:
“This product has taken many years to develop, and we believe it is the only tool on the market that is so useful and that has not been made for a long time. Our design is based on hundreds of previous designs, and the result is a precise, robust and comfortable tool...”
This sentence says quite a lot, I think, about choosing the originals instead of the cheaper copies. Putting in years of development costs money; trying to make products that perhaps haven't been made in decades in a new, efficient way ought to be rewarded. There has been a somewhat longer pause in the newsletter than is normal; we have tried to write them about once a month. But now it is a bit longer than that, and one reason is that we wanted to wait since we have recently received quite a lot of deliveries of tools that we wanted to mention here, and that the "shop" takes more time than before. You might not think people would leave their houses to visit it, but there is a very big increase in visitors. Old customers who want to see how we have it, and many, many completely new ones who come in curious about who we are and what we show and sell.
One of the innovative manufacturers we sell is JessEm. They haven't rested on their laurels but have shown several new tools, one of them being the box joint jig for router tables. As usual very well made and easy to use. It attaches to the router table and you move the upper part via ball bearings for a smooth motion. JessEm has also continued making measuring tools, the latest being a square, a type of speed square with several functions for quickly marking out angles. JessEm
Liogier, the French rasp maker, sent a long-awaited box of hand-cut rasps. We are restocking what has been sold out for quite a long time, as well as new models. One of the new ones is the rasp plane. A tool you haven't seen before, but when you think about it, you wonder why it hasn't existed before. Now I am not saying that it may not have existed long ago, but I haven't seen it before. All their products are here: Liogier
Another manufacturer that is very productive is Benchdogs UK. You sometimes feel you have to look at their site every day so you don't miss anything new. We have a pallet of just over 300kg of items arriving next week. Johan visited them a few weeks ago, here is a little report;
I was in England to meet some of our suppliers and started at Benchdogs UK. It is a bit of a drive from London; the roads go via motorway and then onto roads you might see in English TV series, narrow so you can barely pass other cars. And of course you drive on the left, but that is no problem when the road only has one lane. Benchdogs UK is run by Ralph Mignano, founder and owner of the firm. The first time I came into contact with them was 2019, seeing that this could be something that might suit our range. I have always appreciated their neat and well-designed solutions. Ralph is the man behind it all, naturally he has a team with him that helps out too. There is really a lot going on there, it is full speed. Things to be produced, prototypes to be tested and YouTube clips to be filmed. And a fantastic pace in developing existing products as well as new ones. I got to try their new MFT table and see some novelties that won't come until late in the autumn. Aluminium and stainless steel are the basis of most of what they do; mostly all raw material comes from England, the aluminium extrusions are imported but Benchdogsuk owns all the tooling. All tools and accessories are carefully tested before delivery, they really want to keep a high standard and have excellent customer support!
One fun thing about working with tools is that you learn things all the time. I am in no way a "know-it-all" person, but very humble when it comes to my own knowledge. I like seeing others show how a tool can be used in a better way. Or learning more about what the tools are meant to do. Also learning new languages. Like Japanese; I remember the first delivery I handled when I had just started working. The whole delivery was in Japanese, every box had Japanese characters and nothing was in a language easier for me, so that you could work out what was what in all the boxes. I solved it after some detective work and it goes much better now, 8 years later. A few weeks ago some different saws came from Kijima Seikou, including a shorter detail saw (crosscut) of 180mm that is very pleasant to saw with. It is part of a series of back saws, which also includes a plug saw and a rip saw that we will get with the next delivery. Another Japanese manufacturer is Naniwa, where we now have several stones at home again. If you have tools that will without problem follow you through your whole life and on for generations, you want to take care of them, so to help with that we have collected products that make maintenance easier. Whether it is sharpening the edge of your chisel, or removing rust from a plane, or filing up a saw so it gets a new life, for example. Tool care is also about taking care of older tools and getting them ready for continued life in the workshop. Among other things you may need to replace handles on older planes, as wood is actually not eternal. There has been a small company in Sheffield that made knobs and handles for older Stanley planes. Unfortunately the company disappeared during the pandemic, and Thomas Flinn (Clifton) has taken over the business, and now we have got new old handles in again. In the delivery from Japan we got Camellia oil, which is their way of protecting their tools. Together with Jojoba oil or wax there is something for everyone. 
From Thomas Flinn there also came a new saw, or new production of a very old variant of saw. It is a smaller variant of a turning saw, the length of the blade is 30cm. It is very finely made. Planes and other saws also came. Thomas Flinn and Clifton. We are waiting for deliveries from Veritas and Lie-Nielsen in the coming weeks. Lie-Nielsen now has a better flow in its production, so there are clearly shorter waiting times for getting a delivery. Over the coming months we will build up our range so that it has all their products, and you will be able to get a tool when you want it. Some things may still sell out quite quickly, but if things flow it is only a wait of a month or so instead of years as it has been up to now. They have got production going again on the large bronze planes, so those will also come going forward. If you have a special wish for one of the more unusual tools they have, get in touch and we will see whether we can get exactly that one in a shipment. Keep in mind that the prices on the website right now for planes that have been sold out for a while do not show what they will cost when they come back; we will do a price update shortly for the whole range that is made today. The Veritas delivery is a refill of our existing range, which is the broadest in Europe. A few new products come in this delivery, as well as completely new products during the autumn, but we thought we would wait with telling about that until the next newsletter. It is definitely worth waiting for. You found a small clue at the start of this letter.
In the shop we have rearranged a bit again, partly because we are going to start making some films; we have written about it before, but haven't got around to starting yet. It will come shortly. We also have a somewhat special setup of the small SawStop saw, a router table and an MFT table, at the moment from Sjöbergs, soon it will be one of the new tables from Benchdogs. The idea is to show a possible compact workspace. On Saturday the shop is open as usual between 10-14. Maybe see you then, otherwise we will talk in the next newsletter in just over a month.
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