A Chat With Patrick Jackson Of Lie-Nielsen Toolworks...

A few days ago I received a shock when I found out the Woodcraft stores were no longer going to carry Lie-Nielsen products. I made an incorrect assumption that it was done by the former and not the latter. And then I was struck by a bolt of common sense and decided to query both parties to find out what was going on instead of jumping to what turned out to be incorrect conclusions.

(I would like to take a second here to apologize to Woodcraft for making said assumption.)

I sent a very simple inquiry to both Woodcraft and Lie-Nielsen, indicating I'd heard Lie-Nielsen tools were no longer going to be available at Woodcraft and that I was looking for more information on the matter.

Both responses came fairly promptly, but I'd gone out of town on business for two days and was unable to do anything with them until today. The response from Woodcraft was plain and straight-forward. They simply said, "Thank you for your inquiry. Lie-Nielsen decided to pull their product line from Woodcraft." I found that to be an appropriate and sound response, given the circumstances. The response from Patrick Jackson at Lie-Nielsen was even shorter! It said, "Hi Ethan, Please give me a call..."

So this morning I called Patrick - and a very pleasant conversation ensued. I didn't get his job title, but it was quite obvious his job duties focused on marketing and sales. Patrick explained that when Lie-Nielsen first teamed up with Woodcraft several years ago, it wasn't a business franchise - it was just one store. Lie-Nielsen could easily supply them with however many tools they needed and still sell their number one product - Quality.

Over the years, however, Woodcraft turned into a franchise and grew to the count of 80 stores. Supply issues started cropping up. It became harder and harder for Lie-Nielsen to provide them with a high quality product and, more importantly, good customer service. Lie-Nielsen believed the sales people at each Woodcraft store should have instruction in the use and care of Lie-Nielsen products (having worked in the SCUBA industry for several years, I know where he is coming from), but didn't have the staff to train so many people effectively. The demand for tools at all the Woodcraft stores started turning Lie-Nielsen into a production line that manufactured tools instead of a small business that made woodworking tools by hand. They finally made the decision to pull their products from the Woodcraft stores.

Patrick spoke to me in a language I could understand. Lie-Nielsen was trying to avoid one of the biggest pitfalls almost every small successful business makes - growing too big too fast and losing touch with why they went into the business in the first place. Working at a software company that has added almost 300 employees in under eight years, this is something I have experienced on a personal level, as well.

He further explained that by pulling back their distribution in the U.S., they were able to return a focus back on priorities - coming up with creative ideas, designing new tools, developing a new and better website (due to be launched in a few weeks), and making sure they provide a quality product and good customer service. At that point, we did discuss the one drawback to pulling their line from Woodcraft. One of the best ways to sell a quality hand tool is to put it in the customer's hand! They have now reduced the number of places we can actually pick up and hold a Lie-Nielsen tool by 80.

Patrick agreed that was a problem and a concern of the sales and marketing department at Lie-Nielsen. He said their goal over the next year or two is to sponsor or participate in tool demonstrations in at least 100 cities across the United States every year. I told him it sounded like a great idea and suggested he add St. Louis to the list (which he then did). He also said they are looking into working with a few select stores that still want to carry their products and hope to have that worked out in the near future.

At that point, I'd been on the phone with him for 15 minutes and needed to get back to work, so we said our goodbyes. While I lament the idea that I can no longer jump in my truck and drive 10 minutes to Woodcraft to spend my hard-earned money on a Lie-Nielsen chisel or saw, I now have a much better understanding of why Lie-Nielsen did what they did. What's more, I can't fault them their decision - I'd like to think it is the same thing I would have done, given similar circumstances.

I learned a long time ago that you get what you pay for. I also learned that sometimes patience is a virtue. With both of those thoughts in mind, I guess I'm not so put out by the fact that any future Lie-Nielsen purchases will have to include a week-long delay while my purchase is being shipped. It seems like a small price to pay to continue patronizing a small American business that provides me with quality woodworking tools.

Woodcraft Drops Lie-Nielsen...

Or is it the other way around?

Current blog post on hold until I can get information from both sides...

12/15/2009 Update...

I want to apologize for my initial post. I'd had a bit of an emotional weekend (more on that at a later date) and my traumatic experience at Woodcraft was probably more than I could handle at the moment. What lesson has Ethan learned from this? Never post a new blog when in a heightened emotional state!

I sent inquiry letters to both Woodcraft and Lie-Nielsen regarding said recent trip to Woodcraft where I found out they would no longer be carrying the Lie-Nielsen line of tools. Then I went out of town on a work-related trip and wasn't able to check my email for two days. I am now back in town and have received replies from both companies. One of the replies was simply a request to contact them, so I will do so tomorrow before I post any results of my inquiry.

A Splintered Review of a Book...

(Blog author's note: This is the first official book review I've written since 6th grade, so... it might be a little rough. It is something I need to get used to, however, as our guild librarian retired as of this last newsletter and he used to do a book review for every issue. I will probably alternate between book reviews and tool reviews just to give myself some variety. You can expect to see both here, very much in the same way Chris Schwarz's blog entries usually end up as forewords in a future issue of PW or Woodworking Magazine.)

I like a good book where I can imagine the author is talking directly to me, like he's sitting on my sofa, enthralling me with story after story. That is pretty much how I felt about Spike Carlsen's A Splintered History of Wood. It isn't one of those books you can plow through in just one sitting, though. You have to read it more like you read Robert Fulgum or James Krenov - one chapter at a time, taking a break in between sittings to absorb what you've just read. You can't read this book when you're in a hurry, either. You have to approach it with a calm and relaxed mind; you have to be willing to be drawn away from your hectic day into a narrative about one of every woodworker's favorite topics - wood.

As you read the first chapter on extraordinary woods, you'll develop mysterious cravings and desires when Spike reports on where you can get 50,000 year old Kauri wood (I have some), discusses WOOD PORN with Mitch Talcove, and interviews people who make a living salvaging redwood logs. Later, you'll be awed by stories of woodworkers who are blind, artists who can carve your name in a pencil with a chainsaw, and an inspirational visit with Mira Nakashima. Spike then dives into wood as it relates to music and sports, detailing what goes into making a world class violin, a Steinway piano, a persimmon wood golf club, and a pool cue.

With a knack for making even the mundane seem amazing, Carlsen jumps into stories about wood used in construction, from people who live in trees to the 36-year remodeling project called the Winchester House. His chapter on weapons and war, interesting to anyone who ever played knights as a child, covers such topics as catapults and the English long bow. He ends his book on a note he describes as, "emotional, environmental, and political." In this final chapter, which includes an interview with Patrick Moore (one of the founding members of Greenpeace), he details reasons for using wood more than steel, concrete, and plastic. He also discusses methods for maintaining natural forested areas while planting trees specifically for harvesting and his thoughts on purchasing endangered woods. I don't know - it all seemed like common sense to me.

If you are interested in hearing more about this book by the author himself, and you live in the St. Louis area, you should consider attending the monthly St. Louis Woodworkers Guild meeting at Woodcraft (2077 Congressional Drive, St. Louis, MO, 63146) this evening (Thursday, November 19th). Spike Carlsen will be there, giving a presentation on his book. The meeting is free to non-members, but of course we would love it if you were to join up! It will be the best $25 you've ever spent on woodworking!

Unplugging more than the shop...

It's funny how trying to adjust one aspect of your life can affect others. Take, for example, my attempts at reducing the use of power tools and working more towards using hand tools in my shop. I enjoy the peaceful swish of a plane gliding across a board. I relish the minimal resistance I get from a sharp chisel biting into the corner of a hinge mortise. I must admit, however, I do use a small electronic device more when I'm downstairs - my MP3 player. Whether it is traditional Irish music or the electronic mixes of John Digweed or the classic soul-warming Grateful Dead, I can hear them all in perfect clarity during my power-free sessions in the shop.

Lately, I've tried reducing my plugged-in lifestyle in other aspects of my life. Last week, Dana and I went on vacation to the Outer Banks, NC. For one full week I didn't check voice mail or email. I didn't turn on a TV or a laptop. I used my cell phone to call family upon safe arrival and safe return and that was about it. It was very enlightening and freeing. I plan on trying to do that more often, even when I'm not on vacation.

(I should take a moment here to apologize to Kari. She thought I was mad at her when I didn't respond to her emails last week. Sorry, Kari. I wasn't ignoring you and I wasn't mad at you. I was just relaxing my brain.)

I spent a little time thinking about my woodworking while on vacation. I've stepped back from it over the last month or so, but I'm not really sure why. Probably because I'm still working on getting the new shop in order and things started feeling like "work" and not "play". I get that feeling sometimes when I accept a box order I maybe shouldn't because they've only given me a few weeks to work on it. And I know it will be like that when I accept the job, but I've never been one to shy away from a challenge, so I take it anyway.

It's the same way with the shop. Painting walls and hanging lights isn't fun! But I guess I need to look past the immediate tasks to see how much more productive my shop time will be when I'm back to being organized and settled into my new space.

I also have four or five partially completed boxes sitting downstairs just waiting for a bit of inlay, a tartan lining, and a coat of finish. Maybe I can compromise with myself between working on some boxes and working on the shop to more easily get through the latter.

I also got a bit of a motivational boost yesterday when I received a large flat package from Popular Woodworking magazine. It was two free issues of the December 2009 issue! Can anyone tell me what it means when you get two free issues of a magazine? That's right - it usually means you have something published in that issue! In this case, it is my Out of the Woodwork article called, "But aren't you a woodworker?". The original title to the blog that generated this article was, "But I thought you were a woodworker!" I still like my original title better, but other than that I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

If you happen to read that issue, pay particularly close attention to the last bit under my Contributors section, the part where it says, "... his first for Popular Woodworking...". I think we can all agree that means there will be more.

Speaking of "woodworking" I hate doing...

Before we left on vacation, I'd spent six or eight hours on Saturday getting my yard leaf-free. I piled them into my double-sized compost bin until it was overflowing and then filled my 55 gallon yard waste container and 14 yard waste bags with leaves. My yard was nice and clean, just the way my OCD personality likes it.

This is what I came back to - where did they come from? More importantly, are there more on the way? (Yeah, as you can tell from the first picture, they came from my sugar maple and my sweet gum trees - I guess I'm just a little upset I didn't get to enjoy the leaves on the trees as they were changing colors.) As much as I'd love to get in the shop and work on some boxes (or even paint some walls, honestly), I'm afraid most of my Saturday morning is going to be spent raking leaves tomorrow.

It isn't the kind of hand tools I like using, but at least I can listen to Jerry while I work...

Apologies for the hiatus...

I haven't been keeping up with my blog like I've wanted to lately and I apologize for that. Some chronic lower back issues have kept me away from lots of things I enjoy, but I'm doing better the past week or so and hoping to get back into the swing of things (woodworking, working out, home improvements and repairs).

I'll be traveling for a few days this next week and I'm bringing along an old-fashioned blogging system (pen and a journal). I'll have to transfer data upon my return but I hope to have something for you to read when I get back.

A Forgotten Project Gets Remembered...

A few months ago, before I started the whole basement shop rebuild, I'd started working on a fixing up an old egg beater drill I found at an estate sale for $3. It isn't quite as good a quality as my other hand drills - it does have a rosewood handle on the turning gear, but the main grip is a gold-colored metal (though it does unscrew to allow for drill bit storage) - but it didn't look to be in too bad a shape and I figured I could clean it up and give it a way to another woodworker who might need it.

Well, I'd started on it back then but got distracted with something or another and forgot about it. This evening, I stumbled across it again as I was sorting through some tools to start thinning some chisels from the collection and decided to take a half hour to finish it up.

Unfortunately, I didn't remember to take any pictures of the first part of the process, which was to remove the chuck, disassemble it, and clean up the three jaws. They had about a hundred years of grime, gunk, and build-up in them and the action wasn't as smooth as it should be. The only caution I would mention with this part is to wrap something around your vice clamps or pliers to make sure you don't mar any parts of the chuck when you disassemble it. Oh, and remember to unscrew it the right way - lefty-tighty, righty-loosy in this case.

Once the chuck was disassembled, I took a small dowel rod, wrapped some green scouring pad around it, sprayed it with WD-40 and scrubbed the inside of the chuck assembly with it. Then I took some 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper and cleaned up the three jaws. I re-greased the inside of the chuck with some lithium grease and then re-assembled it.

The next step was to disassemble the rest of the drill. This one came apart quite easily - one screw removed the handle and one screw removed the little tab that holds the main gear in place. After it was disassembled, I got out an old toothbrush and some low-odor mineral spirits and started scrubbing everything down. I went after some of the tougher spots with the green scouring pad.

After a bit of work, alternating between the green pad and the old toothbrush, I could see more detailed information about the drill. (Forgive my lack of macro pictures - the new camera doesn't have very good macro capability.) I found two marks of interest. On the chuck, I found a patent date of 1895. On the handle, I found an image of an oak leaf with the words, "WmEnder Oak Leaf" inscribed inside it.

A little internet searching turned up a small amount of information on William Ender. He worked for Simmons Hardware Co., a St. Louis-based hardware company(looks like this drill hasn't traveled very far). You might be more familiar with Simmons' Keen Kutter line of products. Ender was a V.P. in the company and developed his own line of products under the Oak Leaf name. I found an old court document in my search where William was listed as a witness in a legal action Simmons had against the city of St. Louis in 1917, so this drill probably dates to somewhere around that time. I say this because once he left Simmons, he marketed his tools under the Ender product name and not Oak Leaf.

Anyway... I continued scrubbing the drill with the toothbrush, making sure to clean up the teeth on the gear. Here you can see part of the drill sitting on a distant cousin of Chris Schwarz's affectioned "Woobie". I've only ever used this red rag in the process of cleaning old tools, however, so I'm not sure I would want to wipe down one of my hand planes with it before I put it away. After removing a lot of dirt and gunk, I was down to bare metal in several places. Maybe I'll take the time later to more aggressively scrub it and apply a new coat of paint, but for now a good cleaning was enough.

I put a bit of grease back in the hole where the gear spins, threaded the chuck back on, screwed the tab and handle back on and chucked in a drill bit to give it a test. The action on the chuck is a lot smoother now and the drill spins very easily. A test hole in a scrap of mahogany provides evidence of its function.

This was a quick, easy repair project and a fun way to take $3 and turn it into something very useable in the shop. Breathing life back into an old tool is also a great way of "going green", if you're into that sort of thing.

After a bit of pondering, I probably will take the time to disassemble the drill again, scrub it down even more and repaint it a gloss black (the original color, per the remaining paint I can see) and then give it away to someone. If I actually do follow through with that idea, I'll be sure to post a comparrison picture or two.

Working With Wood In A Different Sort Of Way...

I have to start off by saying Jim Malcolm was in brilliant form last night. Not only is he a great singer, song writer, and musician, but he also has a great sense of humor. This year he added a bit of theatrics as well, coming out on stage for the second half of the show dressed up as Robert Burns.

I don't really have any good photos of him, however, as I tried to avoid taking any pictures with the flash on - I'm sure it is distracting when you're up on stage. This is the best of the lot, honestly. I recorded video of a few songs with Dana's digital camera, but the quality and sound isn't as good as if taken from a real video camera, so haven't yet decided if I'll post them on YouTube or not.

I was excited for the chance to wear a kilt - I went with the Irish National tartan this time. The sporran is a custom Thorfinn by Turpin Ballard, in case anyone is wondering. Thorfinn sporrans are designed to have interchangeable flaps so you can get one made to go with every kilt you own. I need to try and sniff out a bit of some Ancient Campbell of Argyle tartan so I can have him make a sporran flap to match my other kilt, too.

Anyway, if you like Scottish folk music and you ever get a chance to see Jim Malcolm in person, don't pass it up. I've already seen him two or three times (three, if you count the time I saw him when he was singing for Old Blind Dogs) and I'm sure I'll see him again.

Now on to woodworking in a different sort of way...

I didn't get any shop time in today. Instead, Dana and I decided to do a bit of necessary work outside. For about two years now, we've been talking about planting a few more trees in the yard. Hey, I'm all for anything that reduces the amount of grass I have to mow. But the question is, what do we plant? We're both very interested in having a yard filled with native plants and trees, so that always plays an important part in our decision.

And we always take a long time making what we consider to be "big" decisions. That said, we've probably over-done the thinking part of this project. We've been to a particular nursery near our house so many times they know us as the "Grow Native" couple who hasn't bought anything yet.

Ah, well. That changed today with our purchase of a service berry tree and a beauty berry bush! The service berry tree normally has yellow leaves in the spring and summer and then turns bright red in the fall. It produces black berries a lot of native birds use for a food source. This tree will also be a good between-bites perching point for our bird feeder on the east side of the house. The beauty berry bush produces light purple berries many native birds also enjoy and, once it is full grown, it will become a resting place for birds using the feeder on the south side of the house.

We were initially going to just buy the service berry tree, but I wanted to take out a Japanese plum tree the previous owner planted way too close to the southeast corner of the house and replace it with something I wouldn't have to trim up twice a year. So we bought the bush, as well.

When making the purchase, the owner of the nursery convinced me I could plant the service berry tree myself. Had it only been three feet tall, I wouldn't have even considered paying someone else to do it, but we wanted to go with something a little more established. The tree we bought has three main trunks and is roughly six feet tall. But in the interest of saving about $75, I thought I would go with her advice and give it a try.

Since the soil in our area is... well, non-porous would be an accurate description... I had to modify the planting technique a bit. The hole needed to be just 1/2 to 3/4 the depth of the potted tree and then 2 or 3 times the diameter of the pot. The Missouri Department of Conservation suggests the top 12" of the root base are the most important, anyway, as that is where the biggest portion of roots draw in the largest amount of nutrients.

So I dug the hole to size and mixed a large amount of the good soil removed from the hole with a bag of clean soil and several gallons of our very own compost. We positioned the tree in place, cut away the plastic pot, and alternately watered and filled in the hole until it mounded up to the top of the root ball. A few inches of cedar mulch helps keep it from drying out too fast.

While I was working on the service berry, Dana pruned down the Japanese plum and started trying to dig out the root ball. She took a short break to help me backfill and water around the service berry and then I joined her, digging and clipping away until the root ball popped out and we had a 2' x 3' hole by the corner of our house. Planting the beauty bush went just about the same was as planting the service berry, only the hole wasn't nearly as big. Again, I got to use some of our home-made compost, which was such a great feeling, and again we finished it off with a few inches of cedar mulch. This variety shouldn't get but 4' or 5' tall with a total diameter of about 3' to 4', which is just perfect for this distance from the house.

While I didn't get a chance to work on my inlay pieces today, I did, technically, at least get to work with some wood. And it felt good to get outside and make some changes to the yard we've wanted to do for some time.