Lie-Nielsen Toolworks

[Handplanesandmore]

Anybody else more apt to go to a museum or gallery than a tool show?  I hate clutter and I still have a few tools I don't use.  Don't need any new ones.

I'd rather watch milk paint dry than some guy planing wood.

I got it now. When you said it might be better off for L-N to stop the roadshows, you were having this mind: you have nothing else to buy given your collection of tools, so L-N has no reason to put up a show.

Simon

[MarkWells]

That said, early on in my getting back into woodworking, I went to a LN roadshow in Tampa. It was a terrible experience.

Sorry you had a bad experience.  For a long time I didn't understand Lie-Nielsen.  To a primarily power tool user, the tools seemed ridiculously expensive.  For example, I have a #45 tongue and groove plane.  A joke that always gets a good laugh is, "it only costs a little more than a router."

Then I pushed all my power tools aside and tried working entirely by hand.  It was a very enjoyable experience.  That sent me on a search for hand tools.  They are very difficult to find "in the wild" in central Texas.  After lots of searching and lots of restoring, I finally understood the value of the Lie-Nielsen tools.  For example, I have a couple of planes that I flattened using a surface plate, Dykem, and sandpaper attached to different sized sticks.  It totally worked and the soles are flat now, but it took hours and was very messy.  After years of searching I found a #8 (huge jointer plane) on Craigslist.   The guy selling it had "restored it" and I never could get that plane to work properly.  After doing this kind of stuff a while and filling my shop with partially working tools, I finally got it.  I could just spend the money on a Lie-Nielsen tool and there's no searching (well, pre-pandemic) and it works right out of the box.  Besides, I wanted to do woodworking, not metal working.  By the time I did all that math, the tools seemed quite reasonably priced.

To me the Hand Tool Events are extremely valuable to the hand tool community because it's one of the only local, free places you can go and use tools and have other people show you how to use tools.  Just by avoiding the travel cost to Amana  or Woodworking in America you could buy a tool or two.

I know one of the challenges they have is finding a space to hold the events.  That can result in some wonky setups.  In any case, I encourage you not to give up.  If an event comes back to town, hang out there for a while and show a newbie how to joint and edge or how to use a saw.

Mark

[camp10]

Man what I'd give for a LN tradeshow (or fully stocked website) right now.

I hope I never take such things for granted anymore.

[AHill]

For a little more than half the price ($2345) of a SawStop Industrial 3HP 220V table saw ($4449), you can get these LN tools:

No 4, 5, and 7 bench planes
Low Angle Adjustable block plane
Rip dovetail and crosscut carcase saws
Large router plane
Entire chisel set
Fla spokeshave

So, I don't look at LN as a pricey proposition.

[Aram]

For a little more than half the price ($2345) of a SawStop Industrial 3HP 220V table saw ($4449), you can get these LN tools:

No 4, 5, and 7 bench planes
Low Angle Adjustable block plane
Rip dovetail and crosscut carcase saws
Large router plane
Entire chisel set
Fla spokeshave

So, I don't look at LN as a pricey proposition.

Great point, but one correction. There is no such thing as an "entire chisel set." We always have an entire chisel set minus one. 

[Handplanesandmore]

As much as I love handtools, I cant but point out that maybe half the price but not half the efficiency of a sawstop workhorse.

Simon

[CStan]

I got it now. When you said it might be better off for L-N to stop the roadshows, you were having this mind: you have nothing else to buy given your collection of tools, so L-N has no reason to put up a show.

Simon

No that's a complete misreading and argumentative: it's they have very little to gain and more to lose by putting on shows of uneven quality.

The brand and quality, at this point, pretty much speak for themselves.  An inept presenter would do more harm than good.

I'm also prone to getting a wild hair every now and then. Who knows that after a bottle of particularly good merlot I might place a $6,000+ order with L-N. One never knows, but it certainly wouldn't be a live demonstration that moved me to make a large buy.

[AHill]

No that's a complete misreading and argumentative: it's they have very little to gain and more to lose by putting on shows of uneven quality.

The brand and quality, at this point, pretty much speak for themselves.  An inept presenter would do more harm than good.

I'm also prone to getting a wild hair every now and then.  Who knows that after a bottle of particularly good merlot I might place a $6,000+ order with L-N.  One never knows, but it certainly wouldn't be a live demonstration that moved me to make a large buy.

Sometimes they choose local woodworkers to do the presenting.  If they are a well-known woodworker, no issues.  Sometimes you don't get the most knowledgeable or motivated presenters.  In that case, shame on LN for not vetting them properly.  Hey, when the started the roadshows, the tools were available for handling, presentations and tutorials weren't necessarily part of the show  I remember when it was just Deneb and his wife.  It was all they could do just to handle sales.