Lee Valley and Lie-Nielsen

[Cian]

Nothing alarming and many may have already noticed but...


Lee Valley has their FREE SHIPPING promo running again at the moment.  

And for anyone who still prefers handwritten notes, LV's Everyman's Journal is simply a world class bound book with blank lined pages.  I have used these for many years and have a shelf full (Made in North America too):

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/hom...em=49L0795


Regarding our friends at Lie-Nielsen, it appears that the forges are running again.  

For the last few years, I have been waiting for their bronze no. 3 to get listed - clearly a want vs need.  From the beginning of Covid, they haven't been available along with several items on their site.  I checked yesterday and lo-and-behold the iron body no. 3 is now ready for purchase.  Still waiting for the bronze though.

https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/no-...&node=4063


Enjoy!

[Nordic]

Sounds like the Lie-Nielsen bronze is still a ways out, but they are working on "a solution"...

Here's the statement on their website (https://www.lie-nielsen.com/pages/tool-availability)

Tool Availability

Our Showroom is now open! M-F 9am-4pm.

Thank you for your interest in our tools! We are now in stock on many of our more popular tools, and are working down the list of tools that we have not been able to make for some time. We are a small company dedicated to making the best woodworking hand tools we can and appreciate your patience as we work on getting more tools in production.

We are very much aware of the fact that many of our customers miss our Bronze tools, like the No. 4. So do we. During the pandemic our long time supplier of larger Bronze castings became unable to fulfill our requirements, a situation which now is clear will not change.

Meanwhile, other Bronze foundries are too busy to help us, so we are working on a solution that we believe will bear fruit. Among other things we need to re-tool every casting pattern plate, install new equipment to handle operations the previous foundry provided and get the casting process worked out to our satisfaction.

Unfortunately, this will take some time, but we hope to have good news later this year.

Thank you for your patience!

On other fronts, we are beginning to be able to make some tools that have been unavailable since the beginning of the pandemic and will continue to work through the list with determination. As a part of this effort we are re-designing and re-tooling as we need to make the best tools we can for you.

Please feel free to sign up for Alerts (on the tool pages) for tools that are not currently available and we will send you an email when they become available. There should be a number of re-introductions later this year.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• We make every effort to keep Core Tools in stock. If a Core Tool is out of stock, you may place a backorder, and will receive an email with an estimated shipping date. We will do our best to meet those estimates.
  
• We will build Core 2 Tools as we can, but we cannot take backorders for them. You are welcome to sign up to be notified when specific tools are ready (on the tool page).
  
• Other tools will be made from time to time. You are welcome to sign up to be notified when specific tools are ready (on the tool page).
  
• Some tools we used to make we may not make again. For now, they will be removed from our website.
  
• For tools that are in limited supply, we reserve the right to limit one per customer.
  
• Unprecedented, large increases in the cost of materials and everything else will result in some price adjustments.
  
• Our customer service team is short staffed. Please be patient! If the phones are busy, please email us. We may be able to respond faster that way.
  
• Please note also that UPS and USPS shipping are both experiencing delays and uncertain delivery times.
  

Best wishes,
—Thomas

[Ray Newman]

I ordered a #3 iron last night and this morning's E-mail showed a tracking number. Have no idea as to how many #3 iron's are in stock. 

Wonder when the #2 will be instock?

[iclark]

Bringing up an in-house bronze foundry is a very non-trivial task. Doing it so that things like plane bodies come out at near-finished-size even more so. My hat is off to them for even trying.

I hope that they are very successful.

[Cian]

Sounds like the Lie-Nielsen bronze is still a ways out, but they are working on "a solution"...

Here's the statement on their website (https://www.lie-nielsen.com/pages/tool-availability)

Good info.  Thanks for that, Leif.  Hope you are well.

[Tony Z]

Bringing up an in-house bronze foundry is a very non-trivial task. Doing it so that things like plane bodies come out at near-finished-size even more so. My hat is off to them for even trying.

I hope that they are very successful.

As an aside, copper prices still creeping upwards! When LN brings their bronze planes on to market, expect pricing to be significantly higher than pre-pandemic.

[Cian]

I ordered a #3 iron last night and this morning's E-mail showed a tracking number. Have no idea as to how many #3 iron's are in stock. 

Wonder when the #2 will be instock?

Ray - Please do report back on on your impressions of that #3.  I don't antipicate there to be any (quality) changes, but am curious if there are any differences vs their pre-Covid offerings.

[AHill]

Regarding our friends at Lie-Nielsen, it appears that the forges are running again.  

Cian, I don't think Lie-Nielsen forges any of their products.  Their chisels are machined and their plane bodies are cast.  I think you meant to say the foundries are running again.

[tablesawtom]

Am I assuming, that Lie Nielson is going to do the bronze castings in house, if the demand for a bronze planes is there, it might be a good investment.

[Cian]

Well that blows. Had the iron L-N #3 in my cart for a month or so. Checked in today and it appears to have jumped $45 and is just $5 shy of the bronze that isn’t on stock. Heck, may as well wait for the bronze.