Crucible Holdfasts

[Philip1231]

As a free market guy, I don't care what people spend their money on. Manufacturing is all about economy of scale. It is not surprising
that a fairly complicated very low volume manufacturing process would yield a product that has to be priced as it has. The market will pass
final judgment on this endeavor. Having said that, since this is an endeavor of Chris Schwartz, I do hope it is successful. I have personally gained a tremendous amount of valuable information from Chris's videos, blog postings, and books, and when he is successful, we all benefit.

[John Dykes]

*Edit. Nevermind. Everybody has a right to earn a buck. I won't post my personal thoughts about it....

I'm very, very happy with my holdfast from Blum tools (Google it).

[Tony Z]

Agreed with post #26.

There are alternatives for most tools, though it sometimes takes a bit of effort to locate them. On forums, it seems mostly the latest, greatest get the publicity.

[RonB1957]

This thread reminded me of a question I had.
      So please excuse my ignorance as I am not a metallurgist. I have read several times that ductile cast iron is not as high a quality as the older cast iron, which as I understand needs to cure more before it is worked. Particularly with regards to planes. Case in point was Delta's jointer fences that arrived in the US, some years back, warped and had to be re milled. ( I had one ).
    Perhaps some one could enlighten me on this matter.
With regards to the Schwartz company, I certainly make no prejudgment. The hand tool world is no different than the power tool world. Always somebody making claims of superiority, factual or not, in the never ending quest for market shares. That's just marketing. My Grammercy hold fast work just fine for me.
Best wishes,

[mvflaim]

I made a couple of holdfasts from an old car spring while taking a blacksmith class from Don Weber in Paint Lick, KY. Costs me $150 for the class and they were well worth the money. Learned about blacksmithing and went home with a couple of holdfasts that are invaluable. I use them all the time.

[overland]

There are two questions here. First, do 1" holdfasts have any significant advantage over 3/4 holdfasts? I'd like to hear from someone who uses the bigger ones. Chris Schwarz says they do and bases his view partly on the historical record. Second, is a bigger holdfast worth $135? That does seem like a lot. You can buy a forged 1" holdfast for less from blacksmiths like the one at Black Bear Forge. But no doubt the Crucible holdfast is top notch, and like other top notch tools--Lie-Nielsen, Bridge City, etc., they're not going to be cheap. As it happens, I recently installed a new, thicker bench top, and I bought a vintage 1" holdfast from France for a total cost that was less than half of what the Crucible sells for. We'll see how it works out

[Paul-in-Plymouth]

So let me get this straight.  You hope Chris and Raney will be unsuccessful in selling a few ductile cast holdfasts at $135 each, because if they are successful, then Joel at TFFW, who is currently selling his innovative and perfectly serviceable holdfasts for $35 per pair, will feel a need to raise his price to meet the competition?  And then everybody will go broke paying $135 apiece?  Whose theory of the market is this?  Not Adam Smith’s for sure.

[Adnick]

Overland:

Can you provide your French source?

Thanks,
Andy

[Admiral]

There are two questions here. First, do 1" holdfasts have any significant advantage over 3/4 holdfasts? I'd like to hear from someone who uses the bigger ones.

My Sjobergs bench has 1" holes, and I had a smithy make me a pair to fit; basically steel rod 1" diameter, with a bent flat steel paw welded to the top of the rod.  I don't know if it holds better than a 3/4" size, but it holds quite well and once set they do not move around.  Easy release as well.

[overland]

I don't have any French source. I bought my holdfast off Ebay. It wasn't easy. I had to correspond with the seller in French, for one thing. And my first attempt failed. The seller sent my holdfast to the wrong address, although eventually I got my money back. The shipping is pretty expensive, and for some reason there was a big difference in the two cases. Unlike the British Ebay sellers, the Europeans don't seem all that interested in doing business with Americans.