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11/16/2016 |
This coming Saturday I will be giving my first class ever in grinding. It's actually not the first time I have taught this - I did an abbreviated demo years ago at a show. However this will be the first time I'm teaching grinding in a formal way. The class, as are all the classes I teach is free. Our basic thought on teaching is that the more people, especially beginners that can get past the hump of basic skills the more enjoyable and more involved they will be in woodworking, and I guess participating rin craft overall. For me it's also a chance to chat with woodworkers at more depth than usual. You can read about the class here. I hope you can come. I'm pretty excited.
This past Saturday I did another session of my class on sharpening. Since the class is free we don't always know how many people will should up. We ask everyone to register but there are usually cancellations and additions at the last minute, which isn't a big deal. I would much rather people try to make it, or make it at the last moment than skip it. It's also an interesting delemma for me. A small turnout means I can have more hands on for everyone. A larger turnout is good for my ego.
I will be repeating the sharpening and grinding class at some point in the future so if you can't make it no worries.
December 3rd we will be having a Festool Demo Day. What happens is that we set up all the tools and our local Festool rep, will exhaustively demo any tool you have questions about. We do this anytime if you need a demo but - he gives great demo. The official hours are from 11-1 but if people should up around 1 or so we will keep it going as long as we need to.
 Our showroom is constantly being expanded - it's just everything takes longer. We are replacing one of our doors with a glass door so we look less like a warehouse and more like a store. But at the same time saw production is greatly expanded and piles of Hardware Store Saw, which btw now comes in an awesome presentation box, and our Gramercy Tools saws are being produced.
 This fall we just added a new line of china bristle brushes. It's what we use for painting milk paint but we also use it for regular paint and varnish. Unlike our ox and fake badger brushes which have a super fine hair for shellac and lacquer these are moderately priced general purpose brushes for general work. We also have them with round ferrules, the latter being a traditional shape that holds more paint.
 Green woodworking is more popular than ever and for lots of people that means "Spoon Carving" Take a look at these spoon carving tools by Ray Iles, Solid, heavy duty, and with very comfortable handles.
Lost Art Press will have a bunch of new books this fall, including volume 3 of Hayward. I am very excited and looking forward to that.
In the power tool areas Festool has a new box of workbench accessories. Like every year it is probably more expensive than it should be but it also contains a couple of new items - 2 low profile fences and 4 bench dogs. We will stock them when they are available.
We also took in a huge range of Make it Snappy tools. Snappy is one of those great Made in USA company that is constantly facing pressure from knockoffs overseas. But their stuff is better quality than their imitators and they make a huge range of useful accessories.
In other news I am in the middle of writing - well actually I haven't started - some software to help track inventory better so in theory that should result in fewer things out of stock, and I am also getting ready for a Cyber Monday sale.
This year our Cyber Monday sale will be smaller than usual, and should really be the start of some regular special stuff. We will be selling off about 25 planes that are excess to my collection. Pricing is lower than some dealers but higher than random flea market stuff and, unlike Ebay, you can return anything you don't like. The descriptions are as accurate as I can make them. I have tons more stuff I need to sell off but I don't know how much more will be ready in time. So hopefully we will just release stuff weekly for awhile.
There is a lot of other new stuff I didn't mention click here for the entire list.
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