kapperall

As a former Woodcraft employee I can concur with the comments made by Patrick Jackson and echoed by the other posts. Prior to working at Woodcraft I was a LN purchaser at my local Woodcraft store as well as other independent retailers. When I shopped the Woodcraft store for the LN tools, I knew more about them than did the Woodcraft employees. Even when I queried the employees about some of the features and differences of the LN planes (of which I knew the answers from both research and personal experience) I was more often than not given a made up answer about the tool that misrepresented the facts. The employees didn't have a clue about the product and were generally ill informed about hand tool use in general.

Once I started working there, I would bring in my own personal tools for customer to try and after taking the LN plane apart and comparing it to another comparable plane, the customer would understand why the LN tool was superior. Because I used these tools in my own work, I became the LN hand tool guy. When I left, things went back to the way they were before I started working at the store - LN tools kept in a locked cabinet that should be admired and not touched. And therein lies the major problem with many of these stores.

While there are exceptions to the generalization about the LN tools not being properly represented, I can understand the LN corporate decision to concentrate on providing their resources to retailers who truly understand the manufacturing, use and capabilities of the LN tools. It will be up to aficionados of the LN hand tools to educate our fellow woodworkers about these tools. Carry on LNers.