Hi Everybody,
I don’t really expect to get any responses to this post but I still feel the frustrated need to post it anyway.
I’ve lived in Mexico for the past ten years and where I live needless to say there’s no good hardware or tool stores anywhere. So when I get the rare opportunity to go up to the good ol USA I kinda feel like that kid who steps into a toys-r-us for the first time. My first stop is always the local tool store in San Diego to fill up on the things I can’t get down south. I made a special trip to the rockler store in National City for the sole purpose of buying myself a LN #4, and would have settled for anything LN that suits my needs (I could smell the oil and bronze the whole way there) only to find out that “we don’t carry those anymore”.
What’s the world coming to when a “woodworkers store” has a completely pathetic asortment of jammy planes. AARRG
Well, I’ll have to just buy it over the internet.
Brian
Replies
Well, I'll have to just buy it over the internet.
They are good on the internet. I have ordered and redieved in 3 days..... Aloha, Mike
I feel for you mate!
I've spent almost the whole of my life living on the edge of the known world, but making stuff that depends on good tools, or good gear.
When a boy, US-made Cox model airplane engines were the bees knees, and I worked hard, at a grown-man's rates, to earn money to travel to the city to spend hours buying the materials, glue, and engines to construct radio-controlled model aircraft.
Then, many years later, I lived in Wales, in the UK, and the day-long trek to London, or Cardiff, or any other major British city, meant finding and shopping at a woodwork shop! Once or twice a year. Pilgramages!
Now, in yet another life (http://www.macpherson.co.nz), I'm still on the edge of civilisation, and there are no places, anywhere within driving or cheap flying distance, where I can see, touch, and compare tools, timber or anything all you guys have on your doorsteps.
The internet is great. But it's a very poor substitute!
Malcolm
0.06% of the world's people are Kiwis
Brian,
Surely Rockler are not "purveyors of quality tools"? I got that impression from what I have seen on their web site.
Anyway , these days it looks as though the vast majority of shops are run by remote control and number wizards.
Brian,
Sorry to hear about your disappointment and disorientation - there is only one Rockler store in San Diego County, and it's in Kearny Mesa, not National City. But you're right; they don't carry decent hand planes, more's the pity; only crappy Groz planes that look as though they would require a month of fettling.
Hope you got some good stuff while you were there, and that you were treated well!
-Jazzdogg-
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
Brian,
I don't know if Bill Kohr has a retail location or not. The last I talked to him, I thought they'd just opened their retail store front somewhere in the San Diego area. You can reach him through his web site at http://www.craftsmanstudio.com .
You are right, Rockler does not carry Lie-Nielsen. I don't know if they ever did. Woodcraft is the LN outlet for that kind of store, and many other good sources carry Lie-Nielsen on their web sites. They are not hard to find. Actually, Lie-Nielsens are not seen very often in retail tool stores. Berlands House of Tools here in Chicago carries quite a few. Just order direct from Lie-Nielsen. They are such a cool company to deal with. I'm going there this summer to visit the plant.
hey are such a cool company to deal with. I'm going there this summer to visit the plant.They are cool and its hardly a plant. More of a custom fab shop and really amazing to see. Aloha, Mike
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