I see from the website that the TO show has been cancelled until further notice. Anyone know what the problem is?
The London (Ontario) show was cancelled 2 years ago because the organizer thought the site rental was too high, and made a modest comeback this year. The Woodstock show, which still bills itself as “North America’s Largest,” gets visibly smaller every year. This year Sears didn’t have its usual tent, (not a huge loss to me, but the organizers must have felt it) and the furniture competition was smaller.
Woodworkers seem to be a dwindling breed. Or perhaps we’re all buying so many tools that the manufacturers don’t need to pursue us any more. Wot, no Rob Cosman? How am I going to get my fix of Lie-Nielsen?
Jim
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I don't know why, specifically, but that show (and presumably many others) was beginning to suck pretty bad.
I don't pay $12 or whatever to sign up for a Mastercard, buy religious music CDs, soiced meats, etc.. So much of the floorspace was only obliquely related to woodworking that I only went the past couple years because a friend wanted to.
Rob will be more than happy to sell you anything over his website.
"Rob will be more than happy to sell you anything over his website."
Well, sort of. You go to the LN site and it sends you to Rob Cosman as the only Canadian dealer. You go to his site and you get a feed back to LN. There is a phone number, but I would think he's on the road most of the time, dazzling the masses with thin shavings, or giving $1K a week lessons in handplaning in flashy hotels. So I waited for a woodshow to buy my chisels from him, at a decent price. I don't think he's heavily into technology. The guy who processed my credit card ran a screwdriver over receipt and card to make it register. No machines here, only handtools. It's annoying to me that you can't even see a LN plane in Canada without going to a show. Same for Steel City. There's only one dealer in my city of about 400,000, and he has only one machine on display. The SC machine I have I bought at a woodshow. I need the darn things, even though most of the displays are old hat.
Jim
Well, I don't know about Rob & his phone - everytime I've called, either he or his father has answered, or I've had a return call in a reasonably short time. I've emailed back and forth too. I've stopped by to see him at a couple of his courses (I don't have a week spare to take off) and bought stuff there as well.
He's a great guy!
With respect to Steel City, I am pretty sure Tegs Tools in Hamilton has them on display. They haven't adjust prices for the loonie yet, so I buy my stuff in Buffallo (30% ain't chump change)
I've been suspicious for awhile of the possibility that internet sales are what's impacting the vendors at shows. No proof of such, but seems feasible. The costs of displaying at such a show are quite high, and if the vendors don't really sell, sell, sell, it's a complete waste of resources (booth costs, labor costs, transportation for instance).
There's a new WWing show series called something like "Woodworking Expo" which showed up in Seattle last month. Very small and very disappointing.
Yep, I imagine you're right for the U.S. market given some of the deals available on the Net. I think though that Canadians are more reluctant to order from the States, as you may have gathered from a recent thread. The "deals" offered by the few Canadian sites are not worth the effort. Many Canadian sites won't even quote a price. We face the same situation in big boxes. HD still charges $50 more for its own stationary sander, and $150 more for its own contractor saw, despite dollar parity. For many of us, woodshows are our only chance to see the latest stuff, and to get a decent price.
Jim
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