Lie Neilson Road Show comes to town...calling woodworkers close to Toronto UPDATE

Rob Keeble

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GTA Ontario Canada
Well i just happen to look up the Exotic woods website and i see the good news.

The Lie Neilson handtools road show is coming to Toronto starting May 28 Noon thru to 6pm and Sat 29 10am thru to 5pm

So all you Michiganders and Londonites and anyone else in the vicinity of Toronto (Burlington to be exact) come on down lets meet there for a meet and greet.

See this link for the pdf it was too large to post here as a file.

Anyone interested let me know so we can meet.

Any of you Michiganders wanna come up? It aint that far for you guys. You could do Lee Valley on the same weekend;):D and be able to compare.:):thumb:
 
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Well folks i have just got back from the Lie Neilson Hand Tool event.

Came back empty handed.:( Was a little disapointed to tell you the truth. Yeah they had the full range there which was great and a couple of benches where you could try anything out, but truth be told i need a little education before even trying out a tool. So i was hoping there would be a person at each table doing the good old "Billy May" type demo and then letting you try it out. Cause i picked up and worked all the tennon/back saws and while they are all perfectly fine pieces of machined art, I had a hard time being a neaderthral philistine determining the difference. There were two pretty attractive ladies representing Lie Neilson there but they were busy with taking orders or fixing a tool for a customer. So you were left pretty much to your own devices. Not a good thing for a guy like me, i went to town, so much so that guys were asking me questions about the tools, inside i cracked up laughing, thinking if they only knew how little i know. I think some could see by the way i handled the tools.

Toni if you happen to read this I agree with you get that Shoulder plane design going and complete cause i aint ever handled something as akward as these planes.

But the real treat was taking a real fancy collector Sig Sauer infill plane for a test drive on some pear. Oh this was heaven, i cannot legally use the words i would to describe the experience. The shavings were two inches wide and thin as rice paper and continuous. Man it was a real treat. I did not ask how much cause i knew it aint happening so why even bother.:D

One thing i tried out, (and Glenn if you happen to read this you should consider these if you aint got any rasps given your current project) is the Lie Neilson floats, I thought they were rasps because they have that kind of effect. Man these things are impressive for shaping wood. I came back to learn from their website that they are meant for plane makers but I dont care i would use them as a rasp. Really great tool and one i would like to have handy to use even if i plan on using them incorrectly.:D

But the most enjoyable distraction there and let me tell all you hot blooded males even really fantastic miss world pagen babes in bikinis would not have been able to have a better draw was the wood that Exotic woods has. I had never even know of this place until recently then did not expect much but thank goodness i live about and hour and half away from this place or i would have no money at all and be in big do do with loml.

Their website I told them does simply not do them justice. I am told and its listed on their site that they are getting a new site. Man i fell in love with this place. Wood is labeled and priced so you can see what you looking at and see what its going to cost you. They had some pieces that would make you drool Larry. I took a friend along and he and i were plotting how we could get a 19 foot long 5 ft wide single 1.5 inch thick board back to where we stay to make two tables with this piece. :D It was absolutely like standing in the middle of a tree sawn in half and looking up at the resulting slab. :eek:

Sorry guys i had planned on taking my camer but as usual my grey hair kicked in and i could have kicked myself when half way there i realized i had not. :( my bad.

But burls, veneers and spalted wood every imported wood you can imagine, not one but three types of ebony, oh i could go on and on and on.

So the wood more than made up for the questionable event.

I think the problem with toolmakers is them marketing their tools themselves. They need a Billy May public speaking course and need to get people going on their tools and show their obvious extreme knowledge and passion for what hey do. Besides the Sig Sauer guy there were reps and tools their from Medallion Toolworks and D.L. Barret and Sons with their plough planes were also there.

I guess tomorrow might be a better day given they only opened at 12 and i was there by around 1:30pm

Its also a very intimidating experience trying great tools without the guidance of an expert. At the woodworking shows the great thing at the Lee Valley stands is they have a guy that sets you straight on how to stand and how to use the tool.

I tried a plane that was interesting that i had absolutely no clue how it was suppose to work. It had no adjuster and i am sure was meant for planing a cove or something that was curved. Could not even find it on the Lie Neilson site.

Oh and a ball pene hammer at $85 well boys thats way too rich for me given our own Mike Henderson has posted how to do his little brass hammer for a percentage of the cost and have a project to do at the same time.

But I do have aspirations to learn to be worthy of buying tools of this quality just the question is the price versus use versus return.

All in all a worthwhile visit. Glad to see Lie Neilson doing this I think i will write them and offer some feedback on how they might improve to be able to get me to buy since i am a tool junkie supreme.:D:rofl:
 
I had quite the opposite experience atthe woodworking show.(lee vally booth I believe)
But then again, I planned ahead and asked Ken to meet me there and go over things.
Its intimidating to pick up 200 dollar hand planes with all those reps staring at you, and then there are the other 50 woodworkers who probably know less than you, staring at you also hoping to see how to use something.
Then Ken picks up a plane, first shows you how to disassemble it, tighten or loosen the blade, for sharpening, then the correct placement, the correct way to hold it, how to stand, what motion to use, and then he picks up a similar tool and goes over that one with you to point out the pros and cons of each for the uses I described to him.
Im almost certain Ken had an audience, and the Lee guys were fine stepping back and letting Ken teach me how to use planes and scrapers.
He took out a little router plane, showed 10 of us how to use it, what it does, hes like a doctor with a scalpel, wait, isnt he a....eh...forget about it.....you want to learn about a plane, or a saw, you need to invite ken up to the show.
 
I had quite the opposite experience atthe woodworking show.(lee vally booth I believe)
But then again, I planned ahead and asked Ken to meet me there and go over things.
Its intimidating to pick up 200 dollar hand planes with all those reps staring at you, and then there are the other 50 woodworkers who probably know less than you, staring at you also hoping to see how to use something.
Then Ken picks up a plane, first shows you how to disassemble it, tighten or loosen the blade, for sharpening, then the correct placement, the correct way to hold it, how to stand, what motion to use, and then he picks up a similar tool and goes over that one with you to point out the pros and cons of each for the uses I described to him.
Im almost certain Ken had an audience, and the Lee guys were fine stepping back and letting Ken teach me how to use planes and scrapers.
He took out a little router plane, showed 10 of us how to use it, what it does, hes like a doctor with a scalpel, wait, isnt he a....eh...forget about it.....you want to learn about a plane, or a saw, you need to invite ken up to the show.

allen said it all,, ken knows planes..
 
allen said it all,, ken knows planes..

I'll second that. I picked up more info regarding planes in about 30 minutes with Ken than I had previously learned in my life. Even though I bought my first plane when I was about 7 years old, I'd never really learned much about them.
 
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