Reply To: Wood Craft (store) and the Joke i think it is.
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Where is your local store located? It would be useful to know for others that are reading this thread.
The one nearest me is in Woodridge, Illinois (USA). They stock Veritas saws and a couple of Rob Cosman dovetail saws, Lynx 26″ rip and crosscuts saws, and Japanese saws.
I bought the Veritas dovetail saw there last year. The shop assistant was helpful and had no problem with me taking it out of the box to look over it and see how it felt. I didn’t ask to cut any wood with it, as I was going on others’ recommendation and I just wanted to see that it looked OK.
Last week I went on a hunt for a quick-release vise. I stopped by Berland’s Tools in nearby Lomard for a look. This store is definitely for contractors and small scale shops with every Powermatic tool you could drool over. Their hand tool dept is now aligned with the Rockler store, so they carry similar brands. It is very router and table saw centric. They did have a Shop Fox vise and an Anant 52-1/2 on display. The Anant look OK, but it was about $200.
So, I went to Woodcraft and saw that they had the Jorgensen 41012 and an Eclipse 9″ quick-release (copy of a 52-1/2). They were in boxes, so I asked if they had any on display and the shop assistant said he’d open the boxes for me.
I took both vises out and set them on top of a bench so that I could check how they were made and test out the release mechanisms. The assistant let me stay for fifteen minutes or more just playing around and trying to see which would be better.
So, I learned a lot about the product I was interested in from having gone to their store. People’s relationship to some tools are very personal and I like to see how they work in real life. I ended up ordering the 10″ Eclipse vise.
The store does have a lot of very expensive tools. It is mostly a high-end hobby store though. Aside from the furniture aspect which is of interest to us on this site, there are also numbers of people who are into wood turning or carving. Woodcraft seems to cater to these people a lot with the small wood blanks for pens and the huge number of gouges for carving. I was also in the market for a rasp, but they seem to start at $60. I’ll just stick to my basic set I got at the local big box store for now thanks.
Also, a lot of hobby woodworkers really like to use machines. I was in this camp too before I found Paul’s youtube videos. I’m not saying it was because of philosophy, just I didn’t know any different. I built a blanket chest for my sister using a table saw and trim gun. Stores like Woodcraft and Rockler exist to meet the demands of people who like to work this way.
Lastly, Woodcraft has a range of planes that they had on display. So, I got to check out the Woodriver #1 plane to see what one is like in real life.
Anyways, the store by me must be different. It is not ideal, but I don’t know if an ideal store has ever existed.