I have four tables of tools priced and ready to move during our Saturday open house at 837 Willard St., Covington, KY 41011.
There’s a little bit of everything: bench planes, moulding planes, saws, drills, marking tools, a glue pot and sharpening equipment. I’ll open the door at 10 a.m. (no earlybirds, please. We like to treat everyone the same).
All tool sales are cash or check.
My favorite tool table is the “free to a good home” table in the center of the room. This table has a lot of the tools I started woodworking with in 1993. There’s my first backsaw, which includes the replacement handle I made but never attached. My first three plastic-handled chisels. My first mallet. And a bunch of silly stuff people have dumped on my doorstep (a hammer made from a faucet?).
I also pulled out a couple pieces of prototype furniture that have been in the shed for the last few years. When I sell prototypes, I sell them for the cost of materials only. They are not perfect. Repeat: Perfect they are not. But they are fully functional. There’s a six-board chest (one of the failed prototypes for “The Anarchist’s Design Book” that I’m selling for $100). And a walnut wall cabinet with rat tail hinges, a prototype from Woodworking Magazine, for $150.
We will also have our usual full line of books, for which we can take credit cards, plus blemished books, free posters and free stickers. Plus Katy will have a batch of wax for sale.
I do hope someone shows up tomorrow because I don’t want to have to move these tools again.
— Christopher Schwarz
I understand you will be shipping at your own expense to anyone who doesn’t bother showing up in person, yet still expects first dibs. Of course I will be requesting several closeup photos of each item, from odd angles. (Can you email me a shot of the glue pot, lit by the morning sun’s rays through the window over your toilet tank?) I’ll take my order packed in fluffy down and bunny tails, nestled inside a hand-dovetailed box of your finest Peruvian something-or-other. Overnight it to me tonight, or else drive through the night so I can be surprised by it when I get my paper off my steps in the morning. And what’s your return policy (just in case I find a better price on eBay)?
Thanks James. You said it better than I could.
Free shipping to Ecuador, too, right?
Do you take trades?
Your final sentence prompts the following inquiry: what has attendance been like since you opened the new storefront? Do the attendance figures make you flirt with reconsideration of your once-a-month policy?
I won’t be there tomorrow…but I’ll get there someday!
We usually have 10 visitors per open day. We don’t do it for the money. It’s for the public outreach. We have taught people to sharpen and turn, we have helped them with their chair designs.
Honestly, if it were busier it wouldn’t be as much fun.
So we plan to continue it indefinitely.
Hi Chris,
Good luck with your sale tomorrow.
By coincidence I will be thinning my tool collection with a tools-only garage sale tomorrow, So anyone who can’t make it to your place and lives in the Chicago area is welcome to come to my place in Glen Ellyn, IL. See my ad in Craigslist under “Tools only garage sale” in the “Tools for Sale” section.
And thanks again for the translated Roubo text on setting up a shop. Very interesting stuff.
Dan
Dan, I live close to you and will be at Lost Art Press in the morning. Irony of ironies. If you want me to haul anything back to Chi-town, let me know.
Oh I will be there.
Dude that is the nicest free table I have ever seen…veritas tools on a free table, your a god man Chris! Thanks for all that you and everyone at LAP do to promote and lift the woodworking community… I’ll make my homage one day 😜
I so, so wish I could make the trip. I’d make it just for that free to a good home wooden plane! Sadly, I won’t be there. Someday, though.
I predict a long line (queue), before the doors open.
Chris –
What beautiful pieces. About the tools to a good home, I’ve been acquiring tools for working wood in a new way, something I’ve not done before. I have just the place the place for the tools in a good home.
I’ve been acquiring tools for working wood in a new way something I’ve not done before. Could the tools be boxed and shipped to me at my cost as I can not make a trip to your shop.
Over the last several years I have developed a polyneuropathy something akin to MS. This has made me retire early in life. I have been a land surveyor for 25 years and have forced to stop working.
I am beginning to carve American Long Rifles and these tools would be a great addition for the work planned.
Sincerely,
Chris de France
Hi Chris,
I’m afraid we sold everything in a bout two hours!
Good luck with your long rifles!