Hand Tool Store Trip

[Bob Jones]

I think this is the best place to post this. I just got back from my first trip to New York City, complete with a stop by Tools for Working Wood. I would suggest anyone interested in hand tools to go there if they ever visit NYC. I went in just to check things out and maybe buy a gouge - well, I left with more than that.
I was like a kid in a candy store. I think I finally understand why my wife likes shopping. Man, was it fun.

Their showroom was complete with two workbenches and they had plenty of wood to experiment with. Even though they were super busy with Christmas shipments, Joel was very helpful showing me how to use the saws (I'm no good with a handsaw yet). He even brought several things out of storage for me to try out. I ended up with a book, rasp, saw kit, and a couple of gouges. I would highly recommend stopping by if you are in the area. I hope I get to go back one day. There really are not very many places where you can lay hands on so many high quality hand tools.

[Casey Gooding]

Sounds like a great trip. I've wanted to go there for quite some time. Enjoy your loot.

[Richard Niemiec]

Been there, done that, and yes, Joel is great and its very much worth the trip. Didn't you love the elevator?

[Jim Koepke]

Joel was very helpful showing me how to use the saws (I'm no good with a handsaw yet).

I know the feeling. I am just getting to the point of being able to cut a piece and have it come out square with no light showing under the blade of the try square. Imagine how good it will be when I learn what I am doing.

It is doubtful my wife and I will ever get that far east, so what is it about the elevator?

jim

[Richard Niemiec]

The elevator....

Well, Joel's "store" is located in an industrial section of Brooklyn, on the fifth floor of an old complex of mill/loft buildings that served the old Brooklyn waterfront (think Marlon Brando "I coudda been a contender") on streets that dead end into Gowanus Bay that are at least 500 yards long, and the mill buildings are maybe 5 or 6 stories, the street is narrow and canyon like and everything is as old as dirt and looks it. So you're following directions, find the street, and you walk and walk (no other pedestrians at all) and finally find this door with the #32 marking on it and you go in and nothing about the layout is intuitive as to where to go, and then you find the freight elevator (again, old as dirt and looks it) with a small round doorbell buzzer and IIRC a handwritten sign saying something like "ring bell for elevator." Well, its a working freight elevator, and I think I rang the bell and after about 5 minutes I rang it again, and this real character finally comes with the elevator, opens the door and complains bitterly that I rang the bell twice and do I think he's deaf, etc., etc., all in a classic Brooklyn accent. So the elevator ride (and wait) was memorable, at least to me, for that.

Once you get used to it, the place has a certain charm, and definitely character.... but in my book, its well worth visiting and Joel is a really nice guy as well as being knowledgeable.

[Mark Roderick]

"I think I finally understand why my wife likes shopping. Man, was it fun."

I know the feeling! The first time I went to a woodworking show I experienced the feeling of shopping heaven, a feeling that seems to be available to most women from the basic trip to the mall.

[Ken Alcott]

Amen brother!

[Harlan Barnhart]

TFWW is what I do on rainy days. Don't wait on the elevator unless you have a medical condition. The stairs are faster and sort of a time warp themselves. It wouldn't be Brooklyn if no one barked at you.:)

[Bryan Hosford]

next time get some pictures.

[Johnny Kleso]

Nothing better than buying tools from someone that loves tools as much or more that yourself..

[Mark Stutz]

That was the highlight of my last trip to NY. Short subway ride from Manhattan to Brooklyn...short two or three blocks to the building, just as Richard described, though the elevator was already on the ground floor.
LOML was very patient. Thank goodness she brought something to read!:D Ended up was a saw, mortice chisel, and a bunch of other stuff. Maybe the best part, though, was the trip to the deli Joel recommended. Man that Pastrami was good!:D

[george wilson]

I was in Victor Machinery Exchange a few years ago in Brooklyn. Didn't know about the wood tool place. I can't recall Victor's address. They moved up from the Canal Street region some years ago,where they had been since the turn of the 20th.C.,or so. Maybe longer.

[Danny Thompson]

I love that place! A great adventure for a non-New Yorker.