Anyone drooling over John Neeman's tools besides me?

[Todd Burch]

Awesome presentation in his videos, if you haven't seen them. Makes me want to place an order.

[Jim Matthews]

I would, but he's WAY too expensive compared to Swedish imports.

Peter Follansbee recommends some of the smaller hatchets of Svante Djarv through the Country Workshop (http://www.countryworkshops.org/Axes.html).
The Neeman stuff looks terrific and the videos are engaging, but the delays are great.

[James Owen]

Yes....appears to be very nice!!!!
In addition to the price difference compared to a lot of the Swedish tools, the cost of postage from Latvia is going to be outrageous......

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I remember seeing his videos and enjoying watching the process. Some nice photography on his site. I see folks comment on his price - I don't see prices discussed on his site at all; am I missing something? Perhaps it's on his facebook, I don't have an account, so I can't see that page. For some reason I felt like I had heard a price on his large chisels once and thought it was quite good, but maybe I'm totally misremembering something.

[Todd Burch]

Yes, prices are on facebook. Early this morning, I compared some Swedish import prices and found Neeman's tools to be competitively priced.

[george wilson]

Those deep pits in the chisels bother me.

[Chris Vandiver]

I can't seem to get onto his website. Anyone else having a problem with that?

[Caleb James]

I would, but he's WAY too expensive compared to Swedish imports.

Peter Follansbee recommends some of the smaller hatchets of Svante Djarv through the Country Workshop (http://www.countryworkshops.org/Axes.html).
The Neeman stuff looks terrific and the videos are engaging, but the delays are great.

While i can't comment on the shipping charges, the prices compare favorably to other high quality framing chisels (barrtools) and the production times are running around 2-4 months which I feel is quick considering the size of the company.

[george wilson]

It is just not necessary to have such deep pits in properly forged chisels. I hope they aren't also on the side where the cutting edge is made.:)

[Todd Burch]

Hi George. What would your recommendation be for a smoother (better) chisel surface?

[george wilson]

Lots of chisels out there. For decades the blacksmith's shop in Williamsburg has made chisels and plane irons left with forged surfaces and no pits like that,as have I. I posted a few hand forged gouges I made here some time ago.

Makes me wonder if he's overheating the metal.

Personally,I like my Pfiels,except for the handles. Many like the LN 01 or A2 chisels. All have ground surfaces.

[steven c newman]

Framer chisel/ i'll take my VANCAMP, thank you...240024a wee bit beat up. Has a dividing line between the steel and wrought iron areas. Iron hoop. That is a #5 jack plane beside it..240025

[Richard Jones]

"Anyone drooling over John Neeman's tools besides me?"
Not me............

[Todd Burch]

"Anyone drooling over John Neeman's tools besides me?"
Not me............

You still kicking?

[Richard Jones]

You still kicking?

Ha! Sometimes even screaming and kicking........ That's how those big male nurses get me to dinner some nights........

And those are some good looking tools, if'n you're into that hand stuff........

I am sort of interested in seeing how those Elmax knives perform. Pretty similar to M390, which a lot of knife guys are drooling over.

[David Weaver]

It's nice to see an artisan going at it, but most of the stuff he makes is out there in droves in the vintage market, and not on ebay. I have better luck finding that kind of stuff cheap than I do cabinetmaker's type tools.

There was a guy at the local flea here last week who had hundreds of chisels to sell because he changed his mind on his display case, he wanted to have hammers in it instead. Superb stuff, too, as well as single bevel broad hatchets, etc (he had two plumb's for $20 each, one of which I took, I kind of wish I would've taken both).

I just can't see buying that stuff new, unless you want to be able to point to while he's still upright and breathing.

[Caleb James]

It's nice to see an artisan going at it, but most of the stuff he makes is out there in droves in the vintage market, and not on ebay. I have better luck finding that kind of stuff cheap than I do cabinetmaker's type tools.

There was a guy at the local flea here last week who had hundreds of chisels to sell because he changed his mind on his display case, he wanted to have hammers in it instead. Superb stuff, too, as well as single bevel broad hatchets, etc (he had two plumb's for $20 each, one of which I took, I kind of wish I would've taken both).

I just can't see buying that stuff new, unless you want to be able to point to while he's still upright and breathing.

As a counterpoint, the artisans, while their wares may be more expensive, are preserving a dying craft. Eventually, all of these old tools you're finding will disappear, and, without these tool crafters, there will be no quality tools to replace the older ones. Just cheap, machine-made stuff that falls apart in a few months.

[David Weaver]

They're not going to disappear for at least several generations. I agree, though, it depends on what you want to do with your money. If you're concerned about the craft, then you may want to pay to keep someone going at it. If you're concerned about just doing the work, there are plenty of tools out there that are near unused, and the current group of folks buying them are likely using them little. They'll be around in their current form for quite some time.

The revival in users and collector is likely to keep them around longer, even if people do use them.

There is enough in print now that if someone needs to revive the craft in the future, they'll be able to.

EDIT: I should expand on why i said the above. I think the real loss to the craft has been the loss of widespread manufacturing high quality goods in a less artisanal way. The way a place like a Barton or Disston factory built superb tools in quantity. I don't think there's any real loss of the artisanal side of things, at least not in the long term. There will always be a small demand for it, and there is enough literature and now much more scientific backup to make sure that someone will always be able to make tools in low volume if needed.

But even at that, we do have a few smaller manufacturers making high quality tools. Some of them better than vintage and artisan tools ever were, though maybe not timberworking trades type tools.