Hasin Haroon
10-09-2017, 8:02 PM
A few weeks ago I posted asking if Lie Nielsen still did their showroom discount. When the wife and I were in Maine a week ago we made the drive out to Warren. Kicked off my showroom and factory tour with a fire drill (there was an alarm going off). The factory tour was very cool, the attention to detail and quality imbued in all of their processes is fantastic, very similar to what I saw at Lee Valley/Veritas factory tour down to the same equipment testing each tool in the quality assurance/control department as at Veritas, though Lie Nielsen production seems to be at a much smaller scale. Highlight for me was watching their resident saw sharpener hand sharpening each saw at a homemade wooden vise. Just amazing.
The showroom itself was beautiful, with all the tools out and available ready and sharpened for use. The employees are good at giving you space while you try the tools out, which I really appreciated - I find it very annoying having someone hover over the other end of a bench while I try out a tool at other stores. The showroom also had a couple chairs made by Peter Galbert, just beautifully made and super comfortable.
I left the showroom much much poorer. As a Canadian, having Lee Valley in my city, selling tools of the same quality for quite a bit cheaper (because of shipping and exchange rates - I think LN prices are well warranted and the tools are well worth it) I usually find it tough to justify buying from LN, and I like to support local manufacturing whenever I can. But being there and seeing the tools in hand and getting them for a discount justified it for me, and I probably spent more than I should have! Another bonus - they let me go through a few of each tool to pick the handles and totes I liked...I can be silly that way. And one more thing - their bronze bench planes are just things of beauty.
The showroom itself was beautiful, with all the tools out and available ready and sharpened for use. The employees are good at giving you space while you try the tools out, which I really appreciated - I find it very annoying having someone hover over the other end of a bench while I try out a tool at other stores. The showroom also had a couple chairs made by Peter Galbert, just beautifully made and super comfortable.
I left the showroom much much poorer. As a Canadian, having Lee Valley in my city, selling tools of the same quality for quite a bit cheaper (because of shipping and exchange rates - I think LN prices are well warranted and the tools are well worth it) I usually find it tough to justify buying from LN, and I like to support local manufacturing whenever I can. But being there and seeing the tools in hand and getting them for a discount justified it for me, and I probably spent more than I should have! Another bonus - they let me go through a few of each tool to pick the handles and totes I liked...I can be silly that way. And one more thing - their bronze bench planes are just things of beauty.