Hock Iron from Lee Valley

[Nathan Johnson]

I just received a Hock O1 replacement iron from Lee Valley.
None of the Hock packaging was present. The iron was carefully wrapped in tissue paper.
It was also immediately evident that the back of the iron had been prepared and the edge sharpened.

Is this standard practice when you order a Hock blade from Lee Valley? I mean, it's directly competing with their own replacement irons, and the price was no different than any other retailer of these Hock irons.
(I emailed their customer service to ask and express my thanks, but just curious if this is common knowledge.)

I shouldn't be surprised, I suppose, by such service from Lee Valley, but it didn't even dawn on me they'd do extra in this case.

[Bob Jones 5443]

No surprise here: only admiration for Ron and Rob, and thoughts about what our craft would ever do without them.

[J. Greg Jones]

The white tissue paper is the standard Hock packaging, and the back of the blade should be polished near the edge. None of the blades I’ve seen from Ron have lapped backs like what the Veritas blades do.

[Nathan Johnson]

The white tissue paper is the standard Hock packaging, and the back of the blade should be polished near the edge. None of the blades I’ve seen from Ron have lapped backs like what the Veritas blades do.

That's interesting.
The Hock Iron I ordered from Woodcraft was in a plastic sleeve with no tissue paper.
It also had a low corner on the back and took quite a bit of work to prepare.

[Warren Mickley]

Lee Valley policy is to conceal the identity of anything that is not labeled.

I bought some coping saw blades from Lee Valley once. Since I am a professional woodworker and have been left high and dry by companies that discontinue coping saw blades, I wrote an email asking for the manufacturer. That way if something happened, I could attempt to find them again.

Dennis Stimson, customer service, wrote:

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to give out the manufacturer information unless this information is on the product or on the packaging. This is to protect our sources after having spent considerable time and money in sourcing the products.

In other words they spent so much money finding the coping saw blades and the plane irons that could not divulge the hard won information.

As it happened, five years later I wrote on a forum that that I use and I like the Lee Valley blades, but they come dull as all get out, and need to be sharpened before use. Then Lee Valley actually looked at the blades, realized they were dull, and pulled them from the catalog. I wrote again, asking for the manufacturer of the discontinued blades, but "Evan" said he still could not divulge the valuable information.

[J. Greg Jones]

That's interesting.
The Hock Iron I ordered from Woodcraft was in a plastic sleeve with no tissue paper.
It also had a low corner on the back and took quite a bit of work to prepare.
Here is a blade and breaker combo I ordered direct from Ron late last fall. I just opened it this morning after reading your post.

[Nathan Johnson]

Interesting.
Maybe it's just as simple as a packaging change by Hock and I just received a closer to perfect iron this time around.

[J. Greg Jones]

It just dawned on me that I didn’t show the back of the iron in the picture.

[lowell holmes]

If Rob Lee sells it, it is a good product.

[Jim Koepke]

Dennis Stimson, customer service, wrote:

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to give out the manufacturer information unless this information is on the product or on the packaging. This is to protect our sources after having spent considerable time and money in sourcing the products.

Ever hear the term boilerplate?

In the world of business agreements it is often the manufacturer selling through a vendor not wanting to have their identity known.

Also in the world of business a lot can be invested in securing a supply contract with a manufacturer.

There was a thread here years ago with some folks angry about the metallurgy of PMv-11 not being divulged to the curious.

In a world overrun with information, some information will remain non-public.

jtk

[Winston Chang]

Lee Valley policy is to conceal the identity of anything that is not labeled.

I bought some coping saw blades from Lee Valley once. Since I am a professional woodworker and have been left high and dry by companies that discontinue coping saw blades, I wrote an email asking for the manufacturer. That way if something happened, I could attempt to find them again.

Dennis Stimson, customer service, wrote:

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to give out the manufacturer information unless this information is on the product or on the packaging. This is to protect our sources after having spent considerable time and money in sourcing the products.

In other words they spent so much money finding the coping saw blades and the plane irons that could not divulge the hard won information.

As it happened, five years later I wrote on a forum that that I use and I like the Lee Valley blades, but they come dull as all get out, and need to be sharpened before use. Then Lee Valley actually looked at the blades, realized they were dull, and pulled them from the catalog. I wrote again, asking for the manufacturer of the discontinued blades, but "Evan" said he still could not divulge the valuable information.


How is this relevant to the original question, and what's the relevance of including the names of the customer service reps?

Hock blades say "Hock" on them, so it's not like Lee Valley is hiding the source.

[Warren Mickley]

How is this relevant to the original question, and what's the relevance of including the names of the customer service reps?

Hock blades say "Hock" on them, so it's not like Lee Valley is hiding the source.

I misunderstood the question.

[Charles Guest]

Keep your collective shirts on -- Hock subs some stuff to an un-named French manufacturer. Anybody with an image of Ron Hock himself in front of the forge fourteen hours a day should probably disabuse themselves of that notion.

http://www.hocktools.com/faq/why-are-some-hock-blades-made-in-france.html

[Jim Matthews]

I misunderstood the question.

https://youtu.be/OjYoNL4g5Vg

[fritz eng]

Keep your collective shirts on -- Hock subs some stuff to an un-named French manufacturer. Anybody with an image of Ron Hock himself in front of the forge fourteen hours a day should probably disabuse themselves of that notion.

http://www.hocktools.com/faq/why-are-some-hock-blades-made-in-france.html
My last order for a 2 3/8" Hock plane set was made in France. The order was placed through a 3rd party known for it's leathering tools in NJ. The packaging was in clear plastic with Hock instructions.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I misunderstood the question.

Yeah, but I still enjoyed your answer!

[john zulu]

I have bought other stuff on LV. It did mentioned the source. Maybe it is the OEM stuff they don't mention.