Highland Woodworking Catalog

[lowell holmes]

Mine came today. I always enjoy looking a it.
I've never ordered anything from them, but I think I will to justify them sending it.
I'm sure that I am the only one that does this.
I will set for long times looking through it.

[David Eisenhauer]

Dream books and I also like going through them page by page. Sometimes you find things you never knew existed. I received a Woodcraft catalog yesterday. Many years ago, pre internet, I want to say that the Garret Wade catalogs were the best, but it also seems I am forgetting one more even better for pure woodworking tools such as wooden planes, chisels , etc.

[James Waldron]

If you don't remember the Whole Earth Catalog, you don't know what a real tool catalog is. You young puppies just never had a chance at a full life, like we did in the sixties and early seventies.

Free love!

[Tony Corey]

Yep, mine came in the mail a couple of days ago too. It is a great catalog.

Not only have I ordered from them, I am close enough to Atlanta to go to the store. It has a very high WOW factor.

TonyC

[Barney Markunas]

The old Mahogany Materpieces catalog was pretty gorgeous. Not nearly the breadth of Garrett Wade, Lee Valley or Highland but the photos of the tools were impressive (mostly Japanese hand tools made of unobtanium). I know things didn't end well for MM and for some of its customers but its catalog was a piece of art. I visited the GW store in the early 80s - what a shock. I went expecting to see hand tool mecca but that was not the case. I guess I had unrealistic expectations after drooling over the catalog for so long. I had just the opposite experience when I moved to the Chicago area. I went to a woodworking show and picked up a catalog at one of the booths. It was the size of the Yellow Pages from a reasonable sized town... probably 1.5" thick. When I asked if they just had their vendors drop ship, the nice lady's response was "oh no, we stock about 98% of whats in the catalog everyday." I was skeptical but stopped by their store and she wasn't exaggerating. Berlands had tools to do almost anything. It was not strictly woodworking... pretty much you could name a trade and they had the tools. The guys working the floor used to maintain if they didn't have it, you didn't need it. Since the downturn, they don't keep quite so much in stock but it still easy for me to get in trouble if I stop in for a visit.

[Tom M King]

If you don't remember the Whole Earth Catalog, you don't know what a real tool catalog is. You young puppies just never had a chance at a full life, like we did in the sixties and early seventies.

Free love!

I remember lying on the floor, and writing letters to suppliers from addresses in the WEC. I ordered my first sharpening stones from Smith. They sent them to me C.O.D. per my request in the letter. I think I learned most of what I know from tools catalogs back then-Silvo Hardware, Garret Wade, Leichtung, and others I'm not remembering. I still have, and use all the tools I bought from those catalogs.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I quickly write to or call anyone sending me a magazine to ask them to stop because it's wasteful, but Highland Woodworking is the exception. I'm on a business trip and it's sitting here next to me. In fact, it has caused me to pick out a few things to blow... eh... "spend" my money on. They are good folks, and they work with me on shipping heavy stuff.

[Marshall Harrison]

If you don't remember the Whole Earth Catalog, you don't know what a real tool catalog is. You young puppies just never had a chance at a full life, like we did in the sixties and early seventies.

Free love!

I used to love looking through the Edmund Scientific catalogs. Looking at all those tubes and capacitors or lenses from NASA's space program was pretty heady stuff for a teenager.

[Patrick Walsh]

Kinda a grown up version of the Sears catalog at the holidays when I was a kid...

I’m older but not old...

[Tom M King]

I used to love looking through the Edmund Scientific catalogs. Looking at all those tubes and capacitors or lenses from NASA's space program was pretty heady stuff for a teenager.

When we were teenagers, in the '60s, my best friend and I used to build telescopes from mirror blanks and tools sold in those Edmund Scientific catalogs. He has one of the big offices on the end of a hall in the Science lab building at Goddard now.

I went out to dinner with him, and some other Astronomers a year or so ago. I told them that he, and I, used to build telescopes together when we were teenagers. One of them said, "Yeah, he's still doing it."

[Jim Koepke]

If you don't remember the Whole Earth Catalog, you don't know what a real tool catalog is. You young puppies just never had a chance at a full life, like we did in the sixties and early seventies.

Free love!

At one time back in those days the Whole Earth Catalog store was across the street from my place of employment in south Berkeley.

I quickly write to or call anyone sending me a magazine to ask them to stop because it's wasteful, but Highland Woodworking is the exception.

One time upon mentioning my desire to stop junk mail to my letter carrier, he said folks at the post office call it jobs mail. Since then it doesn't bother me as much.

jtk

[Kurt Cady]

Eh. Highland sucks. And I live in Atlanta. Wouldn't go there if it was across the street. The times I have been the staff have been so snooty they wouldn't know helpful if it hit them in the face.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Unfortunately I've had the same experiences as you, Kurt. I went in wanting to spend money on some specific items, and received what I would call poor customer service and snobby attitudes. I still thought it was a cool store and experience with all the tools, but the staff on that particular day left a lot to desire.

Maybe I'll just stick to the catalog

[Will Boulware]

I'm from Chattanooga and have had nothing but good experiences at Highland. I end up down there a few times a year. They don't exactly follow you around pestering you, but they're far from BORG-level run-and-hide sales staff, and I never once felt like they were rude or snooty. Just wanted to offer a counterpoint to the bad experiences above, as the internet has a way of immediately casting a bad light on a company or product based what is sometimes a VERY small sample of the population.

To the OP's point, their catalog is great!

[Don Bullock]

Kinda a grown up version of the Sears catalog at the holidays when I was a kid...

I’m older but not old...

Those were the days!!! I can still picture pages from those catalogs.

As to the OP, I’ve ordered from just about every woodworking tool supplier that sends out catalogs. I do it not because they send them out. My purchases are based on need and price.