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Thread: Blue Spruce Toolworks now a subsidiary of Woodpeckers, LLC

  1. #1

    Blue Spruce Toolworks now a subsidiary of Woodpeckers, LLC

    Dave posted the news to his Instagram. I don't own any of his tools, but they've always been on my wishlists. I don't own any of the Woodpecker tools either, but I don't think very highly of them with what they charge for aluminum, and the way you know when they release a new tool because of all of the "woodworkers" they've paid to tell you how great it is. I expect the Blue Spruce tools to go up in price and lower on quality. I guess we'll see. Sorry if this is pessimistic
    Last edited by Keith Outten; 09-19-2019 at 2:57 PM.

  2. #2
    The Woodpeckers business model is something I object to and have not bought from then and am unlikely to in future. To create market demand based on artificially created scarcity enables them to establish high margins for their "one time tools." Of course they will argue that their practice is dictated by the limited productivity of their CNC equipment. </begin sarcastic snark>A completely understandable limitation on their business, since there are no more CNC machine makers in business any longer and there is no possibility of expanding their business.</end sarcastic snark> And the high margins on the "one time tools" bleeds over into pricing of their normal inventory. As a result, I feel their pricing is too high for my pocketbook.

    At another level, I am even less likely to buy or use their tools because I find anodized aluminum is too fragile for my work. And I'm not the only one. I recently read a blog entry lamenting that the edges of a Woodpeckers try square were rapidly getting scarred and becoming distorted by being chewed up by a marking knife doing layout work. To pay a steep premium price for a tool that lacks durability in normal use is not my chosen path.

    A lot of people hold Blue Spruce in high regard. I hope that continues to be deserved under a Woodpeckers regime. Time will tell.
    Fair winds and following seas,
    Jim Waldron

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by James Waldron View Post
    ... To create market demand based on artificially created scarcity....
    Whisky and wine makers are doing the same: single-barrel; limited release; reserve; 'named' rather than an age statement; etc.

    Perhaps a tribute to the increasing affluence of consumers??

    For Woodpecker money, I'll skip the aluminum/red paint and buy steel/CI (ala Starrett).

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Steven Harrison View Post
    Dave posted the news to his Instagram. I don't own any of his tools, but they've always been on my wishlists. I don't own any of the Woodpecker tools either, but I don't think very highly of them with what they charge for aluminum, and the way you know when they release a new tool because of all of the "woodworkers" they've paid to tell you how great it is. I expect the Blue Spruce tools to go up in price and lower on quality. I guess we'll see. Sorry if this is pessimistic

    I hope it's ok to post the link from his post
    https://www.instagram.com/p/B08a8baF..._web_copy_link
    There's no reason to believe the quality will go down. Love em or hate em, Woodpecker products are good quality, so why would they mess with Blue Spruce's quality? (WP is not Stanley Blaack and Decker.)

    I bet the price goes up, as you predict.

    Fred
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

    “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

  5. #5
    I guess I don't share the low opinion of many on this board of the Woodpeckers badge. I own many of their tools in both aluminum and stainless steel. I find WP to be remarkably responsive to me and my requests. I HATE to lose Blue Spruce, most of all because I have just this month tried to buy some of his paring chisels. I wondered why I have not received responses to my email inquiries. But life goes on. I shall buy whatever paring chisels I think I can get now, and resume buying from other manufacturers when my wallet is empty. We should rejoice that we have had Blue Spruce as an option and hope WP keeps the quality up. I have every reason to believe they will. Still................. an episode has ended. And let us remember that the great hand tool renaissance continues in the USA and Canada. How glad I am that I have bought now three Bad Axe saws.

  6. #6
    I certainly hope that Dave Jeske made a deal with Woodpeckers that richly rewards him for years of hard work. If you haven't met him he is really a great guy. The deal with Woodpeckers'seems like a strange marriage, but perhaps both product lines will appeal to the same affluent customer, which is not me. There is already an expensive red aluminum fret saw out there, wouldn't you know.

  7. #7
    And Woodjoy closed in June.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Eric Rathhaus View Post
    And Woodjoy closed in June.
    Well, good for him. Looks like he retired!
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

    “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

  9. #9
    Yes, no negative tone about the owner of woodjoy. Always happy that a craftsperson can make and living and actually retire from their labor!

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eric Rathhaus View Post
    Yes, no negative tone about the owner of woodjoy. Always happy that a craftsperson can make and living and actually retire from their labor!
    Yeah, great guy to do business with. Always took the time over the phone to answer my questions. I have the large and small bowsaws and a few of his spokeshaves. All very high quality tools. Only problem is, where will I get blades should any of mine need replacing?

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Stephen Rosenthal View Post
    Only problem is, where will I get blades should any of mine need replacing?
    Yeah, that's something I think about with certain small-maker tools. Not so much with plane irons - I'll never wear out one of those. But when I bought my Grammercy bowsaw, I deliberately bought several extra blades. I also made sure there were multiple sources of blades before I bought my Knew Concepts fretsaw.
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

    “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

  12. #12
    Join Date
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    I can understand the issues many ww have with WP business model and using Alum. vs. steel.

    As for ONE TIME tools...
    My guess is, WP does this, to reduce working capital by not having dollars in inventory. They surely loose a lot of sales with ONE time tools. Other competitors with CNCs are moving in, specially with Festool accessoris. We often under estimate how much time and money goes into designing a tool, prototyping it, testing it, etc, then, market it, and then, only a few hundred sell? Lots of fixed cost tied up in the tool which they attempt to recoup. BCT is confronted with similar issues.

    As for quality? Some of their annodizing was horrible, it faded bad, without direct sunlight. Their large squares are very useful, and beefy enough to withstand some abuse. If made from steel, they might be too heavy, so I can see alum. being useful for some tools. I notice many of their recent offerings, such as the hook rules, are stainless, with only the hook being alum. I boughjt a set, we shall see.

    I own a lot of WP tools, and will continue to support them if they make products that are useful and priced somewhat competitively, as if no one supports them, they will cease. Its nice to see a made in the USA company specialize in ww tools these days, so, while I agree with many of the comments. I also have seen some WP tools I wanted, but just balked because of the price. I will continue to buy their products, as well as BCT.

    BTW, I noticed also, ONE time tools I ordered 5 months ago, are now hitting the CNC mills, and they are re opening up orders, which is a slippery slope, as we can loose the incentive to order and pay for tools today, which we wont see for 6 months. Of course, the logical solution is, offer a discount to early adapters, then run enough for 6 months of inventory and let others who missed the deadline jump in. This is what the new owner of BCT seems to be implementing.

  13. #13
    My wife asked me to get a list together for the holidays, and I've had my eye on a Blue Spruce marking knife for awhile. Looking at the listing on the website and you are no longer able to customize the tool with the ferrule and wood type. They now just have the basic listed, and if you want to customize you have to buy each piece separately which is more expensive.... If anyone is waiting to purchase something from Blue Spruce you may to double check that it's still available in it's old configuration.

  14. #14
    I could not agree with you more. Thanks.

  15. #15
    Join Date
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    Agree with Will, the one time tool stuff would make more sense/be more popular if they treated it as a discounted group buy. It makes a ton of sense from the company perspective, but i dont know if i understand it from the consumer's end. I do own the large framing square, that is a very nice and helpful thing to have around the shop. I think it was $175, which seemed like a deal for an accurate square in those dimensions. I actually dont know of another company that makes a large square like that. I use i to quickly square up miter gauges--i know my fence is parallel to the blade by .001", so i square the miter gauge to my fence for easy and large reference surfaces--everytime i take off my outrigger and put it back on i check it with the square. It never goes out of square, but its a fast and easy sanity check. Instead of setting up the indicator base and running the table back and forth, i just put down the square and know. Finally, i use it to quickly line up my track saw cuts.

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