Archive | 2015

Postage

By Nic Westermann on November 8, 2015 in sales

It has so far been impossible for me to keep up with demand since opening my site, I am making every blade myself from scratch, and the batches I put up tend to sell out within a couple of a days. As I often say on the phone, I can make them quicker but the quality would drop and that is not what I am about. The wait list on the site is the best bet to catch a blade when it is in stock, the site will automatically email you when I have listed new stock, but they are not reserved so it is better to act quickly.

This system works reasonably well, it is certainly better than relying on me to remember and email the 200 odd people that are on various lists. However it doesn’t cope well with orders of different blades and recently customers have had to order multiple times to get the tools they are after. Currently though this is the best system I can offer as it can take me a long time to cycle through all the out of stock items and a mixed order might take months not weeks to fill. Also the wait list gives me an idea of demand so I can concentrate on the items with the most customers waiting.

I do try and keep my postage rates as low as possible in light of the fact that people end up making multiple orders. Currently this is £4.00 flat rate in the UK and £7.50 for EUR/ N America / AUZ / NZ. Other Destinations available if you email me. It is not uncommon for me to spend more on P&P than I charge, but on balance it seems about right.

I have never factored in any charge for the time taken to actually pack the item as my view is that whatever you make you have to sell, and this takes time. Going to a show, taking an order down the phone or someone coming to the workshop to pick an item up all take way longer than packing an order that has been managed and processed by the website, with a good mix of new packaging boxes and recycled wrapping – the workshop next door makes fleece sleepsuits in an astounding variety of patterns and I have access to all their offcuts- it is actually very quick to pack an item now.

There is one way I could cut prices a bit further and that is to use a franking machine, however as many people that have been on courses at my workshop have found out the local post office and shop is a real gem. The owner Lil has cut down on the items she sells, but the basics are covered and it is the focal point of the village and I am proud to support it. On rare occasions that she has sold out of milk she sends me back to the workshop with a jam jar toped up from her fridge. If I went down the franking machine route, as a few local businesses have, the post box would still get filled but the income going through the post office would drop making closure more likely. Plus I often spend the entire day locked in my workshop, the few minutes walk up to the post office and chat at the counter is a welcome break I look forward to.

Up and Running

By Nic Westermann on October 5, 2015 in sales

It has taken me a lot longer than expected to get the shop stocked again, a run of shows and courses really took its toll. Last weekend was the first I have spent at home in 7 weeks. I am in the process of relisting what little stock I had left over and the new stock I have made- All my spoon blades except Twca Cams are in stock, left and right handed. A batch of Twcas are under way and will be up in the next couple of days, after that I will start a run of straight blades, then next week gouges. Then do my best to keep up.

Fishing

By Nic Westermann on September 6, 2015 in Tips

I started writing a long post explaining the minutiae of my working practices with regard to quantity production, a weighty tome provisionally titled ‘ Quantity v’s Quality’ however before it was finished Lee Stoffer posted a video I found truly uplifting, it reminded me why we chose to live in rural Wales. This seemed a much better model to base a post on; my unfinished one was largely a list of processes I didn’t approve of and at points seemed like a bit of a rant; it is so easy for a blog to morph into a series of tirades, especially when comments are disabled. So I have ditched it for something more positive.

I have been meaning to change my profile picture for ages, last one was a hangover from my old site when I sold ornamental ironwork, at shows dressing up to look rustic was more important then. I couldn’t find a photo I liked until my son Jude took this picture of me fishing.

This was taken on a rock mark I have fished for the last 25 years, the water is fairly shallow and the best fishing always seems to be on a rising tide just before you are pushed back off the ledges, in this photo there is about 5 minutes before it is time to move, in the video you see Ade a couple of minutes after he should have moved back. Try as I might to find a fitting metaphor to tie this in to my tool making, I can’t, but its a truly resonant experience for me.

Lee’s Video:

This is the sort of work life balance I aspire to. But more than that the fishing has a much deeper meaning for me than just a leisure activity. If you look at it as purely a means of gathering dinner it was a pretty poor use of time for three adults ( although we looking up the price of having a line caught Bass that size sent to us – £45!) If we wanted to maximise our catch we should have bought in the best bait possible, hired a boat to take us to more reliable marks, and fished multiple rods or baits. A still more efficient way to put food on the table would be to buy to not fish at all and buy it all in.

This mark was chosen largely because it is a hike to get there, which means that we get the beach to ourselves. The view from the cliffs as we arrived early at low tide made my heart race a little faster. I know this beach well and collecting bait is not difficult, there is always something suitable, but a bonus spider crab and a surplus of prawns meant we also had some food sorted out before we even started fishing. The tide turned and as the water rose the chances of a fish increased. This mark is not that consistent and however perfect the conditions seem you can never guarantee a fish, which made the bass Lee caught, his first ever fish, even more special. The hike back over the cliff is sometimes a bit daunting but the completely different view of the beach at high tide was again a joy. To a large extent this is the approach I have taken with my tool making; its not the easiest nor the most financially rewarding but is the most fulfilling.

Summer Plans

By Nic Westermann on August 12, 2015 in courses, Shows, Tools

This Spring I decided to have a quieter summer, a chance to spend more time with my Family, so no bookings were taken for any of my usual Summer shows, and it felt good to know I wouldn’t be spending the next few months on the road. Then an email from the States arrived inviting me to Maine to teach a course and put on an axe making demonstration at Lie Nielsen Toolworks. I went over with my daughter Jenn for the first two weeks in July. I would have put a blog post up about this but when we got home we promptly lost the memory card with all our photos on. We realised that a lot of what I had done had been duplicated, I forged an axe with Roy Underhill and images of that popped up all over the internet, but there were a lot of images that I thought would never been seen again so I was so pleased when the card finally turned up a few days ago.

I spent most of my time working in this shop when I was at Lie Nielsen- these two guys, referred to by everyone as the Georges were great, George Stevens on the right and Old (!) George on the left. This was the prototyping workshop, not production and was filled with wonderful old machines, lots of cast iron, hand cranks and exposed pulleys and gears. They were extremely welcoming and helpful, I was concerned as to how they would respond to me turning up and making lots of noise and mess in their workshop. Old George helped me with some cutting and welding and at first was a bit bemused by my seeming inability to measure anything – ‘ I need 10, or 12 at about…. this long ( wave of my hands)’ but after a week took in in his stride.

Another slightly stilted photo of me, this time with Peter Galbert, behind us is the smoking detritus of a Lobster bake, lobsters and clams steamed in seaweed over charcoal. A fabulous evening at the open house put on by Tom Lie Nielsen, more about that in another post. It was so informative meeting Peter, we talked tools and bevel angles and immediately clicked; it was great to speak to someone with the same mindset as to how tools work. When I finally got back into my workshop I applied some of the theory that he had described in the use of his Travisher to a Drawknifelike design I have been toying with for the last two years, I had to re-vist my A- Level physics and draw out forces diagrams but all was clear and a couple of bends with the Oxy Propane torch and the tool was transformed. And yet it flies directly in the face of what we discussed about Drawknife theory in Maine! I got a copy of his book Chairmaker’s Notebook and I highly recommend it, doubt I will ever make a chair, but now want to.

A couple of weeks after we returned I had another email from Deneb at Lie Nielsen. They needed, at pretty short notice, tooling for courses that Peter Follansbee and Jogge Sundqvist were teaching. These orders will take a lot of time, but it seemed churlish to refuse, I have met Jogge a few times and know that he uses my tools, and Peter has been very vocal in his praise for my work and was keen to have my gouges, twca cams and adzes for his bowl carving course, all these tools are handled. I make all my handles from green wood and it has been nice to spend some time in my workshop with clean hands.

I have a good stock pile of straight green ash and although it would be quicker to buy in copy lathe turned handles that is not the way I want to work. It also gives me a chance to use my tools in a production setting which tells me a lot about edge holding and handle design and comfort. By chance I had lent most of my tools to a friend and the only axe I had was the one pictured, it was kept really for historical reasons as my designs have moved on from this early example, but I was really pleased to get re acquainted with it. I would normally let them dry naturally before a final fit and finish, but time is extremely short and currently the micro wave is working at hard as I type this; every two minutes the machine pings and my youngest shouts out ‘Dad! Dinners ready!’ in a few weeks she might tire of this joke, but currently it is still fresh.

In light of this and other commitments I have- A course at Barns, a run of three shows in September and a Family holiday squeezed in I have taken the decision to shut my online shop for a while, it is no secret that I have difficulty keeping up with stock at the best of times but having a completely empty shop or turning up to shows with no stock to sell makes no sense at all. I have, I suppose technically left it open so you can view what is on it but have reduced the stock levels to zero, I did also put all the prices to zero to make it obvious that no purchase could be made but the site then said ‘ This item is free!’ so I reset everything to £999 as a further deterrent to people trying to make a purchase. On a positive note not having the shop open has brought home to us just how much time is spent packing and answering emails. Hopefully I plan on using this time to put up some more blog posts: My trip to the States, some thoughts on my current working practices and ethics, and plans for the future, including axes and adzes.

Twca Cam Handle

By Nic Westermann on April 24, 2015 in Handle making

I get asked about these often, they really are very easy so just a few pictures, as my spoon blades are are forged with a round tang as well this method is directly applicable.

Roughen the tang section that you want sunk into the handle with coarse paper. All the blades are left with the final polishing compound on as this protects against rust but a wipe down with some solvent will help to keep thing clean during the handling process.

Drill a hole that the tang will fit into. I get it as straight as possible but if it is slightly out of line would advise rotating the blade until you get an orientation that suits you , I have heard from some people that a leading edge is desirable, others have said trailing.

I always seal the handle with oil first that way any excess glue won’t stain the handle. Then mix up some epoxy and dribble it into the tang. let it settle to the bottom of the hole for a few minutes.

If you judge it perfectly when you push the handle in you will get a nice fillet of epoxy showing. Remember it does soak into the wood and shrink slightly on drying so if you wipe it off flush you will probably end up with a crater when it is set. if you have put to much in wipe it off with a tissue as it goes in.

Check you you are happy with the orientation, the put aside to set. Another coat of oil and you are done.

I am off about to leave for Barn’s Green Wood Guild to teach a course, hopefully there will be time to put together a quick video on how I sharpen and explain the edge geometry on these curved blades.

Bladesmithing, courses in London.

By baigentmark on January 30, 2015 in courses

I will be running tool making courses in London at Barn the Spoon’s workshop.

To quote Barnaby

“In November we had our first bladesmithing class in London, I’ve been making blades for several years now and happy with my products, but Nic is an Internationally renowned tool maker, and is also a fantastic teacher!

The course is designed to teach you all you need to know to be able to make your own blades at home, as well as being able to walk away with some razor sharp tools at the end of the workshop.”

http://barnthespoon.com/bladesmithing-new-course-dates/

Course Photos

By baigentmark on January 22, 2015 in courses

Some great photos of a course in my workshop, axes on the first day, adzes on the second.

All photographs are Copyright Richard Anderson / lux images