Thread: Hold Fasts, Carving Axes, Froes and Draw Knives Made in Australia

Kate,I think if you really want to know the answer to your question you have to be careful how you ask it. When you load your question up with the following statement

Originally Posted by Kate84TS

The question I have for the woodworking community is would Australian woodworkers support Australian tool makers and actually help rebuild a local Australian tool market again? As apposed to buying imported tools.

then you are basically push polling. People will want to be seen to be supporting the fellow Aussie. Actually buying is diffferent.

Picking up on Arron's comment

Originally Posted by Arron

Kate,I think if you really want to know the answer to your question you have to be careful how you ask it. When you load your question up with the following statement

Originally Posted by Kate84TS

The question I have for the woodworking community is would Australian woodworkers support Australian tool makers and actually help rebuild a local Australian tool market again? As apposed to buying imported tools.

then you are basically push polling. People will want to be seen to be supporting the fellow Aussie. Actually buying is different.

I think the issue is deeper than sentiment or inadvertent push polling.

Given the global reach of the internet, and the global shipping services provided by UPS, FedEx, DHL, and the traditional postal service, there is no longer such a thing as a "local Australian tool market". Australia is part of a global supply chain for fruit and vegetables, meat, consumer products and many services. Tools, for woodworking, metal working, weaving, knitting, etc are also part of a global supply chain whether you as a potential small scale manufacturer like it or not.

If any tool you care to make cannot hold its own in the global market -- which for many woodworking products means the US -- you are wasting your time and money. A weekend blacksmith might be able to sell a few hold fasts at the local markets, but the main game is the customer who will buy over the internet based on the tool or maker's reputation.

So the question you perhaps should be asking is -- would Australian wood workers help Australian tool makers develop tools that have world-wide appeal either aesthetically or through superior functionality?

Lots of luck, sincerely.

There are some lessons to be learned in discussions on this board. I haven't got time to haul out links right now, but they are not hard to find,

Establishing a market for Australian custom made chisels might be a place to start. There's one relatively small scale endeavor which has been rolling on for years; and another that stretched into decades.

Also a recent discussion / video on a craftsman's alliance in Sweden - the subject there is a great big chisel. That one is a pretty slick operation, but there are certainly lessons there as well.

Australia is a tiny market. Anything which is going to pay needs an overseas market too. Which exponentially increases the complexity and sophistication of the start up.

If you build it they will come sometimes works. Australia's best restaurant is in a country town. Australia's best golf course is miles from anywhere on the north coast of Tasmania. People come to both from all over the world.

But if you want them to come you have to commit all the way. And if you do commit all the way, sometimes they don't come anyway.