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Thread: Garrett Wade

  1. #16
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    That MA has a lot to answer for

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  3. #17
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    Garrett Wade was New York based company that sold quality tools by mail order thru a fancy catalogue.
    Garrett Wade Australia was a consortium of an Aussie Ted Bailey. a Yank Henry Lanz and a Jap, Harrima.
    They operated out of a warehouse in Melbourne and sold tools thru their US catalogue.
    In the mid 90’s Henry Lanz came out and set up a Sydney outlet in Fivedock.
    It was about a k from me here in Concord and I got word they were after a local to run it.
    So I got involved, this was in ‘96 from memory.
    There was a fair bit of competition at the time and they insisted on selling the catalogue not giving it to potential punters.
    There was also a lot of resistance from locals to the fancy tools.
    They did sell Tom Lie Nielsen’s copy of the Stanley 102 block plane.
    Terry Gordon launched his planes on their stand at a Melbourne WWW Show.
    I organised a small catalogue of local makers, Silex was still available amongst others.
    It was to little too late and they gave up in Oz.
    They were really a couple of decades too soon for the uptick in boomers discovering woodwork and the dilittante’s buying pretty planes and every new toy dreamed up to spend their super on.
    To me this is such recent history that I find it amazing how little knowledge there is out there. I guess it shows just how post Y2K the interest in woodworking really is.
    H.
    Jimcracks for the rich and/or wealthy. (aka GKB '88)

  4. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by IanW View Post
    MADE is the word, Ian - it's been discontinued. So you'll have to buy one of the others.
    Quote Originally Posted by ian View Post
    So, IanW, you know this because you:

    A: tried to buy one and Patrick said "sorry, I stopped making them XX years ago" ?

    B: someone who had tried to acquire one told you they were no longer available ?

    C: you just know Patrick no longer makes them ?
    Quote Originally Posted by IanW View Post
    None of the above
    ... I read it here.
    only being picky because after last year's car crash I've been advised to regularly exercise my grey matter


    How is read it here different to Option B: someone who had tried to acquire one told you they were no longer available ?



    I need the mental exercise
    regards from Alberta, Canada

    ian

  5. #19
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    “Dillitantes”. Now THAT is a word! I hope to be able to use it, whether in a conversation about timber plane aficionados or while playing scrabble. Well done Clear Out

  6. #20
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    River builder, You and your old man would be the last blokes that word would apply to as far as I can tell from what you post.
    Just to completely derail this thread you guys would probably enjoy the ‘Master and Commander’ series of yarns by Patrick OBrian about the RN in early 1800s during the Napoleonic war.
    There are 20 in total I’m about half way thru them.
    I should have bought a set from eBay in the US but we have way too many books here.
    The local library gets them for me on on inter library loans and it takes forever.
    Worse now thanks to the virus.
    Great use of language and amazing detail on the ships riggings etc.
    H.
    Jimcracks for the rich and/or wealthy. (aka GKB '88)

  7. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by ian View Post
    .... How is "read it here" different to Option B: someone who had tried to acquire one told you they were no longer available ?
    I need the mental exercise
    Very simple, Ian. If someone had told me, I would have heard it (from x), but I read it there. I was just continuing in what I took to be the spirit of the post.

    Sorry, not much of an exercise for the neurons....

    Cheers,
    IW

  8. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by clear out View Post
    .....
    They were really a couple of decades too soon for the uptick in boomers discovering woodwork and the dilittante’s buying pretty planes and every new toy dreamed up to spend their super on.
    To me this is such recent history that I find it amazing how little knowledge there is out there. I guess it shows just how post Y2K the interest in woodworking really is.....
    Henry - I remember the era as a consumer, not someone engaged in retailing the tools, so no doubt I see it a bit differently from you. I'm a "boomer" (just, B. 1946), so have lived through the time as well. As I recall, the uptick in interest in crafts started in the 60s as the boomers were coming of age, but the ball rolled very slowly at first. Many young couples were into renovating & decorating their newly-acquired houses, so that was the main focus until we needed to furnish the things, & our "crude woodworking" started morphing into the "finer" side. I suggest "Fine Woodworking" was a big catalyst (started 1976, & I became a subscriber in it's second or third year), but Garret Wade (& not that long after, Lee Valley) definitely helped push things along by making "fine tools" available, and just like today, there is nothing like a good picture of a classy-looking tool to get the "I must have one of those" thoughts flowing! There was already a dearth of fine tools at your local hardware store in 1976, as you will well recall!

    As I lived it, interest grew steadily, but very steadily at first. I spent a good deal of time in Canada about that time, and they tended to follow the US pretty quickly - we are always 10 years or so behind the US in fashion. I returned in 89, and soon after, when the "Timber & Working with Wood" show began, things were obviously starting to pick up here, and the market for people like Terry Gordon & Colen Clenton was beginning to expand.

    There have been some pretty big changes since Y2K, and they span the full gamut, from people's habits & attitudes to marketing - who could've foreseen the impact of Amazon & the interweb in 1990? The woodshows were already struggling by the last 5 years or so, & I fear COVID might end up being lethal to them as well as a goodly number of potential patrons.

    One change I really notice is the lack of time & inclination amongst the younger generations to form physical groups - the men's sheds are full of greybeards! The younger set, like my offspring, are too busy complicating their lives with their careers & other stuff to spend time shooting the breeze in person, they seem to only have time to socialise wrt to their hobbies late at night via the interweb. One result of this is the rise of the "internet guru", some of whom seem to be very knowledgeable & capable, some not-so-hot, but many wield a huge influence & this is also having an effect on selling tools. You just don't generate the same interest with a glossy catalogue any more...

    Just some of the ways the potential market for tools has changed during my lifetime....
    Cheers,
    IW

  9. #23
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    Sounds great. Looks like something to put on the list for when I retire in a few years.

  10. #24
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    The best thing about the Master and Commander series is it has the English fighting the Americans. In the movie version with Rusty Crowe the Yanks were changed to the French for delicate US audiences.

  11. #25
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    Default Bit more Garrett Wade info

    Afternoon Mr Black,

    I think Mother of Pearl also sold some Garrett Wade products in Australia. They had a shopfront up on Oxford Street near the barracks in the late 1980s and early 1990s, windows full of their hardware range with the catalogues gracing the display. They also sold a small range of tools and a larger range of finishes.

    I've also got a vague recollection that GW were involved in the proto-hipster store up in Darlinghurst which grew out of a menswear store in town on the corner of Market Street (not Lowes, I promise it wasn't Lowes). Selling crazy priced French knives etc

    All this apart from the Five Dock shop - I still dips me lid every time I use my Jorgenson Pony clamps, vix bits, and even an early HT Gordon water stone.

    Cheers
    Kim

  12. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by KJ401 View Post
    I've also got a vague recollection that GW were involved in the proto-hipster store up in Darlinghurst which grew out of a menswear store in town on the corner of Market Street (not Lowes, I promise it wasn't Lowes). Selling crazy priced French knives etc

    Kim
    hi Kim
    the "menswear store in town on the corner of Market Street" was the Sydney icon Gowings (as in "Gone to Gowings"). It was on the corner of Market and George and most definitely was not Lowes, so there's no need to promise.
    BTW, Farmers was the opposite side of Market Street. (and completely off topic, "Santa's letter box" was in Farmers, but on the Pitt Street corner.)

    The retailer who was selling upmarket tools plus woodworking books and magazines inside the Gowings store was "The Woodworks Book and Tool Store" -- "the store with a bow saw on the door".
    AlexS will no doubt recall when the store was owned and operated by Leo Sabourin (I hope I'm spelling his name correctly) and was located in Leo's workshop at Thornleigh. Leo sold "The Woodwork Book and Tool" business in the early 1990s and the new owner moved the store to Meadowbank -- the move included relocating the "Bow Saw door" to Meadowbank.

    Looking on the web, "The Woodworks Book and Tool Store" is now an Australian based online store.
    regards from Alberta, Canada

    ian

  13. #27
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    Hi Kim, we might come down to annoy your landlord and look at the flowers this weekend.
    Mike Jeffereys who was a woodturner bought Leon Sadubin’s Woodworks and moved it to Meadowbank.
    It wasn’t that successful so he took on a partner who was from the book trade and who did the Canberra course. His name escapes me but Gowings was not a goer. I think he did a post grad whilst you were at CSA.
    They then split with Mike operating online, targeting the school market from Bayview and the book guy selling stuff from Annagote for a while.
    Leon is still making stuff in Kangaroo Valley.
    I last saw him at a 25 years knees up at the big house on the hill across the lake from you.
    I had a good chat to Kevin Perkins at that do and chased him up later when we were next in Tas.
    Aldo was there also and Pam B.

    But I digress this is about Garrett Wade, they did do that thing with Mother of Pearl and also had an American restorer Mike Ratherain involved. He had a display kit of their tools.
    It was through Bob Howard I became involved. He chased me up when we got back from Canada as GW were so close to me here at Concord and I’d been doing the tool sales for about 10 years by then.
    Bob was probably at Zetland where I first met you with that plane blade you’d hammered into oblivion. Before you moved to Roselle with R V.
    Its all getting a bit vague but one thing I do remember is the whole trip started with Leon, Alan Wale and Les Miller starting the NSW Woodworkers Group which attracted a whole swarm of cool dudes and nutters.
    H.
    Jimcracks for the rich and/or wealthy. (aka GKB '88)

  14. #28
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    Default Bit more Garrett Wade info

    So, did you come down? The flowers this year are scattered across Canberra - no central Floriade but more like bad attempts at municipal floral clocks. Without the clocks. And not many flowers either. But you might end up with some wood - Mark is almost ready to get rid of at least one bit

    And I don't remember hammering a plane blade into oblivion... But i do remember the bloke who was part of the Gowings GW adventure is Liz Williamson's partner - Tony...Tony... Tony. I think he was Sturt grad prior to going to Canberra. Speaking of Sturt & GW - saw Roy a couple of weeks ago. He's down teaching there, which he really enjoys. Though he's about to have to deal with 2 weeks quarantine on heading home which doesn't sound like fun.

    If you're coming down, let me know. Be good to catch up. And I might just have a bandsaw guide question for you.......

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