Thread: Lie-Nielsen price rise?

Email Anthony at Lie Nielsen. He could explain?

I noticed the chisel prices on the Aussie site went up quite a bit recently.

Originally Posted by johknee

Have Lie-Nielsen increased their prices recently? I thought their shoulder planes were around the same price as Veritas.

The small shoulder plane is $549 and their medium shoulder plane $619, but they do not have stock at the moment. The large shoulder plane is $439 and in stock.
Perhaps the price increase is for new stock/orders?

Weird listing - the US price for the large shoulder is $350 US. you'd expect some slippage in currency plus an add on for distribution since there's another bird in the nest that needs a worm once you account for the distributor.

medium shoulder is $289. Dollar is just under 1.5/1 vs. the AUD ($350 converts to $525 or so once you account for a currency conversion fee). I wonder if they're just mismarked on the site.

Bench planes in the US are up only slightly - 5% or a little less, vs the last time I ordered anything from LN (2 years ago or so?). I ordered a #62 to experiment with for $245, shortly after, they went to $265 and they're still listed for that (US dollars).

Charging "as much as you can just because you can" isn't really in the culture in Maine, so anything coming from the US in price increases is likely to be what's needed to run a solvent business and that's about it.

I think you need to check the current A$ to US$ exchange rate. Our dollareydoo is sinking like a stone, down to 0.68 US$ or something earlier this week.

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

I think you need to check the current A$ to US$ exchange rate. Our dollareydoo is sinking like a stone, down to 0.68 US$ or something earlier this week.

Exchange rates look different depending on which way you're looking, Mr, B. I thought our dollar was a shade under 69c US last night, so $350 US = ~$514 in "real" money..

Gee Jk - that's an awful lot of hard-earned to cough up for a plane that you won't use very often. Although I lusted after a SP from very early days in my woodworking career, I would class them now as the last plane to add to a cabinetmaking toolbox, unless you do work that requires a lot of trimming of long end-grain shoulders. There are so many easy ways to trim a tenon shoulder, for e.g., and in fact, a large SP is the last tool I'd reach for unless the shoulder is more than 100mm wide.

These are actually one of the easier planes to build for yourself, in fact a SP was the first successful metal-bodied plane I made. You do need to take care to get it as accurate as possible, particularly the blade-bed but it can all be done with very simple hand tools. This one cost me around $60 to build excluding the LN blade I used which added more than that to the cost.

JW lge.jpg

There are cheaper blades, the blade for the 1 1/4" Record for e.g., which is thinner & less suitable for a simple wedge construction, but it worked perfectly well in my first attempt.

1 SP.jpg

I made that one around 1982 & used it up til a few years ago but I made a smaller one in a style I copied from a G. Miller of London original & the side profile & gidgee infill looked so much better than my first attempt I had to make a match for it.

I added an adjuster only "because I can" thanks to a small metal lathe, but it's an unnecessary refinement which necessitated the "screwed" wedge (so it is easy to back-off for adjustment), which is a further complication. In fact, it's debatable if "refinement" is an appropriate word, these are "set & forget" planes. You could make your own blade for little more than $10, which is probably what I'd do now, but it's only quite recently that I've plucked up the courage to get into that aspect of plane making, so I wouldn't advocate going there unless you are already a seasoned metaworker.

just a thought....
Cheers,
ian

Well beyond my capabilities, Ian. Love the shoulder plane shown in the first photo!
Like you say, they aren't necessary, I just enjoy looking at them!
Highly unlikely I'd buy one now they're north of $500.

Originally Posted by johknee

Well beyond my capabilities, Ian. Love the shoulder plane shown in the first photo!
Like you say, they aren't necessary, I just enjoy looking at them!
Highly unlikely I'd buy one now they're north of $500.

When Covid first hit and not so much the price rise but the supply chain shortages occurred i quickly turned to HNT as they were in Aus and their price didnt need converting along with them being top notch quality it was perfect for me. I also cant do what Ian can do just yet so it was a good timing that they had what i was after.

On the topic shoulder planes i have one of these that i dont need anymore due to duplicate if anyones interested. Ill list it in the market place for sale shortly

1" Shoulder Plane – HNT Gordon & Co. Classic Planemakers Australia

The prices on the Aussie site at present don't seem to correspond with the prices on the US site.
I'm glad I'm not after a 5 1/2 as they came back into stock recently @ $790 when on the US site they are $25usd more than the 5 which is $620 here.

Originally Posted by delbs

When Covid first hit and not so much the price rise but the supply chain shortages occurred i quickly turned to HNT as they were in Aus and their price didnt need converting along with them being top notch quality it was perfect for me. I also cant do what Ian can do just yet so it was a good timing that they had what i was after.

On the topic shoulder planes i have one of these that i dont need anymore due to duplicate if anyones interested. Ill list it in the market place for sale shortly

1" Shoulder Plane – HNT Gordon & Co. Classic Planemakers Australia

I'm favouring a HNT over LN and Veritas. Thought a HNT would be a good starting point.

Originally Posted by johknee

Well beyond my capabilities, Ian. Love the shoulder plane shown in the first photo!
Like you say, they aren't necessary, I just enjoy looking at them!
Highly unlikely I'd buy one now they're north of $500.

Well, if you only want to look at it, jk, the HNT one is purty enough to hold a prominent place in anyone's workplace.

But don't underrate yourself, when I made my first shoulder plane, my most challenging metalworking project to that point had been the tin cup we made in "manual training" class at school in grade 8. I had very little idea of where to start, all I had were a couple of pictures in books, which may help to explain why it ended up looking like the offspring of an old 19th C model that had been unchaste with a Preston/Record SP. It actually worked "first time" & got a bit better as I became less ignorant & learnt a bit about fettling planes in general. By the time I made the other one pictured, 30-something years later, I certainly had more of a clue what I was about and the result is a better tool, but it was definitely due more to improved knowledge than enhanced skill (I still don't class myself as a "metalworker"!). Making a SP by the lamination technique is very basic metal work, care is more important than skill.

So with a near-surfeit of googlible information, plus all of us helpful fellow forumites to cajole, give gratuitous advice & encouragement & generally annoy you, how could anything go wrong??

PM me an email address & I'll send you the relevant section on making laminated shoulder planes (or the whole shooting-match if you wish). You might decide it isn't such a far-fetched idea & something to think about "sumday". There is little to compare with the satisfaction of using a tool you made yourself that works really well. The only negative I can think of is that it too easily becomes a major diversion....

Cheers,
Ian

Originally Posted by johknee

Well beyond my capabilities, Ian. Love the shoulder plane shown in the first photo!
Like you say, they aren't necessary, I just enjoy looking at them!
Highly unlikely I'd buy one now they're north of $500.

johknee

You should try building one yourself. Take Ian up on his offer! At the very least look at his "guide" before making your final decision. However, be wary, as it is the cocaine of woodworking.

Regards
Paul

I had several pieces of evidence that showed just how terrible I am at woodwork. That's right, 'had'; they were disposed of some time ago. One item was a spice rack I made in high school. The racks had to be full or the spices would slide from one end down to the other. Then there was a wonky fruit bowl covered in pencil marks.....the list goes on. I bet your tin cup was far better than any of my woodworking projects, Ian!

Anyway, I will take you up on the offer. I'd like to give it a go, but I'm guessing it'll end up in the same place as my spice rack.

Thanks for the encouragement, Ian and Paul!

I think LN dovetail saws were $250 a couple of weeks ago.....now $327; more than double Veritas.

My first thought was that's an absurd price to pay for a saw! But I then thought, "what did an equivalent saw cost in say, 1920?" I did a bit of googling and found a 1920 catalogue for W. Tyzack, and a 10" backsaw could be had for 22 shillings, which I'll convert to $2.20 for those born after 1965.

A bit more googling brought up the average wage in Aus. in 1920 as 200 pounds/year, which divided by 52 & converted to dollars comes to $7.69 a week. So if you bought the saw above, it would cost you almost 1/3rd of your week's income (28.6%) if on an "average' wage.

According to one site, the average annual income in Aus is now $90,000, or approximately $1700 p.w. So the LN will cost you only 19% (approx) of your weekly income. It's a bargain!

I think a true bargain might be a good old saw from pre-WW2, which can be had for $40-80 that would perform just as well as a LN after a bit of minor attention....

Cheers,