Local Woodcraft

[Rollin22Petes]

I know there are several of you guys on here that are from the Nashville TN area. Is it just me or have you guys noticed that are local Woodcraft Festool display seems to be shrinking.  I've got to point I rarely go there for anything Festool it seems there always out of stock. I've bought most of my Festool gear between them and Nashville Plywood but I guess Nashville plywood will get all of my future business at least when they have to order something in for me they'll deliver it to the shop saves a trip across town. 

 

[CrpntrFreak]

I'm in Arizona and Woodcraft is about 1 1/2 hours away so when I am close I try to stop by and see what they got. Their Festool display has quickly shrunk down in the past few years. In fact a guy saw me kinda staring at the display one day and noticed my Festool shirt and hat. He told me of another place not far away that had a much larger selection. So large in fact that the road show stopped there instead of the Woodcraft. Was disappointed to hear that. Especially since the other place is not open on Saturday during the summer (too hot) and never open on Sunday, which Woodcraft is.

 

[sancho57]

I havent been to my local one in a while. They moved while I was away in the UK. When I got back and went to check them out, they moved to alarger building and had about the same size display of FT but they told me they now crry a larger selection in stock.

But thats been a while

 

[McNally Family]

Yes, I had noticed the inventory reduction ever since they moved everything around late last year.  For a while now it seems  their enthusiasm for selling Festool has diminished as well. 

 

[DavidCBaker]

I live near Nipper’s Corner (Old Hickory and Edmondson). I go down there every month or so. The Festool display is small, but I haven’t noticed that it’s smaller. I do notice that the display model is typically the only sample they have of a bigger item. I try to give them business when I can, but I frequently order from ToolNut. Free shipping and no sales tax.

 

[Tyler Ernsberger]

It’s very hard to get good advice from Woodcraft about Festool.  Woodcraft doesn’t do a good job educating employees on Festool items and my guess resulting in poor sales.  I know my local Woodcraft has a decent selection but I also don’t ask for advice when it comes to Festool being I know more than the staff bc I educate myself on the products online before I purchase.  In defense to Woodcraft employees making minimum wage doesn’t really result in extra effort.  It’s easy to get good advice from Toolnut or Bob Marino.  Bob will actually personally call you back!

 

[Cheese]

Maybe I’m just fortunate, but I’ve been able to score big time at the local Woodcraft outlet. I scored their last metric OF 1400, their last metric TSC 55, an MFS 400, an aluminum cutting blade for the Kapex and 3 of the original vac hose ends, as opposed to the newer models that just collect dust, deposit the dust in the molded-in recesses and then conveniently dumps that dust on the white rug once the hose is disconnected...nice.  [mad]  [mad]  [mad]  Some real clairvoyance of thought on that upgrade.  [jawdrop]

 

[HarveyWildes]

My local Woodcraft seems to be doing all right WRT Festool.  They brought in the new abrasives.  It's hard to tell if they are cutting back their Festool display - it's a little low right now, but that may be due to Christmas sales.  They are great about ordering if needed.  They have a couple of guys who are the Festool experts, and the rest of the salespersons get by.  Festool has very strict controls on retailers, and I imagine that the local franchise owners chafe under those controls at times.

I'm more worried about a broader Woodcraft tendency to winnow out the high end suppliers like Festool, Lie Nielsen, Veritas, and Woodpeckers.  Wood River just doesn't cut it.  The latest socket tang chisels are advertised as "tempered in salt bath to HRC58-63."  There's a big difference between 58 and 63 - I'll take PMV-11 or Japanese chisels.  Wood River planes consistently are dinged for machining faults, and while they may be minor, for just a bit more you can get the near perfection of Lie Nielsen or Veritas.  In the case of Wood River, they are just trying to break into the high end market themselves.  Lately they've been using Wood River to compete with Veritas in areas like marking gauges.  It may be my imagination, but it also seems that they have been carrying fewer Woodpecker tools.

But overall Woodcraft serves an important place in my woodworking ecosystem.  They are less than 30 minutes from my house.  They carry good quality stuff for the most part.  If I need something now, even if I can't get exactly what I want, I can usually come close.  Our local Woodcraft in particular has a great selection of wood, and they are generally very reasonably priced, especially their frequent specials.  They seem to be one of the few local suppliers to realize that keeping people stocked with interesting, reasonably priced wood promotes woodworking as an activity.

Overall, they are just trying to do things that will maximize their profitability.  Some things work, and some things backfire.  I personally wish that they would carry more of the quality lines like Festool, Veritas, and Lie Nielsen, but I can always get what I want elsewhere if I have to, and meantime I'm glad they are there for the stuff they do well.

 

[Cheese]

I heard from a couple of sources that Lie Nielsen decided to decline from providing Woodcraft with planes because they just didn’t have the production capability that was needed to sustain Woodcraft’s needs. Rather than bastardizing their brand by just cranking out thousands upon thousands of planes each month, they said they’d prefer to remain a smaller producer and retain the current level of quality control. So that’s the latest skinny at least for awhile. It was a rather open ended agreement.

As far as Woodpeckers goes, the local Woodcraft seems to offer the same variety of Woodpeckers tools that they’ve always offered, however they also offer the Pinacle line which I believe is also manufactured by Woodpeckers. It does get confusing.

 

[Cheese]

Nashville Woodcraft has silly overpricing for their boards. Only out of necessity of something particular or an interesting grain have I bought wood from them, otherwise a joke, total ripoff in cost. Just go to a real rough cut supplier or mill.

I’m with you on that one. Woodcraft as far as a supplier of wood is way down on my list. However I still kick their tyres from time to time. I recently purchased some ambrosia maple for drawer fronts for $3 a board foot.

I also purchased a walnut slab from a local lumber supplier for $160, from Woodcraft or Rockler you’d be looking at $450-$600.

 

[ScotF]

I still buy from my local Woodcraft and they stock pretty much everything. But, the sales tax increased a few months ago so I buy tools from a different dealer a few miles away. They still have a good display.

 

[Sparktrician]

It’s very hard to get good advice from Woodcraft about Festool.  Woodcraft doesn’t do a good job educating employees on Festool items and my guess resulting in poor sales.  I know my local Woodcraft has a decent selection but I also don’t ask for advice when it comes to Festool being I know more than the staff bc I educate myself on the products online before I purchase.  In defense to Woodcraft employees making minimum wage doesn’t really result in extra effort.  It’s easy to get good advice from Toolnut or Bob Marino.  Bob will actually personally call you back!

Since the Woodcraft stores are franchises, I believe that it's up to the franchise owner to train (or not) as they see fit.  Very few apparently do choose to train.  Most that I've visited seem to not even care that the display tools have been set up correctly and/or may be missing parts.  Thankfully, I've noted one big exception - in Rockville, MD. 

 

[peter halle]

It’s very hard to get good advice from Woodcraft about Festool.  Woodcraft doesn’t do a good job educating employees on Festool items and my guess resulting in poor sales.  I know my local Woodcraft has a decent selection but I also don’t ask for advice when it comes to Festool being I know more than the staff bc I educate myself on the products online before I purchase.  In defense to Woodcraft employees making minimum wage doesn’t really result in extra effort.  It’s easy to get good advice from Toolnut or Bob Marino.  Bob will actually personally call you back!

Since the Woodcraft stores are franchises, I believe that it's up to the franchise owner to train (or not) as they see fit.  Very few apparently do choose to train.  Most that I've visited seem to not even care that the display tools have been set up correctly and/or may be missing parts.  Thankfully, I've noted one big exception - in Rockville, MD.

That Woodcraft store in Rockville is GREAT!

Peter

 

[OldLineWoodshop]

As someone who worked at the Woodcraft in Delaware I would like to shed some light on this conversation. Sorry, it's a little long. Everything so far has been correct, I just thought you might like some more info.

As far as Festool goes, each store is responsible to order their stuff directly from Festool. I know the Festool display at the DE store kept getting bigger and bigger. However it is a high ticket item and I'm sure some stores don't sell nearly enough to make it worth holding all of that inventory. We sold a ton, probably because DE has no sales tax. I knew about the products from using them myself (before I worked there) We had 1 training session with our local Festool Rep the whole time I was there, it was really just the basics and we didn't even go over the jigsaws. But yes, that is entirely up to the store, I'm sure some have more and some have less, so education will be entirely hit or miss.

As far as wood goes, it will always be cheaper to buy from a bigger wood dealer than a retail store just because the volume of sales allows for lower prices. In fact, we sent a ton of people to other suppliers when they couldn't find what they were looking for or needed something specific or in a specific price range. We had 2 wood sections, the smaller pieces that were marked with price tags that we actually get from corporate and they set the prices on and would go on sale. And the section with bigger pieces, priced by the board foot that we sourced locally.

The WoodRiver stuff is not meant to compete with the Lie Nielson or Pfeil or Woodpeckers. It's meant to fall somewhere underneath those top name brands but still be better than most of the other stuff.

My biggest complaint about woodcraft is that they are franchises and there is no consistency between stores or training or anything of that sort. I think they could do a lot better if they took a little bit more control and set some standards.

 

[Rollin22Petes]

Haven't been out to the Franklin Woodcraft since early in the year. It's a 35 plus mile drive round trip from 12South, just not worth it for me. At most I go once a year. I can order things and not waste time.

Does Nashville Plywood have their tools set up again? They moved to East Nashville. I was there in October for ply and their tool section was still empty.

The Woodcraft should have never been put that far out of Nashville. Hate that Nashville Ply moved, less covenient now. Mimms is my goto for rough cut and now getting more plywood from them for a small premium for the convenience. It's a mile or two from me. Hope they never move.

I totally agree their location so far out of Nashville makes no sense it's very inconvenient. I can't say whether Nashville Plywood has there tool display set back up I usually have all my products delivered so I very rarely go over there unless it's an emergency. I've wanted to go over there since they moved just to check it out just haven't had a chance and there actually closer to me now I'm in the Goodlettsville area. Really couldn't blame them for moving they got well in too 7 figures for there old location. I know it would be a little drive but another good supplier for rough lumber is Hardwoods incorporate in Clarksville I buy all my lumber form them really good selection and good people to work with. 

 

[Rollin22Petes]

Nashville Woodcraft has silly overpricing for their boards. Only out of necessity of something particular or an interesting grain have I bought wood from them, otherwise a joke, total ripoff in cost. Just go to a real rough cut supplier or mill.

That's actually pretty funny I've watched guys go in there spend stupid amounts of money on there lumber that's it's laughable. We have so many other suppliers were you can get lumber at a fair price.

 

[HarveyWildes]

I’m with you on that one. Woodcraft as far as a supplier of wood is way down on my list. However I still kick their tyres from time to time. I recently purchased some ambrosia maple for drawer fronts for $3 a board foot.

I also purchased a walnut slab from a local lumber supplier for $160, from Woodcraft or Rockler you’d be looking at $450-$600.

I got some great rippled maple at the local Woodcraft for a very good price.

WRT other sources around here, there are very few local Colorado mills, and most of those do aspen and blue stain (beetle-kill) pine.  There is one guy who does local urban lumber - he is fun to visit, but has average pricing for the area and you have to bring your own moisture meter.  We used to have a guy who brought in a shipment of wood once a month and sold it out of a storage unit - it was always great fun to see what he would bring each month.  Sadly, he passed away and no one picked up the business.  Aside from that, it's the big hardwood lumberyards who have it shipped in, and Woodcraft.  Woodcraft on average has better prices, often significantly better.

I once made a run to Iowa to get cherry at a (really) good price at 15% MC, then had to let it dry for a while here.  I envy those of you who have local hardwood mills that provide walnut, cherry, and even unusual species (sycamore, mulberry, mesquite, willow, etc) for reasonable prices.  I have to admit that I like the Colorado humidity for woodworking though.

 

[Rollin22Petes]

I'll have to admit I'm pretty lucky having several hardwood lumber suppliers that carry most all common species as there regular stock. Although I wish I could find Aspen and Blue Pine around here but it just doesn't exist not to my knowledge anyway.

 

[GoingMyWay]

Since the Woodcraft stores are franchises, I believe that it's up to the franchise owner to train (or not) as they see fit.  Very few apparently do choose to train.  Most that I've visited seem to not even care that the display tools have been set up correctly and/or may be missing parts.  Thankfully, I've noted one big exception - in Rockville, MD.

That Woodcraft store in Rockville is GREAT!

Peter

Sounds like I should check out the Rockville store.

 

[DavidCBaker]

It’s very hard to get good advice from Woodcraft about Festool.  Woodcraft doesn’t do a good job educating employees on Festool items and my guess resulting in poor sales.  I know my local Woodcraft has a decent selection but I also don’t ask for advice when it comes to Festool being I know more than the staff bc I educate myself on the products online before I purchase.  In defense to Woodcraft employees making minimum wage doesn’t really result in extra effort.  It’s easy to get good advice from Toolnut or Bob Marino.  Bob will actually personally call you back!

Since the Woodcraft stores are franchises, I believe that it's up to the franchise owner to train (or not) as they see fit.  Very few apparently do choose to train.  Most that I've visited seem to not even care that the display tools have been set up correctly and/or may be missing parts.  Thankfully, I've noted one big exception - in Rockville, MD.

On that front, I'd say the Franklin (Nashville) store is very good. The folks working there generally know quite a bit about what they are selling .They have very infrequently steered me wrong.