Rex Krueger
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Special Report: The New Woodwork Economy
🕑 Added 2022-02-14 13:25:58 +0000 UTCWhen I started woodworking a dozen years ago, everyone knew how to get started. Buy a few old Stanley planes and fix them up. No money for sharpening stones? Grab some sandpaper and get those blades “scary sharp.” Chisels and saws were the same; buy used, restore, get working. If you had to buy new, then premium makers like Veritas and Lie Nielsen sold the best, even for rare and fragile tools like dovetail saws and joinery planes. And wood was just…wood. Most people could drive to a hardwood dealer. If the imported exotics were too expensive, dependable domestic hardwoods like oak, ash, and cherry could be bought at reasonable prices. The poorest of us cut our teeth on construction lumber and we built some nice pieces from southern yellow pine and Douglas fir. With 2x4s going for $2 each, no one struggled too hard to find a little wood. Furniture making has never been easy, but getting started was straightforward and affordable.
And none of that is true anymore.
The most affordable options are gone and many of them aren’t coming back. Vintage tools have skyrocketed in price, while good lumber has become increasingly scarce and expensive. Over the last two years, these challenges have gone into warp speed. The Covid pandemic, an unpredictable economy, and backed-up global supply chain have caused big problems with the tools and materials that craftspeople count on.
Last year, we saw record prices for wood, and that stopped a lot of projects. We got a break at the end of last year, when prices dipped back into sane territory, but this year brought another surge in the price of lumber. Construction lumber, hardwood, and composites like plywood are all affected, so every corner of the craft is feeling the pinch. At the same time, delayed shipments from overseas have caused basic tools to jump in price. Dependable, affordable tools are increasingly out of reach.
Will these problems blow over? Not likely.
Consider the trends that drive high prices. Tens of thousands of Americans are relocating from troubled states like California and settling in states like Texas and Tennessee. Most of these people want houses and that’s driving a building boom that might last for a long time. The demand for wood will reach far beyond the US and that’s going to keep wood prices high…maybe for years.
While we’re at it, a number of these people are part of the “Great Resignation.” They’re leaving traditional jobs for new positions with more flexibility. Lots of them are going to work from home. People who stay home and have a little extra money usually take up new hobbies….like woodworking. We should expect thousands of new people to enter the craft in the next few years. I’m glad they’re coming, but these new craftspeople are going to increase demand for tools, wood, and supplies.
It’s time for us to face the new reality of our craft. Things are going to be scarce and expensive for a while.
Is our craft doomed? Will it become the hobby of the wealthy? Not at all. The future of our craft is bright and it’s going to stay accessible. We just have to understand the New Woodwork Economy. Not only will vintage tools become more expensive, even affordable imports will be pricier than we’re used to. Imported woods will become even more expensive, while domestics and even softwoods will cost more than ever.
We can survive and even thrive in this new economy by understanding three key ideas: small, local, andhigh-tech.
Get Small
When I began woodworking, the “standard” wood shop was a two-car garage filled with expensive machinery. I had this kind of shop for a while, but I realized that big machines take space and maintenance and they don’t help me enjoy the craft. In the new economy, the hand tool woodworker has a huge advantage over the machine-focused one. My “new” shop takes up a corner of my basement and consists of a bench, a chest of tools, and a bandsaw. While my next-door neighbor waits for his hollow-chisel mortising machine to be shipped in from Taiwan, I’m quietly knocking out projects. I never need to wait for blades, belts, or carbide bits. I can service and sharpen every tool I own. Even the bandsaw is pretty simple.
Even if you’re already in the hand tool crowd, you might be feeling the pinch of high lumber prices. That’s why this is a perfect time to get small. That Shaker dining table you’ve been planning might need to wait. There are plenty of smaller projects to work on in the meantime. Have you built a step stool? A milking stool? A bench? A gift box? Each of these projects can be made from small quantities of inexpensive wood. Each of them teaches valuable skills that you can transfer over to larger projects when the wood is a bit more affordable.
If these projects are still too pricey, you can get even smaller. Have you studied Slöyd, the Scandinavian art of hand carving? There are many good books on the subject and Slöyd focuses on a small kit of affordable tools and projects made from random scraps and tree-branches. If you're focused on furniture, this all might seem a bit quaint, but you cannot dismiss these projects until you try them. Hiding inside are skills that you probably need.
Go Local
The Internet has made the world much smaller, but it’s also given us the false perception that imported tools will always be cheap and just a click away from our doorstep. The truth is inexpensive imported tools depend on a fragile global supply chain just to be manufactured. To arrive in our doors, these tools must travel overseas, make it through customs and then get shipped again to reach our shops. It’s a complex system that’s only possible because of ultra-cheap foreign manufacturing and inexpensive shipping. As soon as this delicate system is disrupted, prices jump up and formerly cheap tools start to reach premium prices.
When this happens, we have to look at domestic makers, even when they cost more. For North American tool buyers, the top makers are Lie Nielsen and Veritas. Lie Nielsen makes top-flight tools, but their prices are out of reach for most beginners. The Canadian maker Veritas makes outstanding tools that cost considerably less than other high-end makers. For North American customers, Veritas even offers free shipping, making them a surprising competitor to Amazon. If you’re in the U.S., Veritas tools cross the border without political wrangling or costly tariffs, making them dependable as well as affordable.
I know that many of my readers are in Great Britain and continental Europe and these places have their own local makers. I’ve reviewed several tools by the German firm E.C. Emmerich and they’ve all impressed me with their quality and value. Similarly, the Kunz brand recently introduced a premium “plus” line of planes that are beautifully made and surprisingly affordable. For the American consumer, even European imports are out of reach. Most retailers aren’t even stocking them. But the British or European buyer can still go local and get good tools at reasonable prices.
Embrace High-Technology
Woodworkers are a conservative bunch. We love the beauty of the past, but we can also get an unhealthy fixation on “tradition” and ignore innovation. In the New Woodwork Economy, even the hand tool crowd will need high-tech, cost saving solutions, not just in tools and wood, but also in operations like sharpening.
Most of us start sharpening on sandpaper and then move on to oil or water-stones when we have the money, but times have changed. Oil stones, especially natural ones, are starting to look like a dinosaur. In the 19th and early 20th century, America was a global leader in the mining of novaculite, the naturally-occurring microcrystalline rock that gave us the legendary Arkansas Stone. Around the world, these stones displaced local alternatives and became a standard for fast, effective sharpening. But like so many other industries, mining these stones is only cost-effective at high-volume. Compared to the early days, demand for novaculite has slowed to a trickle and many of the largest mines have closed. For years, I’ve been recommending natural Arkansas stones for final honing, but I’ve also watched these stones steadily climb in price as increasing demand collides with a tiny supply. My favorite hard Arkansas stone now costs nearly $100; far too much money for a single sharpening stone.
Synthetic stones (both oil and water) are constantly improving and are likely to keep getting better and cheaper as manufacturing improves. On the other hand, many of the stones are imported, which means prices and availability might be uncertain for years.
The brightest spot in sharpening is diamonds. When I began in the craft, diamond honing plates were already popular, but they were also expensive and only professionals and wealthy amateurs used them. Diamonds are yet another place where technology is on our side. Increasing demand will lead to innovation and drive prices steadily downward. Just this week, I purchased a set of four diamond honing plates and paid only $20 for all four. For the price, these diamond plates are surprisingly nice. Only time will tell how long they stand up to shop life, but even if they only last few months, I can confidently tell any new woodworker to forget about sandpaper sharpening. Inexpensive diamond plates will continue to improve and prices should only decrease over time. By embracing new technology, we can keep our woodworking efficient and affordable, a real craft and much more than a hobby.
The Way Forward
I’m a furniture maker, but also a historian and I’ve read a lot about woodworkers of the past. We might imagine these craftsmen as cranky traditionalists, set in their ways and slow to change. In reality, they were dynamic and adaptable. They worked in weird locations, made do with homemade tools, and were quick to take up any technology that saved time or effort. Even the notoriously stodgy Shakers were absolutely cutting-edge in their use of new machinery and techniques. Woodworking of the past was constantly in flux and new tools and processes transformed the craft from one year to the next. The modern woodworker is in the same boat. This has never been a stable, unchanging art. Cheap prices, plentiful vintage items, and steady trade just made things seem predictable. Going forward, we must adapt to a new world of scarcity and higher prices, but we can be ready if we have the right outlook.
In the first half of this year, I'll be exploring affordable tools, domestic manufacturers, and small projects with a special focus on the new challenges we're all facing. My work has always focused on affordability and accessibility, and I'll be doubling down on these ideas in the near future.
Thank you all for being here and making all my work possible!
Comments
Kelley Smith
Auction houses sometimes have old sales records available, you might need to create a membership to access them - and prices have definitely been rising.
M. Stanton
About inexpensive sharping, I started our with a Japanese whetstone setup. That stone being the King KDS 1000/6000 combination whetstone. I did not want to go the "scary sharp" system and brun through tons of sandpaper. This stone is still working fine for me and is around $42 on that big online store that starts with an A. ;-) I just wanted to share my experience with budget, beginner woodworking kit.
Madeleine Yeh
What would you need to do to reuse old wood? I have a number of planks 3/4 by 18 by 7-8 feet long which used to be in my attic. They were probably the original roof before that was replaced by plywood. I would need to remove the nails, and the paint. What would be the best method to do both? Do I get a dedicated nail puller and if so which one? Should I use a plane to remove the paint?
Patrick Salsbury
Since building out my small shop over the pandemic, I've acquired a variety of handtools, and some larger power tools that neighbors have given me. I live in a forest, so I have been focusing on some small projects using ultra local wood. Some things are made from fence boards from the farm a half mile down the road, with trees that were grown on that property, milled on that property, and then the fences stood sentinel over the pastures for 50 or 60 years. I've now been using some of that wood to make the cheeks of my woodworking vice, handles for some hammerheads I bought on eBay, and a variety of other things. I also just made a hammer handle out of a piece of redwood branch that I found in my yard and had used in some early experiments when I first got some hand planes. In January 2021, a Madrone tree fell in my driveway, so I got to learn a bunch of wood butchery as I cut that up, and tried to protect the cut ends with some old latex paint in order to try to keep the wood from splitting (some success, but madrone just splits like mad, anyway. I need to improve my technique, but I have a tree worth of wood that I will be able to play with for years.) One project I am still working on was taking a little 5" branch of burl wood from that Madrone tree, and making a new handle for a kitchen knife that I had broken a few years ago. It is gorgeous, and I will post on the discourse with some photos, when I finish it. I'm still working on affixing the handle to the blade. Also working on finally assembling the wood lathe that started this whole journey. I still need to wire up the motor, but I'm almost ready to begin that section of the craft, and my landlord now routinely brings me wood from elsewhere on the property as they do endless tree work on things that come down in storms. I recently got the trunk of a small (8-10" diameter) redwood tree, and a nice piece of black walnut for future turning projects. We also had to drop an oak tree that had started to fracture in my backyard, and I've been taking pieces of that and learning how to fashion small boards from raw wood, using a vintage 4" jointer/planer that a neighbor gave me last year. I really have to say that I love the ultra-local approach, and it doesn't get much more local than the tree that fell 40 feet from my shop door. 😄
Rex Krueger
Making tools is also a lot of fun!
Knathaniel C
I actually really appreciate your hybrid approach when it comes to both old and new school tools and techniques. While I'm lucky to live close enough to one of the Lee Valley centres that I can browse (when they are open for that), it is nice to know when stuff is out of my price range many woodworkers got by making their own tools, and there are benefits to both models.
Kyle Painter
My guess is that the tools owned by boomers overwhelmingly leans towards power tools. Yes, there are some vintage power tools, and many power tools are well built and last a long time, but a host of boomers divesting their tool collection probably isn't going to appreciably make it easier for me to fill out my vintage Stanley plane collection.
Rex Krueger
I'm always open to hearing what my European viewers are experiencing. I want to know how things are across the pond!
Rex Krueger
That tariff didn't help, that's for sure!
Rex Krueger
Can you message me a link to that company?
Helge
Thank you, Rex! I commend you for being open and optimistic about the future. It´s much too easy to become pessimistic, or give in to impulses for an unhealthy variant of nostalgia. Special thank you for thinking of us European followers and I look forward to your upcoming content "focused on affordability and accessibility".
William Fishburne
I think that the lumber prices have been more affected by softwood tariffs on Canada. There was a 20% increase in 2018 that was reduced to 9% in December of 2020. Then in 2021 it was increased to 17.9%. About 30% of lumber in the US comes from Canada simply because US lumber companies cannot keep up with the demand. The cheap imported lumber is subsidized by Canada, so US lumber companies cannot compete. It is a complicated thing, but buying US lumber even when it is more expensive helps keep jobs in the US. It doesn't help that unsustainable lumber practices have denuded forests that won't be able to reproduce for over a generation.
William Allen
Yes indeed. And every day I read about some new startup, there is even a new plane maker getting started in Canada. Making completely traditional Stanley style planes. We'll see how it all plays out, but I'm very optimistic.
William Allen
I'm not sanguine about wood prices falling, even in a few years. There are some significant structural changes that have occurred outside the US that will weigh heavily on the US market. Trump's policies towards Canada have forced the majority of Canadian producers to sell their products elsewhere. When COVID hit a lot of ancient poorly structured mills in BC were forced to close, many permanently. In their place a smaller scale more adaptive mill ecology has grown. Small new highly efficient mills that handle any kind and size of log have sprung up every where. Exporter/aggregators have sprung up to acquire product for Asia Pacific. I can't see that evaporating just because the US wants to pay less for BC Timber. It makes no structural sense. Unless things change significantly between the US and Canada on softwood I'm afraid US supply will lag demand.
Geoffrey Wilson
The classic car market in the last 20 years may be a model for tool prices, for us. It went sky high for a while, then came back down as demand dropped. I suspect any free market which has a limited supply to strictly follow demand on pricing. I also suspect that once people feel free of COVID, they will spend less time in the shop, for better or worse, and demand will drop. It will take longer to satisfy demand in construction lumber, but I expect wood prices to return within a few years.
Rex Krueger
I think it's hard to track, but tool prices on places like Ebay are up by a lot. I would say 50-100% in the last 10 years.
Rex Krueger
Thank you! We've got a bunch of useful stuff in store.
Rex Krueger
Thank YOU for being a part of it. Your shop sounds thoughtful and useful.
Rex Krueger
We don't always think of these "big" trends affecting our little craft, but they do. I think many of these changes are going to last.
Rex Krueger
I really should. That's a good point.
Rex Krueger
It's true. We've also brought some of that manufacturing back, at least in little ways. Many of the best tool makers are right here. It's some good news.
Rex Krueger
I guess the Texas thing is more anecdotal. I know a few people who moved there.
Rex Krueger
It's nice to know that more tools will enter the market, but I wonder if those tools will be seen as valuable collectibles and sold that way. My experience with old guitars tells me that once something is "collectible" prices rarely go down.
Rex Krueger
We're going to do our best to respond to these new challenges.
Rex Krueger
That's a great point, especially with the advent of Maker Spaces in the last decade.
Rex Krueger
I'm glad you think I've done a good analysis!
Rex Krueger
I promise I'll keep it up if you keep watching!
Rex Krueger
It's true. I have a Florip dovetail saw and I think the price is more than fair.
Rex Krueger
We're going to need some creative solutions for that, but I have a few ideas.
Rex Krueger
My pleasure!
Rex Krueger
I agree totally! We'll keep up with that.
Luke Winikates
Thanks for this writeup, Rex! I've definitely been feeling overwhelmed here and there with the prices of vintage tools, especially considering the work that goes into restoring some of them. How big of a change in the prices of vintage tools have you noticed in the past few years? Is there a source that keeps track of these kinds of things?
Matt Evans-Koch
Well written and thought out article Rex. This last year I tracked the materials for building my next boat (a 19' dory). This is a very simple and inexpensive type of boat to build. It amazed me when I started in January of 2021 tracking materials how fast everything went from reasonable to ridiculous back to reasonable and now ridiculous again. Had I a place to store the materials, I would have bought them last October. Anyway, I agree that this is going to be an on going theme in almost any hobby but woodworking in particular. Thank you for the article and looking forward to more videos, articles and just good times with you.
Craig Thibodeaux
I am retired and multiple disabled or at least the way I look at it... limited in old abilities. But, I have just started retooling around a bandsaw, lathe and a router table, with every type of vintage tool I could find to restore, and then just in the last month filling in the gaps with quality tools, such as those diamond stones and veritas saws. Add to that some air quality planning and action.....To end up with a shop that whether there is power or not.....medium or small size project on the table....I can stay busy for fun or a little barter or profit. And wood? Its falling down everywhere, and I am discovering the joys of green wood. Thanks Rex for all the info I discovered when finding you in the last year, and the also for creating a great forum of like minds.
Craig Thibodeaux
Rex, a lot said in this article and one thing in particular I can first hand comment on from my excursion this morning. I traveled about 80 miles today one way to VAMC for an appt. Along the way I didn't see houses being built....NO....I saw neighborhoods being built. I have the first one of these not 1/2 mile from my house. I am in East TN. So, your statement is on target, but understated. There is a boom going on here, and its not just housing. In one of the tech corridors that I pass on this trip we saw 1/2 a dozen new big plants/wharehouses with big Now Hiring signs draped on the buildings.
Duncan Haigh
Interested to hear that you are down to hand tools and a bandsaw. A bandsaw is probably the only power tool I'm really tempted by. After you finish the lathe stuff, perhaps a bandsaw episode or 2? 😁
William Allen
Go Local. Certainly sage advice, it actually always has been the best advice. Especially important for us in the first world now. We’ve spent the last 30 years allowing our manufacturing to be “out sourced” to unskilled low paying work forces. This supply chain failure has been inevitable. Good news is that people by and large have recognized the problem and have come up with a lot of very creative solutions.
Brian Schwarz
Appreciate the thoughts here, but have to point out that Texas isn't mentioned in the article you linked to. Having first hand experience living in both Texas and California, I can say they are both "troubled" albeit in different ways. "Tens of thousands of Americans are relocating from troubled states like California and settling in states like Texas and Tennessee." A great example is how both states have failing power grids, but for somewhat different reasons. Hey! another great reason to focus on hand tools ;-)
John Morrison
As the famous economist Keynes said “Markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent." Not the warmest sentiment. BUT. Markets do change and commodity markets are more variable than non-commodity markets. So lumber prices will change in the future and likely down when the Covid chaos washes out of the system. Probably not this year. And the US slapped tariffs on imported lumber this year, so US residents will pay higher lumber prices until that is rescinded. This is adding to the impact of Covid caused price hikes. And tools: the baby boomers.... their tools are no doubt getting passed on/put up for sale as they pass on. I'm at the tail end of the baby boomers, so my tools will enter the marketplace within the next 20 years. So here's a steady source of tools for the next while. But as "Markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent" all these suggestions are darn useful. Thanks
descartez
I appreciate this perspective on technology and adaptability. My motto has been "there's no such thing as low or high tech, only technology". Part of my interest in hand tools and preindustrial (and precolonial from across the world) manufacturing is _because_ I see a future where materials, tools, and the power to drive them may be hard to get. Recycling, reusing, and thinking creatively is going to be our way forward and I'm glad to see there are craftspeople willing to respond to those changes.
Jamie Phelps
I think another crucial angle to getting started with woodworking is to see what community resources are available. Here in Olympia, Wash., we have a folk school that teaches woodworking and has a shop full of reliable and well maintained tools, some machines and a lot of hand tools. Other communities have lending libraries of tools. If you're truly new to woodworking, embedding yourself in the community, locally and in person if possible, is a way to get stuck in without a huge amount of upfront cost.
Scott Alderfer
Very timely post. And you said a lot of things that hobbyist woodworkers (like pretty many of us here, I would assume) would not have the big-picture perspective to have realized without your insight and overview of the hobby. Thank you, Rex!
Geoffrey Wilson
I like the idea of smaller projects, but I would also like to see one or two bigger projects, even if presenting a big project spans videos. I've grown in my skills since I started watching the channel, so the larger projects can be more doable and even when I was starting out I found the videos of projects that were bigger to be aspirational/inspirational. I have left out the lumber price as a consideration, as it's rare I execute a project the week the video comes out- it's usually months later, and who knows what the pricing will be then. Thanks, Rex, and keep making videos!
Stephen Ellis
One thing to add to the conversation about new tools is the advent of several US based saw makers in recent years. Most notable are Florip, Bad Axe, and the very recent J Greene. While their saws aren't price friendly for the beginner, they aren't ridiculously priced either and will get one going pretty quickly.
Bill Staffen
Truth. When I started gathering my meager supply of "most critical" tools, I never imagined that the thing that would stand in my way most was the wood.
Robert A Carbo
Excellent article. We do need to be adaptable and realistic. I look forward to seeing some smaller projects, which is very appealing to me. I also have been thinking about getting some diamond plates for sharpening, but was afraid of the price - thanks for the link.
Nathan Welsh
One of the other aspects of the craft that I love is making one's own tools, something you've already covered quite a lot. Maybe not quite accessible to the utter novice, but still can save money and be quite rewarding
