Cleaning out the shop today (ok, shifting the cultch around) I found an old invoice from Mole Hill Turnery in Scotland. I can't remember his name, but he was active on rcw and a nice chap. At the time he had very good prices on British turning tools, so good in fact that the Mfgs. refused to continue dealing with him. Anybody recall his name or have kept in touch with him? I often wonder about other fine people that have passed thru rcw in years past.
Sorry K.M. for breaking COC bylaws. Guess Lori didn't put enough ground glass in my soup today.
Arch - I remember this guy well. He was indeed a very nice guy, someone just trying to make a living. But talk about getting crushed by "the machine". The way he told the story was that he worked a deal with Crown (about when they were just getting going here in the US) to sell tools. He sold out of his shed, and he was the marketer, merchandising, invoicing, shipping and web master for the enterprise. He sunk a fair amount of money into the project, apparently a lot of his savings.
But the folks at Crown had also worked a deal with the Nishes at Craft Supplies. They were evidently (I cannot remember all of Dale's reply to this issue as there were many) promised some exclusivity, and they put a lot of money into promoting and developing the market for those tools. I remember when they were pushing them like crazy, and they thought they had the US market.
Along comes molehill. As chief cook and bottle washer, he was able to sell for less than Craft Supplies, and you bought right off his website. When he undercut the CS price, that was when the stuff hit the fan. Both Molehill and CS were promised certain things, and apparently Crown decided to go with CS as they would certainly outsell Molehill no matter what the price.
I emailed many times back and forth with Molehill (Brian?) and he told me a lot of this. He was really hurt that Crown literally cut him off, and before anyone could get a handle on the whole situatino he was threatened with some kind of lawsuit, and other things I don't remember. He was forced to liquidate his stock and cease advertisement of Crown tools. He put the tools up for sale at what he had in them, and many of us bought from him as a sign of support. He was a helluva nice guy, but in the end I think that it was simply a case of some double dealing by Crown, and CS not wanting their market diluted by any small percentage.
At any rate, here he is:
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Let us know if you contact him. I still remember watching the progress of that stone "shed" as he called it. Robert
The Brand was not Crown, but Hamlet. He apparently violated some sort of company minimum pricing policy or territory assignment and was cut off. CSUSA was supposed to have had some market protection, which didn't outlast the conflict by much, as now Packard sells both the brand and some "Packard" tools that look remarkably similar.
The fellows name was Brian McIntosh and he lives in Scotland. The company whose tools he was selling was Hamlet and at the time Craft Supplies was sort of the sole importer of Hamlet tools into the USA. Hamlet shut Brian off because he was selling barely above cost after Craft Supplies questioned Hamlet about the wholesale price they were getting.
I tried to visit Brian when we were in Scotland in 2004, but he wanted nothing to do with anything that might remind him of the time. He was emotionally hurt by the whole thing. He told me that he got completely out of woodturning, but I saw some stuff in a shop with his name on it. I think he just didn't want anything that would remind him of that time in his life.
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