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'Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, Inc.' is a family-owned business, established in 1981 and, and based in Warren, Maine. It manufactures a range of hand tools, primarily for woodworking, based on traditional designs. It is best known for its hand planes. Thomas Lie-Nielsen is the founder and CEO of Lie-Nielsen Toolworks.

Contents

History

Products

External links

References

History

In the late 1970s, Thomas Lie-Nielsen (pronounced "Lee-Neelsen"^[1]) worked for Garry Chin's company, Garrett Wade. In 1981, Garrett Wade's supplier of an adapted Stanley #95 edge trimming block plane, Ken Wisner, was ready to leave the business, so Lie-Nielsen acquired the tooling, plans and components necessary for producing the #95.^[2]
Lie-Nielsen moved from New York to a farm in West Rockport, Maine, and began production of the plane in a tiny back-yard wooden shed. The first of the new planes was delivered to Chinn in the autumn of 1981.
A few years later, Lie-Nielsen moved into a 384 square-foot workshop on the farm, and started production on his second plane, the skew-angle block plane. In 1988, as business grew, Lie-Nielsen bought an 8000 square-foot building in the town of Warren, Maine, which the company still occupies. In the mid-1990s, Lie-Nielsen moved the entire production to a 13,000 square foot facility.
Today, the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks products compete with mass produced versions from companies such as Stanley and Record, with sales in the order of 20,000 tools a year. The acquisition of the Independence Tool Co. in 1998 added hand saws to the product line, which has further expanded over the years to include over 50 different models of planes, in addition to spokeshaves, socket chisels, screwdrivers, marking and metrology devices and workbench hardware.

Products

Lie-Nielsen uses external subcontractors to provide the manganese bronze and ductile iron castings used in their tools, as well as the cryogenically treated A-2 steel used for the blades. Various other parts of the tools are bought in, but the grinding, machining, polishing, assembly and design of the products are performed in-house.
Manganese bronze, a very hard, strong alloy, is the material of choice for Lie-Nielsen tools because it is heavier than iron, doesn't rust, and won't crack if dropped. This use of bronze, however, may result in the tool leaving marks on the wood; some users aren't concerned by this,^[3] however others consider it an intractable problem.^[4] Where the use of bronze would result in unwanted weight in a tool, ductile iron is used instead. The strength and elasticity of this alloy result in a tool that is less likely to break should it be dropped on the hard workshop floor.^[5]
Lie-Nielsen products are expensive when compared to the mass produced items from the likes of Stanley and Record, but these higher prices allow the company to improve the quality of their output. Thomas Lie-Nielsen himself believes that customers shouldn't have to "fettle" (tune, improve, make ready for use) his products,^[6] although some more exacting users still find the need to improve on the tools.^[7][8] The relatively high prices are often defended by comparing them with the prices paid 100 years ago for such things as Norris infill planes, which could cost up to "a couple of weeks' wages".^[9]

External links

★ Company website

References

1. Lie-Nielsen's FAQ page
2. Furniture & Cabinetmaking issue 63, Lie-Nielsen Feature.
3. Lie-Nielsen FAQ 10 - My Bronze-bodied tool sometimes leaves marks on the wood.
4. Patrick Leach's Blood & Gore - The Stanley #95
5. Lie-Nielsen FAQ 14 - What's so special about the Ductile Iron used for all your iron body tools?
6. Lie-Nielsen FAQ 12 - To what extent are your planes fettled?
7. David Charlesworth's Furniture-Making Techniques, Volume One, Perfection at a price.
8. David Charlesworth's Furniture-Making Techniques, Volume Two, On an even keel.
9. Quote from Gerry Chinn in the F&C feature