A recent notification posted on the Home page of my web site explains that I am changing the way I conduct business at Brese Plane.
Basically the notification states that I will no longer accept new plane orders so that I may fulfill the orders that I have in house at this time. When that has been accomplished I will offer planes for sale as they are available.
Let me explain. I've been totally consumed with plane making since 2005. I started plane making professionally in 2007. Prior to that time I was a commissioned furniture maker and frankly I miss woodworking. This past October I became 62 years old and came to the realization that I needed to start doing all those things I thought I would do when my plane work was caught up. The list is long and I need a good bit of time to make it happen.
Don't misunderstand I intend to continue making planes, I just need to do it on different terms so that I also have the leeway to do other things for my family and friends.
Julie and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers and friends of the "Hand Tool Woodworking" community for the wonderful journey your support has allowed us to travel. It's not over, we're just modifying our involvement to suit our age and capacity.
Frankly I'm making some of the best planes of my life at this time. That's one of the reasons I don't want to totally discontinue making planes, however I would like the luxury of being able to spend the extra time needed to make every tool special whether that includes re-introducing some decorative details that I discontinued in order to expedite the completion of tools, or allow me to pursue some new ideas that have been rolling around in my head for some time now. Some years ago I made drawings of some new planes that never made it from the drawing board to the shop to become tools. Hopefully I will now have time to make that happen.
If you have a plane ordered this will allow me to concentrate on those tools and get them into your hands. Wonderfully my schedule has not been caught up since 2007 and at times I've enjoyed and endured an 18 month backlog of work.
So what do I mean by "enjoyed and endured" a long backlog of work? Well a long backlog of work is a double edge sword. On one hand it means you have the security of plenty of work that allows you to continuously produce income. On the other hand when you have an 18 month backlog of work you feel as though you can't allow yourself time to do anything but that work. People have entrusted you so one needs to reward their trust. Tool makers that have not worked to that ideal have crashed and burned leaving customers with a bad taste in their mouth for independent tool makers. But this is the other thing. That usually happens because they price their work inappropriately. The time required to produce exceptional tools needs to be rewarded. I guess my advice to customers is this, "if the price is too low then eventually there will be problems."
I'm excited about the prospect of having the time to introduce some new tools and to use those tools to complete some furniture projects. I see this change as a benefit to everyone involved in this process.
Ron
"When you talk you are only repeating something you already know, but if you listen you may learn something new", Dalai Lama
