Mole Hill Turnery
 

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.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter


http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

Mole Hill Turnery
 

Arch wrote:
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.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter



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:

http://www.mhordam.freeuk.com/index.html

Let us know if you contact him. I still remember watching the progress
of that stone "shed" as he called it.

Robert

Mole Hill Turnery
 

wrote in message
ups.com...
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.

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 guy that sold Crown was a Canadian.

Mole Hill Turnery
 

Arch & Robert,

Cool site to visit and sad but not infrequent kind of story. Had it happen
to me in another field, as well.

TomNie

Mole Hill Turnery
 

Thanks a lot, Robert. Brings back some pleasant memories, but a reminder
that rcw wasn't any kinder & gentler than now.

George, Brian sold Crown & Hamlet, I have one of each. Wish I'd bought
more.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter


http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

Mole Hill Turnery
 

Arch wrote:
Thanks a lot, Robert. Brings back some pleasant memories, but a reminder
that rcw wasn't any kinder & gentler than now.

George, Brian sold Crown & Hamlet, I have one of each. Wish I'd bought
more.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter


http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

I thought he sold both. I bought actually bought a Crown tool from him
and that's when he contacted me via email to ask me if I wanted
anything else to combine shipping, and to help him get rid of his
inventory. He was such a nice, polite man, and he seemed totally
bewildered by how much venom was stirred up by his little "shed" shop
in the country.

Robert

Mole Hill Turnery
 

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.

Fred Holder
http://www.fholder.com

In article . com,
says...


Arch wrote:
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.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter



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:

http://www.mhordam.freeuk.com/index.html

Let us know if you contact him. I still remember watching the progress
of that stone "shed" as he called it.

Robert