Lie-Nielsen Toolworks
Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, Inc. is a family-owned business, established in 1981 and based in
History
In the late 1970s, Thomas Lie-Nielsen (pronounced "Lee-Neelsen"
Lie-Nielsen moved from New York to a farm in West Rockport, Maine, and began production of the plane in a tiny back-yard shed. The first of the new planes was delivered to Chinn in the autumn of 1981.[3]
A few years later, Lie-Nielsen moved into a 384-square-foot (35.7 m2) 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 8,000-square-foot (740 m2) 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 (1,200 m2) facility.[3]
Today, the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks products compete with mass-produced tools from companies such as Stanley and Record, with sales in the order of 20,000 tools a year.
Construction
Lie-Nielsen uses manganese bronze and ductile iron castings, and cryogenically treated A-2 steel.
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. Where the use of bronze would result in excessive weight in a tool, ductile iron is used instead.
Lie-Nielsen products are expensive when compared to the mass-produced items from the likes of
References
- ISBN 1561587125
- ^ Lie-Nielsen's FAQ page
- ^ a b c d Furniture & Cabinetmaking issue 63, Lie-Nielsen Feature.
- ^ Quote from Gerry Chinn in the F&C feature