[Tony Miller]

Just finished up prototypes of my newest wide paddles and bench hones. A small quanity, 20 or so should be ready in a week or two with regular production starting in late April.

First is our newest version of our wide 3" paddle. These are all hand cut from 3/4" thick kiln dried maple and available with 3" x 10" stropping surfaces from any combination of pasting leather, red latigo for daily use or horsehide. We may do some of these in 2 1/2" models down the road a ways.



Next up is our new Basic Bench Hone. This is a dual side 1 1/8" thick, 3" x 10" kiln dried maple bench hone with pasting leather on each side. It comes with a no slip rubber pad to keep it in place and to keep the pasted surface off of the table. The extra thickness leaves plenty of knuckle room when honing.

(And yes, there is an interchangeable surface model in the works for late Spring for those that feel they will need more than 2 surfaces but don't want two comple bench hones)



When these are released we will also have our new diamond pastes available. These small, dual application containers will take the place of our pre-pasting service and for about the same price give the purchaser enough paste for at least 2 complete pastings.

I also got 80 of our 4 sided paddles finished in the woodshop yesterday and I will start getting the leather bonded to them for release next week.

Our latest batch of Horsehide is in as well and I started cutting strop blanks this morning for assembly over the next week or two. These will be available in our Artisan models with a second component from either our Genuine Linen or from our Red Latigo. I am also doing our Original model in Horsehide with just the leather or with our Cotton/Canvas added.

Our Starter Sets are now being discontinuied so we can concentrate only on our strop manufacturing. We have just two sets left now, one regular and one Vegan oriented with a synthetic brush and animal testing safe Body Shop shaving creme.

Even though the scope of what we offer and our number of dealers has expanded considerably each piece I sell is still for the most part, completely hand made by me.

Thanks for your patience as we work through our growing pains here!

Tony

[coachmike]

Very nice Tony...I'm waiting on your four-sided paddle.

[cwrighta70]

Tony,

I would love to purchase one of your new 3" Paddle Strops. You mentioned it's the "newest version". Does that mean there's an old version for sale as well? I didn't see anything on the website about them.

For one of your new ones (Red Latigo/Pasting Leather), do you happen to know how much they would cost? My tax refund should be here any day

Thanks...looking forward to holding one myself!

~Chris

[Tony Miller]

By newest I mean the one replacing the old one. The old one was a wooden paddle with separate turned handle and sold out a week or two ago.

This is an all one piece model and are sawn by hand on a bandsaw, not milled out with machine templates, etc.... They should be similar, and hopefully just a bit less than my 4-side paddle. Same material costs, less gluing labor but a little more masking before gluing. Once I finish adding leather to the first batch I can set the final price but ot should be $56.95 or less.........still less than a 3" TI paddle.

Tony

[riooso]

Tony I have a minor complaint that may have already been covered. When your store front is closed I can not see what you have for sale. Can't you could just shut down the ordering page? The weekend is the really only time I can spend looking for stuff I need on the internet and I can't even see what is available.


Thanks,
Richard Adams

[Tony Miller]

Rich,
I have not come up with a really workable solution to this one. I cannot show the items without allowing ordering unless I set each inventory number to zero so they show as out of stock. Since no one ever seems to read the front page about being closed, when I left them displayed I got a dozen e-mails every Sunday asking when things will be back in stock, will you e-mail me when they are back, are you still in business, etc...

I'll give you an easy hint though...use the search block ad type the word "strop" <g>. It will then display every item I have. That said I still need to set things to zero as even though I do not conduct business on Sundays and certain holidays, fellows will still hit search and order anyway violating my decision to not make sales on a Sunday. I have and will refund those sales and make them re-order.

As it is I spend an hour every Saturday evening and again Monday morning resetting inventory and posting my pages again.

I may try the display items, zero quantity, and a auto-response about "items will be back on Monday" as I would prefer my catalog being available too so guys can plan ahead.

I apprecuiate the question, makes me think about solutions.

Tony

[riooso]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry to be a pain! I will take your hint. I think most people would understand if you stated that e-mails would not be answered till......

Thanks as usual,
Richard

[asbjorn]

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

Rich,
I have not come up with a really workable solution to this one. I cannot show the items without allowing ordering unless I set each inventory number to zero so they show as out of stock. Since no one ever seems to read the front page about being closed, when I left them displayed I got a dozen e-mails every Sunday asking when things will be back in stock, will you e-mail me when they are back, are you still in business, etc...

I'll give you an easy hint though...use the search block ad type the word "strop" <g>. It will then display every item I have. That said I still need to set things to zero as even though I do not conduct business on Sundays and certain holidays, fellows will still hit search and order anyway violating my decision to not make sales on a Sunday. I have and will refund those sales and make them re-order.

As it is I spend an hour every Saturday evening and again Monday morning resetting inventory and posting my pages again.

I may try the display items, zero quantity, and a auto-response about "items will be back on Monday" as I would prefer my catalog being available too so guys can plan ahead.

I apprecuiate the question, makes me think about solutions.

Tony

But I don't understand.. this is the internet.. the ages of new times etc..

It's like, I also use sundays to search, order, do things like this, but I don't expect that you people are answering my quiestions ASAP, I only want to send away my questions and, when time comes, I get the answer, read, and answer back. I think it is very ok that an shop with an door, closes that in the weekends, but not an internet-shop. And for me, in Norway, the shop is awailable again late in monday evening, due to timezones etc.

If the orderingsystem is clever, and it knows how many strops etc you have in store, then that system would let people buy until finised. And then just show that it is out-of-stock. And the same, if you have plans to make, like 80 4sided paddles, and you think that they maybe are available around 4, april or something, then the system could show that, so people also see that the product is not discontiuned.
But I can partly understand some of the reasoning, if your goal is to reduce buying, to keep your head above waters, so, well, I'm not sure..

[asbjorn]

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

First is our newest version of our wide 3" paddle. These are all hand cut from 3/4" thick kiln dried maple and available with 3" x 10" stropping surfaces from any combination of pasting leather, red latigo for daily use or horsehide. We may do some of these in 2 1/2" models down the road a ways.

How do one store these?, I have seen some of the older paddles around have some sort of an cardboard box, or something that you stick it inside, and option could be to hang it somewhere, but no hole in the handle to hang some rope in.

Any ideas?

BTW, they look great!

[marklar]

i really don't have a problem with Tony closing his internet store front. I get the distinct feeling that he prefers not to do buisness on sundays for religious reasons, same goes for what we saw this past week during the easter break. There is no way he is going to make everyone 100% happy on this one. The fact is, that he has a great product, and sells out all the time. He makes the choice to be closed, and im sure that he accepts that people might go buy a strop from someone else. I also wished i could have browsed his products over last weekend, but in the end, its no real big deal, and its his personal preferance, and im going to respect that.

[asbjorn]

Don't misunderstand me now, I respects his choice to close the shop, no problem, but at the same time, if the shop is open, you don't need to sit behind the computer doing business?
I'm a computer geek, and my social antennas might be not working god, so pardon my statements

Anyway, I often order things from webshops etc in the weekends, and the shops does not have any people dealing with my orders, and that is fine. They pick up the orders in sequence when starting the business again on monday.

Anyway, as Tony also wrote in an earlier post, you can just search for the products, for me regarding this type of products, I'm more interrested in reading about the products, seeing what is available, some approximate prices etc. After I find out what I want I just send an email anyway, since the orderingsystem does not calculuate for shipping to europe and stuff like that.

[TOB9595]

the more it's chatted about the more ideas Tony is exposed to....that's good.
I have a yearning for a pasted strop just to seer if my end results are better.
hmmmm
Those all look so great...

[riooso]

Originally Posted by TOB9595

the more it's chatted about the more ideas Tony is exposed to....that's good.
I have a yearning for a pasted strop just to seer if my end results are better.
hmmmm
Those all look so great...

I guess that is my point. Take the order and if there are to many or have to get back to someone then do it later.

I got into pasted strops at the behest of Joel and it is a really good way to go! Sharpening is really easy. I sit down on Saturday and sharpen 3 razors in 15 minutes and it is really enough to go a couple of weeks. Tony's strops are the answer to getting the blade to the face in a the shortest time possible. I like straight shaving, not honing, and by sharpening with a pasted paddle strop you can get some really wickedly sharp razors, if you wish, in a really short time period.


R

[Tony Miller]

Thanks everyone, I do appreciate the comments and ideas. I think starting this weekend I wil just set inventory to zero, leave the Closed Sunday details posted and add that items will show as in stock again on Monday (just in case someone actually reads that info <g>). That way everyone can browse the storefront all weekend and save ordering till Monday. I tried it the other way as most did not read the Sunday closing message and I got many e-mails on Sundays wondering why every item is out of stock, then on Monday I spend a full hour responding why!

I prefer not to do business on certain holidays and Sundays....I'll frequent the forums and make posts as a fellow wetshaver but do not wish to conduct business, make sales invoice or collect payments on those days.
With my canned storefront software, if I enable orders on Sundays I also must enable the ablility to accept Paypal payment on Sundays......a complete sale, and it goes against my wishes. If it costs me sales, so be it.

Much of this is for my own personal beliefs and also out of respect for those who help me as well. While I make most of my items completely myself, my wooden paddle blanks are made by my Amish friends and they occasionally help cut out handles and end caps for my hanging strops when I am too busy. They do not do business on Sundays, and I choose not to offer any products they contribute to out of respect for their beliefs as well.

Again though, I do appreciate your thoughts on this and you have some valid points I will try to accomodate. I also greatly appreciate all your support that has made this so successful and your willingness to work within the limitations I set in business. It is often hard to try and balance providing craftsman made items into a big business oriented market and it's demands while still focusing on family, friends and other endevours.

Thank you all,
Tony

[TOB9595]

We can't be ALL things to ALL people.
There is a life to LIVE

[asbjorn]

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

With my canned storefront software, if I enable orders on Sundays I also must enable the ablility to accept Paypal payment on Sundays......a complete sale, and it goes against my wishes.

Ah, so since the software is like this, I understand why. To bad really, that the software could not stop that. It should be possible to have storefront software that understand that there is an manual part involved often. Thank god I'm not in USA, so then there is no problem for me to just send email to ask. I just hope that there is no problem that I send email on sundays, I hope that you just read it when time permits on weekdays.

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

If it costs me sales, so be it.

Well, If you want an TonyMiller strop, you don't go elsewhere..

[Tony Miller]

Asbjorn,
Yes, questions are fine for the most part...advice, ideas, etc...... If I'm in front of the computer and not doing family stuff I will typically answer but just won't send invoices, prices, etc.....

Hobbyist advice, yes, ..... $$ and business, no <g>

BTW, I don't want to sound like either matyr or heritic here or to turn this into a religous discussion but let me explain a little. I believe we all draw our own line in the sand as to what we choose to follow or believe. I have no issue with people doing business on Sunday.....I do myself to some extent. We have a family dinner every Sunday night at a local place that chooses to do business on Sunday, I will often buy on ebay on Sundays or list hobby items there not related to my business. My line in the sand is that I choose not to MAKE money on a Sunday through my labor or that of someone else.

Tony

[RobertFontaine]

I quite enjoy the balance Tony has found between work and life. It sets a good and appropriate example.

-Bob

[heavydutysg135]

Those paddles look really nice, and I am not sure if this would even be possible or useful because of the thickness of the wood; but do you think that it would be a useful feature/option to let people choose to have some sort of hole in the handle to hang the paddle with? I hang mine on a nail on my wall and am not really sure if others like to do the same or not. Otherwise some sort of slip cover (leather would be really classy) to protect the leather surfaces from the normal dirt and dust in the air would be a really nice option since I have heard that some types of dirt can have an adverse effect on the edge.

David

[asbjorn]

As I have 4 sides paddles in the ordering, I'm not going to order the twosides, but if I were, a hole in the handle would be nice, could have used an leather rope like on the practice strops to hang it.