Where to get woodworking tools in NYC?

December 19, 2008 3:08 PM

Emergency gift filter! Where can I find a top-notch woodworking supply store in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Long Island or northern Jersey that's open this Sunday (Dec. 21)?

So I screwed up royally by driving out of town to buy an amplifier today, thinking that I would have enough time to return to Brooklyn and drive my girlfriend to Tools for Working Wood, the supply store out on 33rd Street by the BQE. Then the snowstorm hit.

Now I have a pricey amp for my own dumb self and a very sad girlfriend with no special gift for her father. Tools for Working Wood is only open M-F from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. She flies out to California at 7 p.m. Sunday.

What are my options? What other places in the area could you go to get some great woodworking tools? I will go out of my way to make this better.

posted by DeWalt_Russ to shopping (10 comments total)

If she's in SF and can shop there, Soko Hardware (on Post in Japantown) has a great selection of woodworking tools that may meet her needs. Perhaps there's a similar Japanese hardware store nearer your current location - the bonsai tree context is the key.

Still sucks to be you. :)
posted by kcm at 3:18 PM on December 19, 2008

you can try online -- if you order now with expedited shipping it might come on time. good spots are Lee Valley and Japan Woodworker. Best of luck!
posted by cubby at 3:29 PM on December 19, 2008

oh, also Japan Woodworker has a brick and mortar shop in Alameda, plus there's Hida Tool in Berkeley, another great resource. If the gift is needed in CA, you could order it online and have it shipped to CA from Hida Tool or Japan Woodworker within a day or so since they are located out there
posted by cubby at 3:32 PM on December 19, 2008

Garrett Wade?

233 Spring St # 3
New York, NY 10013, United States
[phone]‎
[phone]‎

http://www.garrettwade.com


The website doesn't say when they're open, unfortunately. An online review says: A wide selection of hand tools at sometimes high prices. Includes some new wooden specialty planes.
posted by essexjan at 4:12 PM on December 19, 2008

I had no idea Garrett Wade had a New York store. That's great. Thanks, essexjan.
posted by DeWalt_Russ at 4:24 PM on December 19, 2008

Don't get so excited. Garrett Wade did have a NY storefront, but they closed it and switched to catalog only sales a year or so ago. That's the office address.

I'd say go mailorder, with the gifts sent express. Pay the increased shipping for her.
Or buy a class or two for your girlfriend's dad. A coworker was very happy with the bowl turning class he received as a gift one year.
posted by stachemaster at 5:56 PM on December 19, 2008

There is a Woodcraft store in Norwalk, CT that is open from 10am-5pm on Sunday.

What kind of woodworking tools are you looking for? Lathe tools, carving tools, planes?
posted by MLIS at 7:13 PM on December 19, 2008

MLIS: Given the fact that we're far less informed about woodworking than her father, we were looking for something small. I had suggested a set of riffler rasps from Tools for Working Wood.

Her dad makes desks, cabinets and bed frames, if I remember correctly.
posted by DeWalt_Russ at 10:00 PM on December 19, 2008

I work in a yarn store and if customers call us nicely and we have the time we can often be talked into staying a little later than our posted closing hours. And because I'm not Jewish, I have offered to stop by on Saturday to help people find what they're looking for. Nobody has taken me up on it, but most weekends it's a possibility for a serious enough customer.

YMMV because it sounds like she isn't likely to become a regular customer, but if she is able to convince the person on the phone that she knows exactly what she needs/wants and won't take up eleventy billion hours of someone's time...they might open the store for her. Especially if there is someone there on Sundays doing something, or if the owner lives nearby. (And she should plan on stopping in to pick up his birthday present there too, if they do her this huge favor.)
posted by bilabial at 6:45 AM on December 20, 2008

If you strike out on the rasps ... Clamps are always welcome. One can never have too many clamps.

A coupla Bessey K-Body clamps, which you'll find at Woodcraft and lots of other places, would probably be appreciated.
posted by notyou at 8:32 AM on December 20, 2008