Klingspor's Woodworking Show thoughts and thanks!!!

Klingspor's Woodworking Show thoughts and thanks!!! · 11-02-2009, 11:15 PM

First of all,

A big thank you is in order for several local clubs for participating in our event this year.

NCWoodworker.net - Great demo's - Worksharp, Penturning, and WOW! AWESOME CLOCK Ted! Also, from my understanding - many NEW signups for the club and tons of entries for the fundraising raffle! This is a good thing right?

Western Piedmont Woodworkers - beautiful display of finished products and many new members to teach the art of woodworking.

Carolina Mountain Woodturners - the Turning for Learing Mobile lab - one of the true remarkable builders of woodturners in that through their time and expertise, folks are taught woodturning that would never before have the nerve to try. MOST IMPORTANT - young people are encouraged to participate, which btw everytime I came in the room I noticed there were several young people and women!

North Carolina Woodturners Association - this club is one of the oldest turning clubs in the State of NC and has been instrumental in 100's if not 1000's of woodturners being taught to get more in tune with the craft of woodturning. By the way, Scott - Awesome way to peel an apple....for those of you that missed it - very interesting! Thanks for all of your help!

Klingspor's Woodworking Shop and our staff truly value the non-profit clubs throughout NC because we feel that the local clubs are the best way for non-woodworkers, true DIY'ers, beginners, industrial arts students, etc. can learn the art of woodworking and fall in love with it like most of you on NCWOODWORKER.NET have already.

The show was a great success in that since the beginning, we wanted to offer a place for woodworkers, carvers, turners, and dabblers to come together and talk woodworking. We had 5 industrial arts classes from local high schools come thru to see what products are available and to talk to experts in the woodworking community. We had over 500 of the most beautiful woodcarvings that you will ever see under one roof. I HOPE YOU took time to go thru the carving hall. Did I mention Ted's Clock? Wow!

During all of the planning and work to bring about this event, we always hope that the folks that take valuable time out of their busy lives to come feel it worthwhile to visit Hickory and find good deals and have fun. By the way, the apples this year, as some of you have mentioned, were FANTASTIC. The staff was joking that we were creating a hazard in the local sanitation department with all of the apples that were being consumed........

As for all events of this size there were some hiccups. We "frisked" people- checked all bags as best as we could - at the exit doors due to some theft issues in the past.

We tried to offer many awesome deals for all that came, however I am sure that we didn't have the best prices on EVERY item that is available out there but we surely hope we didn't "rip anybody off" during our event.

We also try to have most of the "A" items at our show but sometimes due to vendors not participating, space, manpower, etc we don't take all of our offerings to the event as it would be impossible to manage and therefore no show could be had.

Thank you for reading and most important thank you for coming to our show.

Coleman Fourshee

Douglas Robinson · 11-03-2009, 12:13 AM

Coleman:

It was good to meet you. On behalf of North Carolina Woodworker we were glad to support Klingspor and at the same time are glad for the support you have shown us. I hope that anyone reading this that has not made oit to this show in the past will make the trip next year.

peteb301 · 11-03-2009, 12:18 AM

Nice meeeting you Coleman. However the clock was not a Pete's product , It was made by TedAS -- Ted Shaeffer -- from Clemmons.

TracyP · 11-03-2009, 12:20 AM

It says Ted now.

ScottM · 11-03-2009, 08:00 AM

Coleman you and the staff did a great job hosting this event. It takes a lot of work to put an event like that together and it really shows you put the effort into the event. I know I spent more money then I had planned to. I am already making plans for 2010.

froglips · 11-03-2009, 08:11 AM

Coleman,

This was my first time at the Extravaganza. I had a really great time!

The amount of cat herding is well beyond my comprehension. It came off without any noticeable hitches.

Only a few minor comments, if you were looking for some

1. The PA announcements, in particular for the Saw Stop demo interrupted presenters in the other booths. I have no good alternatives, but some of the presenters had to stop and wait for the announcement to play out.

2. More apples.

3. Scratch-n-dent items. Many of us frequent your stores frequently. We also hunt for junk, er, deals. Don't know if that'd sit well with the vendors.

4. Speaking of vendors, a vendor list. I ask, as I still am hunting down who was selling those nice carving chisels. I noticed that on the Blog and literature I had I couldn't find a comprehensive list of vendors from the show.

Again, I was blown away and can't wait for next year!

Thanks,
Jim

McRabbet · 11-03-2009, 08:12 AM

Coleman,

Our sincere thanks for your generosity in making our booth space, power drops, chairs and tables available for free -- indeed we did see an excellent turnout of visitors and enjoyed giving them some insights into the joys of woodworking. We agree that Ted Shaeffer's beautiful clock was the singular highlight of our booth. Folks stood and watched it in awe, but then most moved to see our other members examples of work, too. We did have very good response to our Fall Raffle (over $500 in ticket sales) and our demonstrations seemed well received. I need to add that your security measures were most effective from our perspective.

Thanks for your support of all of these clubs -- we all had a great time! We hope the cash register tally was good, too! Every time I walked through the main portion of the vendor area, I saw people carrying purchases and bags of Halloween treats going out the door! And yes, the apples tasted great!

DavidF · 11-03-2009, 11:34 AM

As one who did use the phase "ripped off" I need to explain why, Don't get me wrong I love the show and enjoy being there and spending money; However, when a show is billed as having "great deals" and "spectacular savings" you raise peoples expectations, you also make them assume, rightly or wrongly, that the prices they see are the best they are likely to get, just for that one day, they are really the "lowest prices available" that is why people save their hard earned cash and spend it at your show. In my case, the wide blade attachment for the worksharp was listed at $74.99 and reduced to $71.99 (or there abouts) and this certainly was what I would consider a "bait and switch" I could easily get this item just about anywhere else for less than that. Now this is just my experience on that one item, but it gives a perception that the "spirit" of the intense advertising was not always carried through to the event.

WoodWrangler · 11-03-2009, 01:00 PM

THANK YOU Coleman, and Klingspor, for another enjoyable show. I walked away with a few goodies, and a good reminder about how much I enjoy the annual trip to Hickory for the show.

My favorite things at the show this year (in random order):
- Kyle's Korner filled with great prices and fantastic lumber
- Seeing so many NCWWers and others
- Getting a good price on a tool I wanted

A few things urked me ...
- The weather ... drizzly rain
- No North Carolina Woodworker BBQ lunch
- SawStop vendor was a bit rude/grumpy

Mike Davis · 11-03-2009, 01:14 PM

Missed it again, seems it is always on the same day as some earlier promise that I have to keep.

Will try again next year.

I have never seen any show go off without a hitch, always something to improve. But, it sounds like you are doing a GREAT thing for North Carolina and all of us woodworkers in particular.

McRabbet · 11-03-2009, 01:57 PM

Originally Posted by WoodWrangler

THANK YOU Coleman, and Klingspor, for another enjoyable show. I walked away with a few goodies, and a good reminder about how much I enjoy the annual trip to Hickory for the show.

My favorite things at the show this year (in random order):
- Kyle's Korner filled with great prices and fantastic lumber
- Seeing so many NCWWers and others
- Getting a good price on a tool I wanted

A few things urked me ...
- The weather ... drizzly rain
- No North Carolina Woodworker BBQ lunch
- SawStop vendor was a bit rude/grumpy

Jeremy,

The Board of Directors made a conscious decision this year not to have the BBQ lunch for NC Woodworkers -- it cost $600 last year and more food was thrown away than was eaten. We felt that we all would find more positive things to accomplish with that money for our membership.

CarvedTones · 11-03-2009, 02:24 PM

Coleman,

You have likely heard this comment from others, but I will place it in the thread for reference...

Having it on Halloween weekend pretty much killed any chance I might be able to go. It's far enough that I wouldn't want to do it in a day, and Friday was not possible for me. The kids would not have been happy if I hadn't been here to take them around the neighborhood Saturday night.

David,

I did not get the impression that the deals would be all that incredible. That factored into my decision; I might have done a quick trip or had the kids go with frends (and bring them back some surprise and probably still have to put up with some lip quivers

) if I thought there were some amazing deals, but the discussions I had and read led me to believe they would just be reasonable and that it was more of a show than a sale.

I hope I am able to make it next year.

JimmyC · 11-03-2009, 03:50 PM

I too, second Andy's comments. The ride from Johnston county is a haul but doable, but Friday my kids were off school and Saturday was Halloween and soccer so I stood no chance

. Hopefully I can make it next year.

The good news is that none of the reasons above have stopped me from shopping at the Raleigh store.

Good Luck.

WoodWrangler · 11-03-2009, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by McRabbet

Jeremy,

The Board of Directors made a conscious decision this year not to have the BBQ lunch for NC Woodworkers -- it cost $600 last year and more food was thrown away than was eaten. We felt that we all would find more positive things to accomplish with that money for our membership.

Yep, I understand that and would have probably made the same call ... however, I still missed it

Heck, I would have paid for that good stuff!

McRabbet · 11-03-2009, 04:50 PM

If it had been the prior weekend, then it would have conflicted with the North Carolina Woodturners Symposium in Greensboro that was attended by several of the vendors and many of the participants. And there were many NC Woodworker attendees that returned home in plenty of time to take their costumed young'uns out for Halloween Trick or Treating. I agree it is a long ride from Johnston County or the Triangle, no matter what the weekend. It is too bad you couldn't fit it into your schedules as it was an enjoyable event and there were some decent deals to be had if you looked.