Some of the world’s finest hand tools can be found in an unusual spot: a former icehouse and submarine plant off Route 1 in Warren.

Thomas Lie-Nielsen, owner of Lie-Nielsen Toolworks and son of legendary boat builder O. Lie-Nielsen, has gone from growing blueberries in West Rockport to running a cutting-edge production plant on Route 1. The facility produces $5 million worth of saws, chisels and planes annually, selling them to furniture and violin makers and serious amateur woodworkers around the globe.

Lie-Nielsen, 51, grew up around tools in his father’s Rockland boat shop, where pricey wooden sail and power yachts were produced. A decade ago, he started fabricating saws and planes without any formal training as a machinist or engineer. Now his finely made hand tools are highly sought after and riding a resurgence in home woodworking.

The New York Times reported that amateur carpentry has become a $14 billion industry, rivaling cooking and home gardening. Hand tools sales shot up from $180 million to more than $315 million in recent years. “New Yankee Workshop” host Norm Abram told the Times, “Interest in woodworking is absolutely growing. It’s moving into an upscale, white-collar group of people in their 40s to 60s whom are looking for an adventurous hobby. It’s like therapy.”

The Warren facility has profited from this trend because of its reputation for quality tools. When pressed, Peter Schwarz of Popular Woodworking magazine admits that the Lie-Nielsen products are “the best in the world” with Canadian firm Lee Valley hot on their heels.

“Lie- Nielsen makes wonderful tools. He has single-handedly changed woodworking by restoring the handmade tool industry, tools that can be used right out of the box. Tons of people are discovering and rediscovering the joys of woodworking because of these tools,” Schwarz said.

A Lie-Nielsen wood plane will cost $150, compared to an off-the-shelf model at Lowe’s or Home Depot for about $35. But they are worth it, Schwarz said.

“It doesn’t matter what the off-the-shelf tool costs if it doesn’t work,” he said. “[Lie-Nielsen] planes are made with much closer tolerances. A hand plane will not work if it is not perfectly flat. An off-the-shelf plane will need serious work to perform. A Lie-Nielsen plane will work right out of the box. You can make beautiful music with those tools. Plus, they will last three or four generations.”

“People travel from all over the world to visit that shop,” Schwarz continued. “It is amazing what he has accomplished.”

Instead of joining his father’s Rockland boat shop, Lie-Nielsen decided to go off to Hamilton College in upstate New York, then headed for the bright lights of New York City in 1978. The English major was looking for the typical “management trainee” job when he stumbled across an ad for Garrett Wade, one of the recognized leaders in hand tool production. He toiled there for three years.

“I was always fascinated by woodworking, but with Garrett Wade, I got interested in the tool side of the business. In those days, the best tools came from overseas, Sweden, Japan and Germany. People always complained about their tools and asked ‘why don’t they make them like they used to?'” Lie-Nielsen recalled. “I asked ‘why not?’ We have better material and technology.”

The answer was economics.

“Two-thirds of the tools were handmade from small cottage industries, which would come and go. They would do a nice job, but were extremely unbusinesslike,” Lie-Nielsen said. “They were erratic in deliveries and always had back orders. I asked why a company couldn’t take a business approach to tool making with on-time delivery of good tools.”

The enterprising young Mainer approached several New York area firms with his concept to no avail. When he was about to return home to Maine, his father sold the Rockland boat yard.

“There was no tool shop and no job,” He said. Still, he came back to Maine anyway and started to huddle with Rockport sculptor, metal worker and friend Richard Remsen.

“I learned a lot from Richard and Bill Lowe, a phenomenal craftsman who had worked for my father. He was not only good and fast but he worked in wood, leather and plastic,” Lie-Nielsen said.

Remsen was much more interested in art than commerce and left Lie-Nielsen to the tool production. The first wood plane was produced in the barn of a 50-acre blueberry farm on Christmas Day, 1981.

“We were all new to this ‘back-to-the-earth’ movement. When a woman drove up the driveway and asked if we were selling blueberries, we started raking. That really saved our bacon. We were making a lot more from the berries than from the tools,” he said. The well-crafted tools started to gain a reputation among craftsman and the business gradually outgrew the family barn.

In 1987, Lie-Nielsen found the former icehouse and submarine plant on Route 1. He sold the blueberry farm and moved into the office to save money. The first part-time employee was added in 1988.

“I acquired more and better equipment. It was five years of expanding and learning. After Remsen set up the foundry, all the casting was done in house,” the toolmaker said. “We were lucky, We learned about quality and delivery while the volume was very small and there was no pressure. It meant a lot of 18-hour days and weeks and months without a paycheck, but we were getting the quality in volume that made economic sense.”

In a boon for the struggling company, Stanley Tools, the industry giant, decided to drop the more exotic and expensive handmade tools for the small market of professional woodworkers in favor of mass-produced implements for the average garage handyman.

“Stanley decided to reduce quality and product lines. That was a great opportunity for us,” Lie-Nielsen said.

Lie-Nielsen Toolworks has steadily grown, now netting $5 million in annual sales. The company serves furniture and violin makers and high-end finish carpenters, plus a few collectors. The firm’s biggest market area is California and New York, followed by New England.

Today the Warren firm employs 65. A sorely needed 7,500-square-foot addition recently was built. The company survives on word of mouth, augmented by the Internet and bigger and bigger ads in Popular Woodworking and other trade magazines. The company boasts its own sophisticated graphics department, which is producing a series of videotapes on woodworking featuring English carpenter David Charlesworth and Kentucky chair maker Brian Boggs.

The future for woodworking and Lie-Nielsen Toolworks look good.

“Woodworking has always been popular with doctors, especially surgeons. Now, engineers who spend all day in front of a computer screen want to produce something tangible when they go home,” the toolmaker said.

Lie-Nielsen Toolworks is starting to make butcher-block workbenches and complete tool kits for the expanding market.

“I like to see a lot of tools available,” Lie-Nielsen said. “Even if we only sell 100 a year of some types, I will be happy to do it. I don’t want to end up like Stanley, dropping more and more lines.”

No one is more aware of the loss of manufacturing facilities and operations across the country than the Lie-Nielsen.

“What worries me is the availability of supplies, material and equipment,” he said. “There is a problem finding skilled workers with such a small population base. We like to get mechanically inclined workers and train them ourselves. We manage to add a few every year.”

“But we are concerned about foreign competition,” he added. “When a country like China can make tools as well as we can, with their vastly cheaper labor, I will go back to building boats. But I don’t think they can. Plus, the niche market is so small, I doubt that they would bother.”

Lie-Nielsen is already preparing for its 25th anniversary, with the special production of a classic 19th century tool, a miller’s plane used for plowing dadoes in a piece of wood.

“I think we will be making tools for quite awhile,” the founder declared.

Emmet Meara can be reached at

Lie-Nielsen Toolworks is located on Route 1 in Warren. For more information, call 273-2520 or visit www.lie-nielsen.com.

Lie-Nielsen Toolworks’ smoothing plane

One of the more popular items in the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks line is the 41/2-inch smoothing plane, which sells for $300.

Christopher Schwarz of Popular Woodworking has 10 smoothers in his arsenal, but said he prefers this model for a tabletop or large cabinet side. “I wonder why I don’t use it more,” he mused in Popular Woodworking article. “It is a jewel.”

The plane is much bigger than some Lie-Nielsen plane models, and the extra mass keeps the wood from jumping out of the cut and makes the plane easier to start, he said,

Because a heavier plane requires just a few passes on a board, the weight is a not an issue for many carpenters.

The model was introduced in 1999 and was recently upgraded to accept a high-angle frog and employed cryogenically treated A2 steel instead of high carbon steel, and now requires far less sharpening.

Plus, the firm stopped using Stanley-style chip breakers and uses a thick, flat chip breaker that is milled on the underside, eliminating the need for hours of tuning.

“This tool is worthy of being your only smoothing plane, especially if you build large-scale furniture,” Schwarz reported in the magazine.