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John Neeman


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How did he do it?

I'm a huge fan and I know he is a member here so I don't wish to offend, but how did he do it?

A year ago I'd never heard of him, then out if no where he brings out the birth of a tool videos. His website is still under construction but he's had to stop taking orders as he's so busy.
Which is incredible considering how much of a niche market he's selling to.


The videos are exquisite, but it is clear he has a very well set up shop. Temperature controlled ovens and a laser engravers are not the type of equipment you have just lying around.

Yet in the videos his anvil doesn't seem to be fastened very securely. And he's using an old double bellows. (Which is clearly not the case for everyday use)

So what can we learn from this very talented gentleman.

Cheers

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Aside from the fact that his work is good and looks the part, I think the reason for his sudden rise to fame (at least in the UK) is down to the vids. I'm sure he was prolific and well known in his part of the world already (otherwise he wouldn't have the toys and the well finished range of tools that he does). I think the videos started as a film student's project and it was a success that is continuing?

 

So I guess the key is to find somebody who can do a blooming good video and spread it around the internet!

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Very true Dave. His work is excellent, I have no wish to take anything away from it.

He was clearly doing something right as you point out. I'm guessing the timber framing side of things is a lot bigger in that part of the world?
Just speculating on that one. My own timber framing experience is relatively limited.
Cheers

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I must say, the two videos he's got posted online are absolutely first-rate! I've got a friend who is a filmmaker - and these videos remind me a lot of his work.

Mr. Neeman obviously has been doing this a while and is making some great tools. However I think a lot of the 'buzz' is owed to a having a good filmmaker. The guy knows what to film, and how. The music was well chosen too.

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  I would say that the exposure can do 

nothing more than raise the value of metal forged by a blacksmith in the non metal working consumers eye.

And as John Neeman can't be everywhere at once that leaves a lot people wanting and needing....lot's of room for other smiths.

 

I guess I'm trying to say that it's a good thing for all of us. It raises the bar for consumer quality and I'm sure

it raises the bar for many a smith. 

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  • 1 month later...

From John's new website. It gives some information regarding his new direction.

 

 

John Neeman leaving Neemantools

 

"Lately I hear many people asking, whether I still perform in project Neemantools, considering I now run my new company – AUTINE. The answer is: NO, at present blades made by me, John Neeman, are only available under AUTINE brand. Decision to leave a project, establishing which took a lot of work both from me and my colleague, carpenter Jacob, wasn’t easy. Nonetheless, as was said by a Latvian poet, what changes will last, and I am not an exception. AUTINE is the next phase of my professional activity and fulfillment of my long cherished dream about a family company. When launching this project our team combined both previous experience and new ideas about design, selection of materials and processing technologies.

 

Just like before, tools made by me will remain one hundred percent hand-made. However, by creating AUTINE I want to offer something more – greater options of choice, wider exposure of tools, faster supplying terms and, most important, higher standards of quality.

 

AUTINE is a place I come from and which history I am proud of. That’s why, providing my tools with lifetime warranty, I choose to sign them with name of AUTINE, thereby representing a part of history of me and my homeland.

 

I would like to express my gratitude to all those, who have approved blades made by me. Without you I could not fulfill my dream – to live a life of creativity and challenges. Also I would like to wish luck to my old companion, carpenter Jacob, for beautiful time we had together in our old project.

 

Sincerely,

John Neeman"

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I have no idea who John Neeman is or how the businesses he runs actually work nor particular interest in his product line

HOWEVER

I think what may be learned from this is that if you are in partnership with others and you are building a company around your own name...to be sure to own the name outright.

One could venture, as pure supposition, that the first partnership was dissolved, but the smith could not take his name with him in his next venture.

After building a brand it is not a simple thing to begin again.

 

Ric

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Well he is clearly a talented smith with a well equiped shop..His vids are absolutly first rate, proffesionally done..In all honesty probably the best bladesmith/blacksmith vods out there as far, Ive seen just about everyones on the forums I visit and while i like them all his are a cut above for sure..

 Now I dont think they are the best teaching videos but they are the best at what they are for..if it is the case that he cant use his name on his new tools then i truely hate that for him..Im not a fanboy of any smith but Ill give dredit where it is due..He makes some dang nice tools..

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The birth of a tool video certainly struck a cord in me.  I have been a woodworker and green wood worker for years, and had an interest in hewing axes.  Soon after John's video went viral, about a year ago, I saw his baltic goosewing broadaxe and had to have one.  I ordered it and paid half in early May 2012, still waiting.  Half a world away I was willing pay for the idea.  A master smithe working in a tumble-down workshop hidden in a forest using the old ways, but with access to modern steel and precision heat treat that this forebearers did without, turning out the best tools of this type made in any time and in any place by anyone in the history of the world.  

 

I think its his video that got me interested in blacksmithing and set me on my current path.  I had no idea then that before I recieved my axe I'd have my own forge, my own anvil and be using tools I made myself crude though they may be.  Knives I am now making for my friends and family have handles made from the limb of a tree where a childhood swing once hung, or a piece of a fence post from the family farm, leather washers in the handle from the tongue of a beloved granpa's boot.  Another's blade forged from the leafspring of another Grandpa's 1940s grain truck.  Tools can become more than the sum of thier parts, tailismons even.  I'll never meet John Neeman, but I feel connected to him, and that perhaps I even owe him something--though he still owes me an Axe!.      

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I agree with what has been said about becoming good/great, then to get known. Though, I would disagree and say that he is not selling so much to a nitche market. If you were to take a poll, I think most people would choose between a hand forged quality tool vs. a big box store junk tool that will need to be replaced soon. The key, and I believe the secret is to make price not the main issue.

 

Example. I asked my father in law if he would spend $200 or a little more on an axe, he laughed said he would drive to local big box store and buy one (which he had me do for him last year, and it broke before 3 months...) A few days later I showed him the John Neeman video, "The Birth Of A Tool. Part I. Axe Making" his reponse after the video before I said anything, "you know, buying quality like that will actually save me money in the long run...."

 

I am new to blacksmithing but know a lot about buisness, and his video gives potential clients an intimate look into the "birth" of a tool - in that case, the axe - that people think they have an idea of how it is done, maybe... but how often are they shown in detail the true passion put into a product that they can buy?

 

John is a great craftsman and I will be buying one of his axes,...those videos are very inspiring.

 

 

This is my first post and am a new member to the site!

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  • 2 weeks later...

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