Veritas Canada Visit #1

Canada is beautiful and surprisingly different than the US. As I passed through the interior of Ontario countryside towards Ottawa I tried to imagine what it must have felt like to cross these vast regions of openness, forested lakelands, mountains and deep valleys. Deer tumbling down through the woods in a wildness 90% of the world will never see.

On my way North through New York state my friend and I talked about woodworking and where we were going. I have known Wally Wilson at Veritas for many years and as marketing and sales director his interests in working wood go way beyond the shop counter and selling. Wally knows the tools and equipment they  make from the inside out and it was so refreshing to know just how much he cared personally about what and who Veritas is.

I wasn’t sure what to expect as I saw the various buildings that house the Veritas working environs. Their new store is really prestigious, but the heart of the company lies just beyond in a series of buildings where Veritas products are thought up, thought through, designed, developed and then brought from virtual design to in-the-hand reality.

Signing in as a visitor at Veritas was new turf for me.

Security is high at Veritas, understandably. On my first day there I met with a team of people responsible for creative engineering genius. Six of us sat around the table for several hours discussing planes and chisels, saws and saw teeth, steels from history up to new steels as yet unknown beyond the walls of Veritas.  I have used all of tools that Veritas makes and so I know their products very well. It’s a funny thing really. When you read through the things I write about I emphasise that it’s not so much what you make that determines the outcome but how you make it. Herein at Veritas this point is proven. The end result of Veritas products far surpasses any and all standards and the thing that drew me to Veritas in the first place was seeing the engineered quality of their first hand plane. As soon as I saw it I bought it. You see I knew that it had to be the how it was made that determined the outcome. Superb craftsmanship!

I am going to post a series of posts that represent my views as an independent freelance writer. I want to convey to you how I feel concerning certain elements of my visit. They are observations that led to a conclusion with reference to design and technology resulting manufacturing. I hope that you enjoy these insights over the next few days.