Recommendation? Hawaii equipment shipping and sales?

Phil Dwyer

Phil Dwyer

Joined
Feb 28, 2006
Messages
3,494
Hi Guys,

Not sure if many of you remember me, I used to be fairly active here years ago, life keeps getting in the way though.

I’ve always imagined taking up knife making more as I move into retirement and my golden years. My wife said I’ll be lucky to make it to my golden years if I keep on tying up as much of our family resources for a someday maybe kinda thing. I keep telling her, I’ll think about it.

Well, life can do your thinking for you sometimes. The school where my metalworks studio and smithy are set up for teaching practical arts was recently devastated by flood and mud. It has been closed for several weeks. My wife and I have taken teaching jobs in San Francisco’s Bay Area. Now I’ve got to sell and or move a whole lot of stuff, which brings me to my query for you fine folks.

Do any of you know of affordable and reliable shipping options if I sell pieces of my equipment off, such as an Evenheat heat-treating oven, an old “heavy as a bugga” hardness tester, etc?

Or, should I pack stuff like this that I need to sell off with my other stuff into a Pod and do the selling from CA?

Also, any suggestions how to specifically reach out to Hawaii based knifemaking folks? I’ve got a HUGE hydrolic press that needs a new home!

Thanks you all,
Phil
 
Phil, it's good to see you in here! Been a while, man!
I shipped 1400 lbs. of tools back with me when I moved to the mainland from Oahu... didn't sell any off, IIRC it cost me something around a buck a lb. or more to send that stuff. Royal Hawaiian Movers shipped it with everything else of ours.
Are you getting out of knife work outright? Or will you get back in later perhaps? At any rate, I bet you can offload the Evenheat at the very least for a good price right where you are, without having to pay to ship it to the mainland and then sell it.
Any maker that's on the island and still tooling up will likely be checking Craigslist a lot, with the scarcity of metalworking tools out there.... I'd post some stuff on there for sure.
As far as Hawaii knife folks, I just used the "Knives Annual" and looked up listed phone numbers in the maker's listings in the back, to find people. That's how I found Ken Onion, just cold-calling makers. Who knows, maybe Ken or Scott Matsuoka or someone may know of guys wanting to tool up and get into knives...
 
Salem Straub said:
Phil, it's good to see you in here! Been a while, man!
I shipped 1400 lbs. of tools back with me when I moved to the mainland from Oahu... didn't sell any off, IIRC it cost me something around a buck a lb. or more to send that stuff. Royal Hawaiian Movers shipped it with everything else of ours.
Are you getting out of knife work outright? Or will you get back in later perhaps? At any rate, I bet you can offload the Evenheat at the very least for a good price right where you are, without having to pay to ship it to the mainland and then sell it.
Any maker that's on the island and still tooling up will likely be checking Craigslist a lot, with the scarcity of metalworking tools out there.... I'd post some stuff on there for sure.
As far as Hawaii knife folks, I just used the "Knives Annual" and looked up listed phone numbers in the maker's listings in the back, to find people. That's how I found Ken Onion, just cold-calling makers. Who knows, maybe Ken or Scott Matsuoka or someone may know of guys wanting to tool up and get into knives...
Click to expand...
Thanks Salem! I'm looking at over $4K for the transport of a 16'x8'x8' Pod and its rent for a couple of months (one of which is spent getting across the Pacific).

I won't have a shop for quite some time. Setting one up may be implausible as a renter in the silicon valley area where I'll be a middle and high school practical arts teacher (mostly woodworking at first) for the Waldorf School of the Peninsula. There's hope I'll eventually get a smithy setup at the school, so much so that they're willing to foot the bill to ship my curriculum related equipment over. I've amassed 6 anvils, 3 post vises, numerous hammers and tongs, a couple of aspirated propane forges, a few solid fuel forges, etc. Have to let go of all my fuel and welding tanks as they won't allow them.

I need to raise some bucks to make the move, as well as lighten my load of all the non-curriculum related stuff (a "shit-ton" of steel and handle material, etc). Guess I'll start rounding up USPS flat rate shipping boxes, snapping some photos, and hanging out in the for sale forum. Will post stuff on Craigslist, too. The hydraulic press is going to be a bitch. It took a forklift and flatbed to get it here, then a hefty pallet jack to move it to the far end of the campus. I may just have to cut the damn thing up to get it out of here. Know anyone who wants a 5HP motor and 25 ton ram?!

Best wishes to Heather and little Fire, bet he's a pistol!
 
Last edited:
Phil Dwyer said:
Thanks Salem! I'm looking at over $4K for the transport of a 16'x8'x8' Pod and its rent for a couple of months (one of which is spent getting across the Pacific).

I won't have a shop for quite some time. Setting one up may be implausible as a renter in the silicon valley area where I'll be a middle and high school practical arts teacher (mostly woodworking at first) for the Waldorf School of the Peninsula. There's hope I'll eventually get a smithy setup at the school, so much so that they're willing to foot the bill to ship my curriculum related equipment over. I've amassed 6 anvils, 3 post vises, numerous hammers and tongs, a couple of aspirated propane forges, a few solid fuel forges, etc. Have to let go of all my fuel and welding tanks as they won't allow them.

I need to raise some bucks to make the move, as well as lighten my load of all the non-curriculum related stuff (a "shit-ton" of steel and handle material, etc). Guess I'll start rounding up USPS flat rate shipping boxes, snapping some photos, and hanging out in the for sale forum. Will post stuff on Craigslist, too. The hydraulic press is going to be a bitch. It took a forklift and flatbed to get it here, then a hefty pallet jack to move it to the far end of the campus. I may just have to cut the damn thing up to get it out of here. Know anyone who wants a 5HP motor and 25 ton ram?!

Best wishes to Heather and little Fire, bet he's a pistol!
Click to expand...

Depending on what you got for steel and handle stock, im in Santa Cruz till mid june and can drive up.
 
Good to see back you Phil. We both know how crazy it was to ship the equipment I had for your school to the islands.

My suggestion would be for you and your wife to get a divorce and marry some navy chiefs or officers stationed at Pearl harbor. Have your stuff shipped back to the states by the Government when they transfer back to the mainland. Then get rid of those guys and marry each other again.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
Depending on what you got for steel and handle stock, im in Santa Cruz till mid june and can drive up.
Click to expand...
If I end up taking it with me, it probably means I'm having trouble parting with it. I believe I'll be using good all USPS flat rate to get that stuff to folks.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Good to see back you Phil. We both know how crazy it was to ship the equipment I had for your school to the islands.

My suggestion would be for you and your wife to get a divorce and marry some navy chiefs or officers stationed at Pearl harbor. Have your stuff shipped back to the states by the Government when they transfer back to the mainland. Then get rid of those guys and marry each other again.
Click to expand...
Ha, ha, ha...like I haven't got enough on my plate already!

Who did you use to ship that stuff to me?
 
I don't recall, it was a local long distance shipper who did military shipping to Hawaii, and I took the several hundred pound crate to the depot in Suffolk. IIRC, it was a bit about $2 a pound, but that was from the East Coast.
 
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