Rob Lee
Charles -

Derek is one of many people we ask to test numerous products. There are dozens of others on this and other forums. All operate under the same terms - in exchange for private feedback on everything from packaging to performance, good and bad, they get to keep the pre-production product, or receive a full production model. We do not, have not, and will not ask for reviews.

In the case of the Shooting plane - 18 pre-production samples went out at no charge. 1 went to Derek - and he's the only one who has written something comprehensive at this point. You'll also note that we released two planes at the same time - Derek was not on theat list but more than a dozen others were.

Sure he's published a lot of reviews of our new planes. Can you suggest whom else's new planes he should be reviewing??

What you also don't see - are the number of products that people like Derek (Derek too) are sent for feedback, that do not make it to market - and there are many.

People like Derek are invaluable to us for many reasons - analytic capability, writing skill, dependability, and the most important factor (something right under everyone's nose) - he actually does a lot of woodworking. Real projects, with real challenges, and using hand tools. He documents well, solicits opinions, and discusses his mistakes.

Derek publishes more woodworking related material, and shares more of his own current woodworking experiences than any non-professional I can name - and everyone else benefits from it. He corresponds just as prolifically in private, and is responsive to requests from individuals and firms alike.

From my own corporate perspective - producing products like shooting planes is virtually a charitable activity: even doubling what we expect to sell will still means years before we recoup our investment. If we really wanted to seed product reviews into groups like this one - we really should be chosing products with a possibilty of generating significant revenue. But that's beside the point....

I participate here for the same reason Derek and others like him do - to learn, to share, and to make contributions to a community. It's not what we "do" - it's what we enjoy.

Cheers -

Rob