Door Hanging of Deer in Snowy Woods (Allentown, Bethlehem: for sale, house)

[Jo48]

Ordered this online for my Mountain Top Home. "Proudly Hand Made in Lancaster, PA.". Ok, maybe not exactly local but still happy to support a small business owner in the state. It is slate and hand painted. Where does slate come from in PA?

Beautifully packaged all in ribbons with a hand written note from creator. Thank YOU, Cheryl! Better than some cheap mass produced item from China or Japan!

[DavidWebb]

Originally Posted by Jo48

Ordered this online for my Mountain Top Home. "Proudly Hand Made in Lancaster, PA.". Ok, maybe not exactly local but still happy to support a small business owner in the state. It is slate and hand painted. Where does slate come from in PA?

Beautifully packaged all in ribbons with a hand written note from creator. Thank YOU, Cheryl! Better than some cheap mass produced item from China or Japan!

Ordered what?? Was there supposed to be a pic for us to look at??

[North Beach Person]

Sounds like she bought some art work on a slate. I'm guessing that the slate probably spent its life as a roof single which was salvaged and repurposed.

[briantroutman]

Originally Posted by Jo48

Where does slate come from in PA?

There’s a region north of the Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton corridor that’s sometimes referred to as the “slate belt”. If you look at a map, you’ll see a few town names that are pretty obvious (Slatington, Slatedale), although many articles on the slate belt call specific attention to a cluster of towns along PA 512 just east of PA 33: Wind Gap, Pen Argyl, and Bangor.

Once a formidable force in Pennsylvania’s economy, the slate industry collapsed a century ago as cheaper asphalt shingles became the dominant roofing material. That said, slate is still quarried at three sites in Pennsylvania’s slate belt, and select companies like Penn Big Bed Slate continue to sell Pennsylvania slate for architectural and specialty purposes.

I share your enthusiasm for supporting small and locally-owned businesses—particularly here in Pennsylvania.

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by briantroutman

There’s a region north of the Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton corridor that’s sometimes referred to as the “slate belt”. If you look at a map, you’ll see a few town names that are pretty obvious (Slatington, Slatedale), although many articles on the slate belt call specific attention to a cluster of towns along PA 512 just east of PA 33: Wind Gap, Pen Argyl, and Bangor.

Once a formidable force in Pennsylvania’s economy, the slate industry collapsed a century ago as cheaper asphalt shingles became the dominant roofing material. That said, slate is still quarried at three sites in Pennsylvania’s slate belt, and select companies like Penn Big Bed Slate continue to sell Pennsylvania slate for architectural and specialty purposes.

I share your enthusiasm for supporting small and locally-owned businesses—particularly here in Pennsylvania.

I know when we used to look for yard sales that we passed a company (I believe in Pen Argyle) that had skids of roof slates and other products. There are still some homes with slate roofs and those slates have to come from someplace.

As far as the Amish and Mennonites; sometimes some of their products do say: Made in China. Not all the time; they do have plenty of carpenter shops down there. We always liked the little town of Intercourse and Peaceful Valley Furniture: https://www.peacefulvalleyfurniture.com/. I have several pieces of their furniture in my house as well as some from the Maine State Prison store: https://www.maine.gov/corrections/industries/page7.html. Of course they are not anywhere close to each other - but if you like to drive!

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by fisheye

As far as the Amish and Mennonites; sometimes some of their products do say: Made in China.

I would think this would largely depend on if you were dealing with real Amish and/or how adherent they are. I visited an Amish factory in Indiana that made kerosene products; heaters, stoves, lamps etc. They had small oven and the old Amish guy made joke about it being an Amish microwave, that got a pretty big laugh. Everything they made was done in house except the porcelain coatings. They had it set up so it was naturally lit supplemented with lanterns. All the machinery was either air or hydraulic, I did see a couple of Dewalt drills but I guess there is exception for battery operated. They powered the hydraulics with a generator which I guess is another exception, I'd imagine that is how they powered the battery chargers.



If you want to order wholesale you either need to send them a letter or you can call community phone which is located by the road outside of their little settlement a few miles down the road. It's a community phone.


Coolest thing I saw they had for sale was a paint sprayer, they took a engine hoist which of course was not made by them. They had weight on the end that was a couple thousand pounds. When you jacked the hoist up they had an additional hydraulic ram, once the hoist was at highest point they would release the pressure and secondary hydraulic ram pressurized the paint gun. That was one of the craziest contraptions I ever saw but it required no power.

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

I would think this would largely depend on if you were dealing with real Amish and/or how adherent they are. I visited an Amish factory in Indiana that made kerosene products; heaters, stoves, lamps etc. They had small oven and the old Amish guy made joke about it being an Amish microwave, that got a pretty big laugh. Everything they made was done in house except the porcelain coatings. They had it set up so it was naturally lit supplemented with lanterns. All the machinery was either air or hydraulic, I did see a couple of Dewalt drills but I guess there is exception for battery operated. They powered the hydraulics with a generator which I guess is another exception, I'd imagine that is how they powered the battery chargers.



If you want to order wholesale you either need to send them a letter or you can call community phone which is located by the road outside of their little settlement a few miles down the road. It's a community phone.


Coolest thing I saw they had for sale was a paint sprayer, they took a engine hoist which of course was not made by them. They had weight on the end that was a couple thousand pounds. When you jacked the hoist up they had an additional hydraulic ram, once the hoist was at highest point they would release the pressure and secondary hydraulic ram pressurized the paint gun. That was one of the craziest contraptions I ever saw but it required no power.

I know that they can use a lot of ingenuity. But they can also be practical business men and women. I believe they are allowed to use cellphones for their businesses. The main thing is that they want their communities to survive; so sometimes they have to change.