Mancave - CTC Featherston
AN ECLECTIC HARDWARE STORE WILL HAVE YOU HANKERING FOR SOMETHING YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEEDED
There are some places that just seem to be made for you. A store for example filled with all the things that appeal to your many different interests at once.
The Colonial Trading Company is situated in a small 19th-century shop in Featherston at the foot of the Rimutaka hill. It is such a place! From the moment you enter it feels like you have been there before. Maybe it’s the wood panelling, the warmth of the honey-coloured macrocarpa around the counter, the tool wall with carefully chosen tools of general interest, camping equipment, American clothing, wood-panelled and wire-caged gun room, or the fascinating culinary section with Lodge cast-iron skillets, Italian coffee makers, and Danish cookware.
Everything in the store is carefully chosen, good-quality, and not always to be expected in a hardware store. In fact, the real hardware — nuts and bolts and hand tools — is kept in a back portion of the store.
Like a beer with that?
The proprietor Bruck O Muench is the big, ebullient guy wearing braces who stands behind the counter more like a bartender than a hardware store owner. In fact he confesses he’d like to get a license to round out the experience.
Bruck is inclined to enjoy a yarn. He is well versed on the provenance of all the goods in his store. A gun specialist, he worked for a time as an arms dealer but he also has an engineering background. He loves to cook, too, so the range of cookware in the culinary section at the front of the store reflects his tastes in that department.
The store is divided into four main areas with the hardware section tucked away at the back where Bruck sharpens and makes up chainsaw blades, and cuts keys — all the usual things a hardware store in the country should do. Here there is also a range of gardening tools, hand tools, and fastenings.
Popular, quality brands
Adjacent to the hardware section is the gun room where he keeps a range of guns (Ruger brand). He prides himself on being a specialist, and focusing on the one quality brand for which he can get better deals.
Just in front of the gunroom is an extensive range of Carhartt clothing. Carhartt, favoured by construction workers, tradies, and ranch hands in America, makes very sturdy, cotton-drill workwear; both stylish and long-lived.
His range of Stubai forestry gear and Estwing hammers shows a devotion to quality products. The attraction of the store is just that specialization. You are likely to find what you want and you might also find something you didn’t know you needed until you saw it here. What about a cast-iron cornshucker for example? You won’t get that in Mitre 10.
The attraction of a store with a range focused on quality means you aren’t wasting your time or money on inferior products, and it permits a wider range of tools within a small space.
But aside from the Austrian forestry tools and the Danish cookware, Bruck is an unashamed fan of America. The fan light over the counter is from Kentucky, and he drives a left-hand drive Ford F-150 pickup with the obligatory Texas-style gun rack. He has just taken delivery of a restored Allis- Chalmers B tractor.
Stunning fit-out
The counter is clad in macrocarpa panelling that Bruck milled and machined himself, as he did the entire fit-out of the store. Each plank of timber that gives the store its rustic ambience was placed there by his own hands, and he is justifiably proud of it.
It is intended to reflect the atmosphere of an old American general store. Above the counter is a range of Havana coffee that he can grind on the spot. He also carries a range of hot sauces for the barbecue. You might not expect that in a hardware store, and you won’t get it in Bunnings, but this is a store for real blokes, and real men like real coffee and hot sauces.
The store clearly caters to farmers, lifestylers, hunters, and would-be chefs and should be a destination for readers of The Shed passing through the Wairarapa. The steady flow of locals and tourists denotes its popularity with its target market, but surprisingly Bruck says many of his customers are women mostly attracted by the cuisine section but others in search of the definitive gift for a man. Most of his customers stay for a chat and no one leaves without some words of wisdom from the man behind the counter.
“You won’t get it in Bunnings but this is a store for real blokes, and real men like real coffee and hot sauces”