Episode #222 - More Rudolph

The year concludes with mixed news from across the fastener industry, as veteran sales rep Rick Rudolph shares his recipe for seasonal cheer (1:40:39). Eurolink president, Craig Penland is bullish on the future, but keeps watch on European CBAM and other environmental regulations that complicate running a fastener business (23:25). On the Fastener News Report, Martin Inc. EVP Scott McDaniel joins news editor Mike McNulty to unpack the surprising shift of the FDI (57:53). Thread guru Carmen Vertullo explains B7 threaded rod markings on the Fastener Training Minute (1:30:26). PLUS: Zech Williams of Würth Industry explains the YFP approach to professional development (47:48) and Marco Rodriguez of Cresa drops more commercial real estate wisdom (42:49). Brian and Eric think deeply about the coming year as they take stock in the present moment.

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More Rudolph

It is Fully Threaded Radio, voice of the mighty FCH Sourcing Network. If you buy, sell, manufacture, import, distribute or just generally find yourself involved with industrial threaded fasteners on a regular basis. This is the show for you. Eric Dudas with you again coming to you from semi-rural Northeast Ohio. The co-host of the show is with us as well. He’s the man with the deep Southern accent and the occasional parrot sounds in the background. He’s Brian Musker. Brian, are you doing alright?

I am. Hopefully, the parrot sounds will be a little bit more muted. They’re never totally gone.

The audience members have gotten used to it already. Harpo gets some of his own fan mail if you want to know the honest truth. It was after that article that came out in Link Magazine a couple issues back. He got a little more attention and notoriety than he had been. Anyway, on this episode 222, you never know. It’s about to unfold. We have a lot for you. We’re publishing this on December 18th, 2025, the final full episode of our 2025 season. I can hardly believe it, Brian. We’re about to turn the page.

It’s crazy. The year has gone by in such a hurry.

Much has gone down. We’ll take a look at it probably on the other side of the new year because this episode is going to be an attempt at our usual jolliness. We tried to ratchet it up even a notch higher than usual. Our feature segment is the extremely jolly and usually jovial legendary sales rep from the Northeast, Rick Rudolph.

Usually, very jolly.

He often finds himself inadvertently playing the Kris Kringle role at this time of year. We couldn’t think of a better guy to get on. We have a free-spirited, wide-ranging conversation on this one. Great way to close off the season. We’re opening up with another guy who has his own holiday sparkle about him. That’s Craig Penland with Eurolink Fastener Supply Service. He’s been spending a lot of time out in the woods at one of his favorite pursuits.

He’s been keeping a close eye on the fastener business as well, as always. We talk about a couple of industry topics on this conversation. In particular, he gives us his take on what’s going on with CBAM. As someone who operates with a lot of European companies, he’s watching that very closely. Mostly, US companies are concerned about that extra regulation coming to North America. You just don’t know. Craig’s got some thoughts on that. On the Fastener News Report, Mike McNulty is joined by Martin, EVP, Scott McDaniel. The FDI in November 2025 took another unexpected turn, as you’ll hear. Kind of a bump in the road, I’d say. Although, the forward-looking optimism is soaring.

It sounds weird, doesn’t it?

It does. Scott and Mike mull all that over on the Fastener News Report. Warming up those guys, we’ve got Zech Williams, who’s with Würth. He’s also a Young Fastener Professional. He’s been a Board member for a while. I saw a post flyby on LinkedIn recently that caught my eye. He was involved with the book club that the YFP does. Thought it’d be a good chance for him to get a little exposure for that program. Very worthwhile for anyone in the fastener industry, young or old, who’s interested in professional development.

It’s very notable that anyone would be encouraging the whole art of reading. In the current times, where reading seems to have disappeared, and with the ability to write English correctly.

Tell me about it. These guys are reading actual books.

I know. It’s cool.

Another guy who hits the books on a regular basis, most of them standards-related, is Carmen Vertullo. He’s got the Fastener Training Minute for us again as always. Lots of you handle threaded rod. This time, Carmen’s going to handle ASTM A193-B7 markings. From his palatial lab out there in El Cajon, California, that’s Carmen Vertullo with the Fastener Training Minute. Squeezed into all that, Marco Rodriguez with Cresa joins us again with more commercial real estate wisdom. It’s all coming at you, episode 222.

I’ll just have you note. Marco Rodriguez has spent about the last few years trying to encourage us to make video episodes. Particularly, a video relating to the surprise and horror that people sometimes experienced when they are introduced to FCH Vegemite.

He wants us to do that at the trade shows. Set that up at our booth and have little video vignettes of that first taste of your wondrous breakfast accoutrement. It sounds like a very fun idea. We just have to get our act together. Tell you who’s got their acts together. That’s the partners of Fully Threaded Radio who make it all possible. Let’s shout them out.

The title sponsors of Fully Threaded, Brighton-Best International. Tested, tried, and true, Brighton-Best. Goebel Fasteners, quality the first time. Go Goebel. Also, Star Stainless. Right off the shelf, it’s Star. Fully Threaded Radio is also sponsored by BTM Manufacturing, Buckeye Fasteners and the Ohio Nut and Bolt Company, Eurolink Fastener Supply Service, Endries International, Cresa, INxSQL Software, Fastener Technology International, J.Lanfranco, MW Components, Solution Industries, Volt Industrial Plastics, and Würth Industry USA.

Fastener Training Week 2026 Dates & Details

Get with us anytime, folks. The email address is FTR@FullyThreaded.com. We always appreciate your info. If you send it to Harpo, we’ll pass it along for you. Every episode, theoretically, is going to have more and more useful info for you. Look there for follow-up or links that we mentioned on the episode. While we’re mentioning the sponsors of Fully Threaded, we should also point out that these companies are so active across the fastener industry.

If you look at the associations and the various groups that are promoting the industry in general, you can see them all lined up doing good work. In particular, as the year comes to a close, let’s give a shout out to Würth Industry. They’ve been supporting the Fastener Training Institute as sustaining partners since 2019. That’s continuing into 2026. I saw a post flyby announcing that. I’m so go glad to see it. The industry is indebted to that kind of effort.

We’ve been long supporters of the whole idea of more training in the industry. The Fastener Training Institute is fundamentally leading part of this. Everything takes money to run. Würth stepped in and very heavily supporting them. It’s a great act.

While we’re here, let’s shout out the dates of Fastener Training Week 2026. These were just published. If your New Year’s Resolution is to get your CFS, that’s the Certified Fastener Specialist designation offered by the Fastener Training Institute. Fastener Training Week is a great way to do it. It’s five days in a row of solid fastener education. You can do it piecemeal over time. If you do it as the training week, you get it over with.

It’s very intensive. Plus, you make a bunch of, hopefully, career-long contacts that’ll be your friends. You never know, maybe your future boss or partners as you go. The Fastener Training Week is something to think about. The first one in 2026 is going to be February 9th through the 13th in Independence, Ohio, right outside of Cleveland. It will take place at the IFI Headquarters then May 4th through the 8th in Charlotte, North Carolina.

That one’s happening in connection with Fastener Fair. If your team’s heading out there, you might want to bring a couple of the extra folks. Throw them into the Fastener Training Week. Think about it. It could work for you. Moving ahead in the calendar, August 31st through the September 4th, this time in Chicago as part of MWFA Fastener Week. That’ll be the 3rd Fastener Training Week of 2026. I’m not sure if there will be other announcements or not. That’s what’s been published. You can always check their website FastenerTraining.org for up to the minute.

I asked Jo Morris, who does all this scheduling, if she was going to have something out here in Northeast Ohio, or semi-rural Northeast Ohio for that matter. Closer to Brisket Fest, which is going to be in the middle of May, right after the NCFA Distributor Social. She said it’s still a possibility. They haven’t put it officially on the calendar. Stay tuned for that.

Speaking of which, Brian, Carmen was in town. He was traveling. He was coming back from somewhere. Had to make a stop off at Hodell to look at some equipment with those guys. Say hi to Jamie Clarke and the Hodell group. I picked them up. We started heading to the airport. We had a little time to kill. We went on an inadvertent journey of discovery in the barbecue field. Because I wanted to take them over to Bronco where Tony Martinez and I were so thrilled. We forgot to get the banana pudding.

It doesn’t sound much like a barbecue to me.

It’s a great dessert to top off your brisket and ribs. Anyway, Carmen was into it. When we got there, they were closed because it was a Monday. For some reason, there’s so many restaurants in the Ohio area that close on Mondays. We were in the Ohio City area, which is West of Downtown Cleveland, for those of you who don’t know the layout of the area.

Anyway, we found ourselves at a place called Real Smoq’ed on Lorraine, not too far from Bronco. It was pretty good. I’d have to give the nod to Bronco but this was definitely a great second place. The restaurant ambiance was perfect. Old time rock and roll. Carmen loved it. We chowed. I got him to the airport in plenty of time.

What was that place we went to that you took me to downtown? Amazing brisket.

That was Mables and that’s on East 4th. Right near where the Indians play. You’re right. That place is world-class. That’s a Michael Simon joint. It’s high-end. The place that we went to, Broncos, this Real Smoq’ed place, and the joints that we tend to frequent. They’re more smash-mouth barbecue, a little hole-in-the-wall type of places. They’re all good.

We’ve had at least two excellent barbecue meals in Cleveland. One of which I remember served. They served half the head of a pig on a plate for us. This was a bit off-putting but it was very good tasting. It’s not quite what I would expect them had coming out of my British Christmas dinner still.

That idea is a little shocking to some people but it was tasty. Anyway, we need to turn the corner here. Get back to the subject of fasteners, which we do also talk about on this episode. It is predominantly fastener-related after all. That’s mostly why you’re here. Hopefully, everything we’ve talked about so far has set the table for a great episode and a great Christmas season.

Also, a great meal next time you’re in Cleveland.

Let’s do a little business. Craig Penland is on the other side. Thanks again for reading, everyone.

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Brian and Eric, back with you doing this fastener show thing that we do and feeling ever so jolly. Brian, I was doing some research to get some ideas about what we could throw into our twenty-year anniversary, which is 2026. It’s hard to believe. FastenersClearingHouse.com, the FCH Sourcing Network will be twenty.

The company that gave rise to FCH is going to be 26.

That’s a different story. In the process of that investigation, I went over to GlobalFastenerNews.com and looked at the Fastener History link. Which I enjoy doing from time to time when I’m trying to mark the passage of an era. I went back to 2006 to scan the headlines. See if anything stuck out at me that I could throw into the mix. Sure enough, GFN did not disappoint.

Here’s a headline for you. This is from September 19th, 2006. It says, “Fastener Week Returning as Fastener Tech 07.” Two comments on this headline. First of all, Fastener Week has all its vowels. Second of all, Fastener Tech ‘07. That was the first one that we attended. It was the first bigger show that we attended in the industry while we were just breaking in. I had no idea that was the first Fastener Tech. It seemed like it was such a huge thing at the time. I figured it was an annual event, never looked over my shoulder on it. Turns out that was the first one.

That’s cool. Those were in the early days when we had a little bit trouble. We didn’t have the trouble. MWFA had a bit of problem trying to work out how they would classify Fasteners Clearing House in order to let us join the Mid-West Fastener Association. Fortunately, they did.

Eventually they realized we just weren’t going to go away. They said, “We got to figure out a way.”

“Who is ever going to buy fasteners off the web?” How many times have we heard that? I have no idea. I wish I had a penny for every time.

Especially, they’re not going to make them anymore. Anyway, the funny thing is Fastener Week gave rise to Fastener Tech. When Fastener Tech went away, what did we get?

FSTNR.

We got Fastener Week but they just dropped the vowels. I know the consortium putting it together has changed over the years. Fastener Week is back. It’s the week with no vowels.

It’s a great week, too.

It’s a wonderful time. As we mentioned before the break, connected with the Fastener Training Week. So much more than mud race, the MWFA tabletop, their golf event every year.

The sleep in heavenly peace.

The whole thing, Fastener Week. I like that GFN has that still outside the paywall because their site is zipped up tight. You got to pay for the content, which is probably worth it. I scan the headlines over there all the time. I noticed that Jason Sandifer has gotten a lot more active on LinkedIn. We’re going to have to invite him onto the podcast next season. I haven’t talked to him in a long time.

We’ve got Craig Penland with Eurolink coming up in just a moment. He’s going to get the ball rolling here. Before we check in with him, I was out there visiting with you in Chicagoland, Brian. I know we were setting up a lot of our plans for Q1 of 2026. We have big things coming. What have you been doing since then? I know you’ve been holed up in the FCH Data Center. You’re working on the deep links. What is that all about? Tell us how you’re building out that system.

Development Of The FCH Deep Links System To Connect Users Directly To Supplier Shopping Carts

I’m working on a lot of things. Deep links is one of them because it’s been a facility that we have had without marketing it or attempting to tell anyone about it for ages. We have someone searching for an item. They get 100 results or something like that on FCH. The screen that comes up, when you click on one of the items that you’re interested in changes slightly. Instead of being able to fill out a little form that you put your email address, company name, whether you’re a distributor or not into it. There’s a different link that opens up that will take you straight into the shopping cart for that company. It’s very easy to set up if you’re an INxSQL customer.

There’s the money line. This is a way to get FCH users when they’re on the FCH Sourcing Network to find your parts. We drop them right into your shopping cart system. They can make a purchase. This is ratcheting up the level of lead gen that we’re doing. As more and more fastener distributors have been coming online, looking for ways to make their eCommerce investment pay off. They want traffic. FCH is here helping that effort along. Good work, Brian. You’re making that a lot simpler for folks to get loaded. Is that it?

As more fastener distributors come online seeking to make their eCommerce investments pay off, FCH is helping drive the traffic they need. Share on X

Yes. We’ve had all rudimentary analytics that go with it. I’m bumping up the analytics to make them a little more bulletproof. The reality is two links to your shopping basket is better than one. You can use FCH as one, double your activity.

Again, we’ve supported links into shopping cart systems for some time. We’re just going to build that system out. Start to actively encourage all of our members to take advantage of it because this is the way things are going and fast. FastenersClearingHouse.com is our main gig, by the way, if you’re newer to the show. Amazing how many times we find out people still don’t make the connection but there it is.

After ten years.

Twenty years of FCH. This was our 15th year of the show.

It sure says after years, at least. It’s true.

It’s a blur. Eurolink Fastener Supply Service has been celebrating their 25th anniversary all year. It’s been a whirlwind, lots of big things. Craig’s been managing their new facility. It’s gangbusters over there. Let’s cut over to that segment and get this show going.

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Craig Penland of Eurolink. Welcome back to the show.

How are you?

Never better. Thank you. Same to you. The last time we talked to you, in this format at least, you were wrapping up the Stuttgart show for us. You get around to all the events, don’t you?

That was a while ago. Has it been that long since I’ve been on the show?

Too long.

That was back in March 2025. We did a Fastener Fair in Nashville afterwards and then we were at NFDA, ESPS, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Which that’s only an hour up the road so that’s not a big deal. Kim and I took three weeks of personal time. We went over to Greece for a very long trip and then came back to follow that up with NFDA Executive Retreat down at Key West in Florida. I’ve been out to Denver, doing sales calls with Jo for a week as well. I’m tired of traveling. I’m glad that deer season has kicked in. I can finally just sit in the woods and not have to travel.

Are you doing a little bit of that, I hope?

I am. My team here, which is amazing. They realize how important it is for me to be able to take that time off and get away. Think about things other than the business for just a little bit. They do a good job of covering for me here at the office. Allowing me to take those mornings off and go hunting or leave early in the afternoon and go hunting. I’ve done quite a bit since the season started in South Carolina. We’ve got a few weeks remaining in the season. I’m still hoping for the big one. I haven’t got them yet.

Are you hunting in a tree or are you sitting in a ground blind mostly?

I do both but mostly tree.

We could easily go off in that direction and spend the rest of the whole show. We better reel it in. Let me ask you this though. Before we do change back to predominantly fastener-related topics, do you have a pair of Ironclad hunting gloves?

Not hunting gloves. I do have a pair of work gloves that have, let’s just say, deer blood all over them. I do use them. I don’t specifically have hunting gloves.

We’re going to have to change that. Ironclads are good for a variety of things. I got some with chicken blood on them. The camo hunting gloves with the trigger fingers exposed. You haven’t hunted until you worn them.

I don’t have those. I did wake up one Saturday morning and hunt. I used them with the deer that I got. Afterwards, I got them extremely muddy, planting six red maple trees. They got a little bit of everything on the ones that I’ve got.

It’s the season for all that stuff. You do a good job of keeping everyone apprised of what you’re up to. You have your famous hunting. Musings from the tree stand videos out there. I see them on LinkedIn. I’m sure you do them on other platforms as well. You were the recipient of the 2025 the Social Media Fastener Guy of the Year.

Social Media Impact Award Winner of the Year. The first one. I was excited about that. At first, I thought they were kidding me. Bob reached out and said, “This is serious. This is something that we’re doing.” I thought it was great that people recognize that you are trying to do something a little differently online with your company and going in a boatload of different directions with it. I was excited. I enjoyed winning that award. I’m looking forward to know who’s going to win it next year or the year after. There’s so many people that are out there doing similar things in our industry online. I’m excited about what that award’s going to look like in the next 5 to 10 years.

That’s the Fastener Industry Coalition’s idea. They’re running that. I agree with you. It’ll be fun to see. There’s a lot of people doing creative things. That’s the world we live in. Congratulations on being the number one.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

You shot some posts out about your recent attendance at the NFDA. You look nice and warm and comfortable down there. You called it a retreat though. That’s different from a conference. How’s a retreat different from a conference? Is it just the swanky surroundings and the yacht and the caviar that you were all enjoying? Enlighten us.

I define a conference as I’m going to be indoors, listening to somebody talk for multiple hours every day that I’m there. For retreat, you’re going to listen to somebody talk for about 30 minutes. They want to meet you at the bar out on the beach about an hour later. We’re going to spend the rest of the afternoon at the bar on the beach. To me, there’s the two big differences between the conferences and the retreat itself.

The retreat had a couple great speakers. Danielle Riggs with Würth did an amazing job when she was talking about trade compliancy. Everything that she had to say was spot on. I enjoyed myself down there. I only went for a couple of days. I flew in and flew back out because I had to get back to the office. It averaged 85 degrees Fahrenheit each of the three days that we were there. It’s sunny. You couldn’t beat the weather.

I’ll take that definition of a retreat versus a conference. Does this mean that Kim accompanied you down there?

Kim accompanies me on every one of my business trips. She’s at everything that I’m at. It is extremely rare if you ever see me at an event out of town and she’s not at it as well.

Craig Penland’s Analysis Of The European CBAM And EUDR Regulations

That’s a pretty good policy.

I’ve only had one event probably in the last 8 to 10 years that I went to without her. That was an NFDA Board meeting in Nashville. I flew in to have dinner, the Board meeting for a couple hours the very next morning and flew back home. It was less than a 24-hour trip.

That doesn’t even count.

She didn’t want to get on the plane for that. She goes, “You just need to go without me.” Otherwise, we do travel together. Which is a blessing in itself to first be in a position to travel like that. To get to do it with your very best friend, to get to see cities and experience different cultures and things like that with the person that you love the most.

That’s beautiful. Let’s rewind to the presentation that Danielle Riggs gave at the NFDA. You were telling me about this before. She was talking about various compliance issues, including the CBAM issue. Which you explained to me isn’t as big of a deal if you’re just bringing stuff in from the Eurozone. Going the other way, it’s a big question. It’s causing all kinds of upheaval and extra questions and bureaucratic overhead in general for you. What’s the lay of the land with that question? It keeps coming up. A lot of people are still confused by it.

CBAM requires European importers to produce accurate emissions data tied to specific HTS classifications. As one of my European suppliers put it, it’s basically just another EU tax on the EU businesses. Knowing full well that most EU companies don’t have the ability or the manpower to handle this type of request and will end up paying the fines. Nevertheless, it’s own importers over in Europe.

Fully Threaded Radio | Fastener Industry Insights — Fastener Industry Insights: CBAM requires European importers to provide accurate emissions data linked to specific HTS classifications.

When it was defined before, here at Eurolink, we overlooked it, so to speak. It has nothing to do with importing fasteners into the United States. Honestly, it’s one of those regulations that everybody’s heard about but almost nobody in the fastener world is fully ready for it yet. As a matter of fact, out of our 30 plus European suppliers that we have, I’d probably estimate that fewer than five are actively implementing CBAM reporting. Even fewer are advertising that they can provide the required emissions data. That should give you an idea of what they’re doing over there.

The only reason that’s become more important here is we don’t sell direct to end users. We sell to distributors. Our distributors’ customers, like John Deere, BMW, Mercedes or whomever, are selling product back into Europe after they manufacture here. They’ve got to provide that information back to Europe. It’s starting to become even more of a headache here in the United States. I agree with you. At some point down the road, our government’s going to get involved. This is going to be something that we’re going to have to be responsible for too. I hate that. Unfortunately, that’s the direction it looks.

That’s a little detail that we also discussed. That’s my underlying motivation for bringing it up. People are looking down the road. They’re saying, “Please let this cup pass.” We’ve got a whole boatload of uncontrollable bureaucratic overhead with the tariff situation. With something as onerous as this CBAM coming down the road potentially, people are like, “How much more can we take?”

You not only have CBAM. One thing Danielle brought up that I wasn’t even aware of was the EUDR. I was like, “What in the world is this? I haven’t even heard of this.” I’ll be honest with you. It literally was not on my radar until Danielle mentioned it.

This is with the trees and all that, the deforestation?

I’m sitting here thinking to myself. I run a metric fastener importing business. Our industry is heading to a compliance of environmental traceability. I’m thinking to myself. I used to only have to be worried about whether a bolt was 8.8 or 10.9. I’ve got to know its carbon footprint. I’ve got to know the bolt’s family tree.

I got to know whether it’s cousin once walked through a forest that still might be growing. Daniel mentioned that it’s almost like you’re going to have to go out. Take a picture of the tree that your pallets and boxes and stuff came from to be able to say whether we’re not cutting down extra trees for this thing. This is one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen in my entire life but it’s coming.

Did she give any ideas about how we can try to fend this off? Do we just have to sit here and take it? What was the takeaway on that?

She did not. I’m not going to put words in her mouth. I don’t remember anything specific as far as us fighting that off. I know the EUDR is something out of the European Union. It’s not on the US market side of things yet. Maybe CBAM and this EUDR will be ineffective for the EU. In the US, we will learn from that and not even bring it across the water. That’s the only thing I can hope for.

Learning from our mistakes. Let’s hold out hope. Let’s turn the subject to something a little more fun. What’s going on over at Eurolink? You had your big 25th anniversary year. It went pretty well from everything I could tell. Congratulations on that again. I’ll keep saying it while we’re still in 2025. What else is going on with you as you wind down 2025?

This has been an absolutely amazing year for us. We’re doing a Christmas Gingerbread House Contest on LinkedIn. We’re allowing people to vote for who made the best gingerbread house. It’s fun to watch this. My team has made this an fun year to be part of our company. It’s amazing what a small company can do when nobody tells them that they’re too small to do it. That’s what we do all year. We’re probably too small to do the things that we do but we keep doing it.

The best way to describe our company, Eurolink in 2025, is that our Fastener Weekly Air Freight Program that brings in these hard-to-find metric fasteners week in and week out. It has worked so hard for us. The best way I can describe that is it probably needs a vacation day, or even a spa day on its own. If American Airlines doesn’t send us a Christmas card for how much we’ve brought in through them, then there’s something wrong. We’re at approximately 250,000 pounds of air freight if not a little bit more. It has been an booming year for us.

That ought to be worth a couple bags of pretzels, at least, Craig.

You would think I’d get a couple of mini bottles, some pretzels and those cookies that don’t taste good and a Christmas card.

Keep it up. It’s all good to hear. We opened up this brief segment talking about where you’ve been and where we last saw each other. I’m looking down the road. We have few events ahead of this. When the Vegas show, this time in Phoenix. Should we keep calling it that?

I keep calling it that. I don’t know if I’ve said Phoenix show yet.

When we go to the Vegas show in Phoenix in 2025, I’m glad to say that we have secured the booth directly next to Eurolink. We’ll be neighbors once again. We’ve done that in the past. It’s always worked out well.

We have done that numerous times in the past. It has been fun. Pac-West has their tabletop show in March. We will make sure one of our representatives are there for that show. Southeast is coming to our hometown here in Greenville, South Carolina. We will definitely be part of that. In early May, we get into Fastener Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2026, which is an hour and fifteen minutes up the street from us.

That’s going to be cool because in 2025 was the first time that we’ve had more than two or three of us at one of the larger shows. When it’s in Charlotte, we’re going to send the entire crew up there. We’re excited about that. The Phoenix show, we will attend that and display at that. We’ll send some representatives out there. You have Mid-West again, another top tabletop show and Fastener Week. For me, 2026 is going to be busy.

I’ll look forward to seeing yet all those places. For the formality of it all, I’ll just say that the Vegas show in Phoenix is the International Fastener Expo. That ought to keep everybody happy.

At least those of us that go to these shows and display, or even just walk the shows. We’re setting back, wondering what is Charlotte and Phoenix going to give us? Are we going to see the same attendance at those two cities that we’ve seen at Nashville and Las Vegas? It’s not just the IFE’s in a new city. Fastener Fair’s in a new city, too.

That’s a great point. I will be interesting. One way or another, we’re going to see you out there. Craig Penland and Eurolink Fastener Supply Service. It’s hard-to-find metric fasteners delivered. Everybody knows that. Great to hear from you.

You too, Eric. I appreciate you having me on. I appreciate your support of our company. You guys do a wonderful job there at FCH and FTR. Tell Brian I said hello. I can’t wait to see what 2026 is going to bring for all of us.

Talk to you soon.

You too. Thank you.

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Marco Rodriguez’s Update On Industrial Real Estate Leases (Gross Lease Vs. Triple Net Lease)

This is Marco Rodriguez from Cresa with your industrial real estate update. When you lease a building, whether it’s a warehouse for inventory or offices for your team. You will typically encounter one of two lease structures, the gross lease or the triple net lease. The gross lease is an all-inclusive model. You pay a single fixed amount to the landlord. The landlord is responsible for all major operating expenses, including property taxes, building insurance, and most maintenance.

The triple net lease, also abbreviated NNN, is becoming increasingly popular. Especially as large institutional landlords like Prologis and Link Logistics acquire more industrial buildings. In a triple net lease, the tenant pays the base rent plus their proportionate share of operating expenses, sometimes called the three nets. These are net property taxes, net of building insurance, and net of common area maintenance, also known as CAM.

Essentially, the tenant becomes responsible for most of the building’s operating and maintenance expenses. The pros of this arrangement is the base rent is typically lower than a gross lease. The tenant has more control and transparency over costs, which can allow them to realize savings through utility and maintenance efficiencies. The drawback is that the monthly rent payment is variable and less predictable.

As taxes increase and insurance premiums rise or a major maintenance expense occurs, the tenant has to foot the bill. This model is standard for large single tenant warehouses often occupied by eCommerce and logistics companies. Since a triple net lease makes the tenant responsible for a significant variable portion of the property’s costs, auditing your landlord’s invoices and annual reconciliation statements is critical. We have seen numerous cases where errors creep into the billing. These mistakes can cost a tenant a substantial amount of money over a multi-year lease.

Four common errors we see are misclassifying capital expenses. A frequent mistake is when a landlord charges an item as a maintenance routine expense when it should have been classified as a capital improvement. For example, a new roof or an HVAC unit. A capital improvement should be the landlord’s responsibility. Amortized over the useful life of the item, not directly passed on to the tenant in a single year.

Another mistake we see are incorrect prorated share calculations. In a multi-tenant building, you’re required to pay a prorated share of the overall operating expenses. Errors in calculating the building’s total square footage or your specific leased area can cause you to overpay your share. Another error can be caused when a property changes in ownership or there’s turnover in accounting. When a building sells, the new owner’s accounting team may not accurately abstract the specifics of your existing lease, leading to improper charges. Similarly, turnover and property management can result in inconsistent or incorrect billing practices.

Finally, maintenance responsibility errors. Your lease clearly defines who is responsible for what. For example, landlord for structural repairs or tenant for non-structural repairs. Landlords, sometimes, mistakenly bill tenants for items that are explicitly their responsibility under the lease such as foundation or structural roof repairs. Luckily, most leases contain an audit right which typically give a tenant 60 to 90 days of time after receiving their annual reconciliation to contest charges. You should use it.

A professional lease audit ensures that what you pay is strictly in accordance with the lease language. Given that a single error can repeat itself for 5 or 10 years, the return on investment for an audit is often substantial. One of our client’s building was sold in 2023. The landlord was mistakenly overbilling them about $1,500 per month.

Luckily, they found this. They were able to recover the money from their landlord resulting in a $30,000 improvement to their bottom line. The point is don’t let these errors eat into your profits. Control your costs by understanding your triple net responsibilities and diligently auditing your landlord’s statements. If you want to talk nuts and bolts or roofs and walls, I’m Marco Rodriguez with Cresa. You can find me on LinkedIn or email me at MRodriguez@Cresa.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

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If you click into Fully Threaded Radio for the news segment, which it seems like a lot of readers do. You’re going to enjoy what’s coming next. That is the news with Mike McNulty. This time, he’s got Scott McDaniel with Martin to kick around the FDI. Big news on this one this time. If you’re the kind of person who’s interested in personal development. Especially if you’re on the younger side or newer to the industry. You’re familiar with the Young Fastener Professionals, YFP. Zech Williams is with Würth Industry USA. He’s also with the YFP. He’s here. Hi, Zech.

How’s it going? Excited to be here.

It’s going great. You’re coming to us from your giant facility in Indiana, aren’t you?

I am.

What are you doing with Würth? How long you been there?

I’ve been with the Würth group since 2021. I’m a commodity manager focused on the strategic sourcing side of the business for us.

Near and dear to all our hearts here at Fully Threaded and FCH. How did you get involved with the YFP?

It started out with my mentor, Ed Smith, pushing me to get involved. Jake Glaser, who’s also on the YFP Board reached out and let me know that they were looking for a new Board member in 2022. I’ve been on the Board ever since.

A natural progression there. You slipped that in very quickly. You did say Ed Smith. He’s the President of the NFDA. The YFP is under the umbrella of the NFDA and makes a lot of sense. Good move, I’d say there, Zech, on your career path. You’re doing a lot of things. We wanted to talk about the book club. You also pointed out to me that among other things, the YFP is involved in this mentorship program. Which is that’s right in the middle of our agenda. What’s going on with that mentorship program?

Zech Williams Discusses The Young Fastener Professionals (YFP) Mentorship Program

The mentorship program is going well. We’re in our third iteration of it. We were lucky enough to match twelve mentor and mentee matches in 2025. We’re excited for those individuals to take part in that program and gather everything that it has to offer. The mentorship program is one of my favorite things that the YFP does. It’s vital to the industry to make sure that we’re developing the young talent coming in. Also, ensure that the fastener industry continues to retain some of the top talent in the country.

No arguments there and the YFP stepping up on that. In all the times we’ve discussed this, I’ve never heard numbers. You have twelve this season and this is the third year. You said it’s the third iteration. What does that exactly mean? You’re just fine-tuning it?

This is the third year that we’ve had it. In 2023 was our inaugural year that we had. Basically, the way it works is November 1st every year is our deadline. The mentor and mentee matches in 2025 will go through the 2026 year. For 2027, we will accept applications starting in the summer of 2026. Again, the deadline will be November 1st of 2026 for the 2027 mentor-mentee class.

Who’s eligible to take part in this both on the mentee and mentor side?

Anybody. We try to drive it to young professionals and people that are new to the industry that want to help gain knowledge in the industry. It’s to develop some of their professional skills as well. It’s a great opportunity for some of the industry veterans to give back and help develop some of the younger talent within the industry.

It’s sharing tribal knowledge and helping shape that and develop that next generation of fashion professionals. It can even be more than that. I got married so my mentee, for me, became a sounding board for marriage advice and different things like that. It can also be somebody that you develop a close personal connection with, too.

I can completely see that it’s that type of thing. It’s someone that you are connected with for a certain period. It’s prone to go career-long. Did I hear you say that you have a mentee now, too? You went into it. You had a mentor. Now, you are a mentor?

I am not a mentor. That’s something I hope to be getting involved in later on in my career. I want to make sure I get some more industry knowledge. I’ve only been in the industry for 4.5 years. I definitely think that being a mentor is a great way to give back to the industry.

We’re only going to touch on a little bit of this here. Give folks the idea that this mentorship program run by the YFP and the NFDA is out there. You can get more information at NFDA-Fastener.org. There’s a tab on that website that deals with the Young Fastener Professionals and the mentorship program. Along with the book club here that we’re going to get to.

More details on that. Let’s turn the page. Good job on the mentorship stuff, Zech. You caught my eye. It was during a LinkedIn post with this book club. I’ll be totally honest with you. It seems a little bit of a throwback these days with everything digital. It warmed my heart that you’re doing a book club. Tell me about it.

The book club has been great. This started at the idea of Mike White with BBI. I want to make sure I give him a big shout out here for the amazing job that he’s done helping lead this initiative for us. You’re right. It does go back to the old days where it’s not just about news articles online and you’re opening up a book. Something tangible you can hold in your hands and read and help drive your career.

What we do is we like to do two books a year. Every six months, we’ll start a new book. We do one book on professional development and one book on personal development. We typically will choose books by something that’s more of an easier read. Books that have applicability to a YFP member that they can apply the context of those books to their lives. Lastly, it’s also about recollection. If you can distill a book down to its bullet points. Are they memorable? Are they easy to remember? Are they enjoyable?

Who picks the books? Is it Michael?

Michael does pick the books for us. He’ll recommend the book. As a board, we’ll give it the yay or nay. I can’t remember a time where we’ve turned down a book. Mike always has the best suggestions. The last book we read was The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni. It’s all about the three critical attributes in a person. Are you humble, hungry, and smart? To be a true team player, you have to have all three of those.

I saw that. You had your review of that back in October 2025. At least on the website, that’s what it says. How did that discussion go? Was it a spirited discussion? What was it like?

It was a great discussion. We had eleven or twelve people join in. It’s a virtual event for us. Everybody had a chance to share what they took from the book. Mike did a great job leading the conversation and bringing up topics that drove the points home with the book that everybody read. It was interesting to see all the different things that people took from the book and were able to apply to their lives and their careers.

Is YFP membership required to join in on these conversations?

Absolutely not. We always encourage people to become part of our mailing list. If you’re not, you can go to the NFDA webpage and hover over the Young Fastener Professionals at the top of the ribbon there. You can join our mailing list from there.

What could be easier? Let me just mention that Mike White is part of BBI. They do so much for the industry. No surprise there. He’s an active guy, drives a lot with the associations, and so forth. Brighton-Best International is a title sponsor of Fully Threaded Radio. Other title sponsors, Goebel Fasteners and Star Stainless.

The Fastener News Report is sponsored by Volt Industrial Plastics, makers of the world’s finest plastic fasteners. Again, we’ve got Mike McNulty with Scott McDaniel coming up momentarily. They’re going to break the news on this latest FDI. Back to the book club for a moment. McNulty told me while we were getting the news segment ready. He went to the library and picked up The Ideal Team Player. Maybe he felt like he wasn’t qualified to be on YFP. He’s been around the industry for a few years, Zech.

We welcome everybody to join the book club. You don’t have to be a young professional or be new to the industry. We encourage everybody to take part. Even if you’re not a young professional per se, you can still take something away from all the books that we do read.

Is there a published cutoff age though for YFP membership?

There is not a published cutoff age for YFP. The reason why is because we encourage people that are new to the industry to get involved with YFP. With everything that we do to try and promote fastener knowledge and networking within the industry. It’s important, even if you consider yourself not a young professional, but you’re new to the industry. We encourage you to join and be a part of what YFP has to offer.

It’s like nobody tells you when it’s time to get rid of your GI Joes and your Barbie dolls. You just know when it’s time. I’ll mention that to Valdez. It’s a pleasure, Zech Williams. You’re with Würth Industry USA and the Young Fastener Professionals. Keep up the good work. Thank you for all of it on behalf of the fastener industry. You’re going to do yet another service for the industry and appreciate that as well. Thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me. I enjoyed my time on Fully Threaded Radio. I’ll be curious to continue to check the future episodes. With that, with news about screws that you can use, here’s Mike McNulty.

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Thanks, Zech. This is Mike McNulty from Fastener Technology International Magazine bringing you the Fastener News Report. Which is sponsored by Volt Industrial Plastics, makers of the world’s finest plastic fasteners. The Minnesota Vikings aren’t the only thing that stinks in the land of 10,000 lakes. The Indiana Hoosiers claim the title of the best regular season college football team in the world. American consumerism’s full-blown assault on Thanksgiving and Advent rages on. Canada has caught the USA tariff fever virus. I’m still focused on fasteners and ready to deliver the Fastener News Report.

In this episode, Scott McDaniel, Martin Executive Vice President and the NFDA’s immediate past president, joins us to reveal the latest results of the Fastener Distributor Index, also known as the FDI. Also in this episode, we have our top story from Cordova Bolt. Plus newsmaker headlines from Fastenal, Spirol, BTM Manufacturing, Optimas, Brighton-Best International, LindFast Solutions Group, Triangle Fastener, Portland Bolt, and more. On the back page report, we’re going to talk about camaraderie. We’ll get to all of that and the latest FDI results.

The Fastener Distributor Index (FDI) For November 2025

The seasonally adjusted Fastener Distributor Index for November 2025 plunged to 49.5 after two solid months above 55. This was only the second below 50 reading of the last ten and the third worst result of 2025. The Forward-Looking Indicator, also known as the FLI, moved up to 55.9 after posting a solid 51.7 in October 2025. Fastener Distributor Index data is collected and analyzed by the FCH Sourcing Network and Baird.

The FDI seeks to identify demand, pricing, and outlook trends within the American fastener distribution industry. To get some insight on these results, we’re going to talk to Scott McDaniel, Martin Executive Vice President and the NFDA’s immediate past president. Scott, thanks for joining us on the Fastener News Report.

Thank you very much. It’s great to be here.

Good to have you back. The last time you were on was in December of 2024. The FDI was below 50 then, too. What do you think about the latest FDI results?

I’m certainly hoping nobody’s dragging it down because of me. It’s great to be back again. I hope that we have a better 2026 than we did 2025.

The numbers we had altogether looked like it was mostly drawn down by the sales number. We had sales inventories and month-to-month pricing were all down. While employment deliveries and year-on-year pricing were all pretty flat. What are the numbers tell you?

Part of it’s just coming to the end of the year. Every year, it seems like the business slows down. People get into that holiday mode. The current yearend numbers reflect a lot of that. It’s certainly been a challenging year. It’s been a long year for everybody. I may not mention the tariff word but there’s been a lot, certainly, for us.

Every year, business seems to slow down as people get into holiday mode. The year-end numbers reflect much of that. Share on X

For other people in the industry that I’ve talked to, there was a long period of conflicting information confusion. Some people did well and managed it well. Others, probably not quite so much. With anything, it’s like social media. You always hear the good things. You don’t hear the bad things that are going on out there until they’re bad. It certainly kept us busy and made sure that we were laser-focused on supporting our customers and developing deeper and broader relationships with our supply base around the world.

I didn’t look back on everything. It’s been the talk of most every episode is the tariffs. It seems like every episode, I say, we have tariff fatigue. It doesn’t seem to be going away. Canada has jumped in on the fun.

It doesn’t. I’ve talked to Eric a couple of times. Every month, it seems like when the numbers come out, they’re a little bit counterintuitive. There’s been times when I’ve heard more positivity out of the marketplace. I’m like, “Things sound like they’re getting better.” There’s maybe some bright spots and then we’ll get a downward trend in the numbers.

At other times, it’s maybe not feeling quite as positive and the numbers and maybe other parts of the market. Again, it’s such a big broad market that it can trend a little bit. Overall, if I would have known, we would have done as well in 2025 as we have at the beginning of January 2024. I would have been happy. There’s always another wrinkle to uncover.

I’m looking at the sales numbers. This is the lowest one since back in May 2025. It’s low in April 2025 as well. We had a pretty good string of sales months in June, July, August, September, and October, and then dropping down. These numbers were recorded right after Thanksgiving. Maybe people were fatigued from Thanksgiving.

Maybe too much Turkey.

The other thing let’s talk about, the six-month outlook improved again. We have 52% of the respondents expecting things to be better months from now. A few months from now, we will be solidly in the 2026. Thirty two percent expecting them to be the same and only 16% expecting them to be worse. This is an improvement over 44%, 34%, and 22% in November 2025. Maybe one of the best six-month outlooks of 2025. What do you think about that?

It feels like we’ve gone through, hopefully, the worst of the storm in terms of some of the government regulations and things. There’s a lot of underlying demand. When people talk about the heavy truck market, the ag market, and the automotive markets are still underperforming and struggling in a lot of places.

Hopefully, with the expectation of lower interest rates in 2026, people start opening up their pocketbooks a little bit. Hopefully, prices start to stabilize. They have been stabilizing but they’re certainly still elevated. I know my grocery bill from Thanksgiving shopping pay. It was evidence of that. It was all good. There’s enough underlying hope that there’s some pent-up demand in those markets.

Obviously, the data centers has gotten a lot of traction. There’s a lot of investments that have been announced. It’s time to start getting some of those investments shovel-ready and start building out for data centers and additional power generation, power transmission markets. We’ll hopefully see a strong 2026 and 2027 and hopefully, 2028. It’s always cyclical. If I could predict it better, I would probably be retired on a beach somewhere. We’re going to keep pushing and trying to do the right things every day.

Data centers has been a hot topic. AI would rival tariffs as maybe the most used or overused words.

AI is a full-on topic on another call. There’s a lot of different ideas. There’s a lot of different opinions. I started work professionally just as the internet has taken off. I remember in my first company, we used to have dumb terminals. There’s no internet. You’re hooked into the network. You could see the inventory screens and sales screens. The old green dot matrix.

I remember back then even talking to people like, “This internet thing, who needs to know all that? This is never going to work.” You see many years later just how ingrained everything is. AI could be something similar to that but time will tell. There’s certainly opportunities there to make people more efficient. Give them the time and resources to focus on what they’re good at and what provides more value to themselves, to their companies, and their customers.

The exchange of information, everything that’s going on in the background. I live in an older neighborhood. I see they’re finally putting in some fiber optic cable in our neighborhood. I saw that going in. It’s going to keep going up, all of information. The other number that Baird reports in their results going along with the FDI, FLI, and the six-month outlook is they put on the PMI there. That dropped a little bit to 48.2 versus 48.7.

That is the ISM PMI for manufacturing so same thing there. They’re seeing things decline. That number has been below 50 the whole of 2025. They’re saying manufacturing is still struggling a little bit. Last episode, the guest was talking about the S&P Global PMI that was a little broader-based. They’re still above 50 there. They’re trending.

There’s certainly still bright spots around the world. There are spots that are struggling more than the US is. At end of the day, we had such a huge surge coming out of COVID with manufacturing. Most industries, there’s still been a little bit of pullback. I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced a time when every single industry was up at the same time.

It’s trying to find a balance for any company, any distributor. How to find a balance between those markets so that you can still enjoy the high points but not suffer when things aren’t so good. You’ve got something to offset that or balance it. Industries like medical and dental are generally pretty recession proof because people will always get sick. People will always need health care. They don’t make as much. Thankfully, they don’t make as many dentists and hospital beds as they do automobiles. Some of those markets still drive so much of the overall economy.

Some of the best-looking buildings around cities are medical buildings. The new cathedrals. Anything else you want to reply or comment about on the numbers before we move on to the commentary from the respondents?

No. Again, it’s not uncommon numbers for this time of the year. I’ve been maybe pleasantly surprised this is the first year in probably the last five years. I didn’t hear a lot of people talking about recessions pretty openly come into 2026. It’s one of those, as the old saying goes, “Even a broken clock’s right twice a day.” There’s a lot more positive energy out in the marketplace.

I have always felt that the self-fulfilling prophecy can get people into trouble sometimes. Where if everything you hear is bad, everybody is concerned about something. More likely than not, it’s going to come true. Hopefully, the self-fulfilling prophecy of people being positive about next year keeps people focused on growth and investment and building on what we saw this 2025.

The Forward-Looking Indicator folks would agree with you. It’s the second highest in 2025, it looks like. Look forward to 2026. We’ll be here pretty soon. Let’s move on to the commentary. I’ve got some comments here. I’ll read them and then you can jump in on any of them that you’d like. The first one, it says, “November incoming order rate was strong after a slow start. Record year with one month to go. Expectations are high for 2026.”

That’s a fair thing. One other point I’ll probably add is that lot of companies start shutting down coming into the holidays. When we’ve seen challenging years, usually people were maybe extending those breaks. Instead of taking a week or two off for Christmas and the holidays. They’d make it a three-week or four-week shutdown. People would retool. I haven’t heard a lot of that either from our customers or other people out in the marketplace. It seems like people are trying to get as much stuff done. Manufacturers are trying to get as much done so that they’re ready for 2026, which is certainly a positive sign.

Next one. “Even though activity was up with our customers, the second half of the month slowed down more than usual due to the holiday. Expect the unworked demand to climb sharply at the beginning of December.” It’s talking about November.

That’s a good take on that. The way holidays usually fall can have a pretty big impact on monthly results. Fourth of July, for example, depending on where that falls, that’ll affect the numbers. Thanksgiving, thankfully, is always on a Thursday. It’s always that weekend.

Couldn’t get later than it was there.

It seems like we had a strong November, stronger than we were expecting. December started out well so far.

Next one, “No solid trends to project that far out. There’s just not enough stability in the marketplace with foreign policy tariffs plus erratic consumption from our customers.”

I’ll say we haven’t seen a lot of supply chain disruptions, which is great to see. It certainly simplifies the supply chain transportation worlds. That’s not to say that we won’t see something in 2026. Chinese New Year’s coming around. It seems like some people are always shocked that every Chinese New Year freight rates go up. It’s been on the calendar as long as I can remember. It will have some impact. There’ll be some changes. I don’t expect it to be anything significantly concerning.

We’ve got two short ones that are related to business. “We’re tracking year over year sales up at 51%.” The second one is, “We are rolling out a lot of new business in Q1, Q2 of 2026.” Two positive.

Fifty one percent is very impressive. We’ve had a good year as well. Not more in the high tunes. Anytime you grow that quickly, there’s challenges in terms of staffing and taking care of your existing business. Especially if it’s new customers coming in. That’s very impressive. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about the new business gain.

Anytime you grow that quickly, there are challenges with staffing and managing your existing business—especially when new customers are coming in. Share on X

My question is, “Where’s the new business coming from always?” Nobody ever talks about when they lose business. It’s good to see customers that are willing to go out and still look at supply chain changes. Especially with all the tariff pricing and everything else that’s out there. That’s a very positive sign. Congratulations.

The last two comments both have tariffs in the subject. One says, “Again, predicting what havoc the tariffs will impose is a challenge. Hurry up and wait.” The last comment is an insightful one. This was my favorite of that group. “While tariffs have stolen much time from our business, they’ve allowed for deeper partner relationships with both customers and suppliers.” That’s a good thing coming out of a difficult thing.

It certainly is. One of the interesting things about the tariffs in 2025 versus what we saw in 2016, 2017 was a lot of people tried to move out of China. In 2025, there wasn’t anywhere to move to outside of domestic manufacturing. As we all know, you’ve talked about it extensively, that there just isn’t enough manufacturing capacity in the US or even in North America. Hopefully, there’s people that are working on new investments to see that supply chain shortened. I know Europe, with all of their new regulations, are trying to do similar things just under a different name.

Anything else you want to mention on the FDI or the FLI or the comments before we let you give a chance to tell the readers what’s going on at Martin as well as the NFDA?

No. Again, I hope that my appearance has good tidings for 2026. I appreciate the opportunity to talk to everybody. It’s always interesting to hear the variety of speakers within the show.

Maybe next time we talk, we’ll be above 50 on the FDI. That’ll be the goal.

Yes, I’ll be ready.

What’s going on at Martin? I saw you guys were on a couple of the big 50 Distributor Lists.

I had mentioned last time I was on, we’d celebrate our 90th anniversary in 2024. We’ve continued to seek good growth. We had a huge focus on our culture. Walking through our culture with our teams. We’re making sure that that’s deeply ingrained. Something that our founder, Lewis Martin, started along with Don Ruggles when he was leading the business. Gordon, David and Doug Ruggles have done a fantastic job. It’s truly a special place. I’m very blessed to be here.

As I mentioned, we’ve seen good growth throughout 2025. Both with existing customers but also bringing new customers in. The tariff piece of it, one of the comments was, “Enabling deeper relationships with both suppliers and customers.” I’m thankful that we’ve got an fantastic management and leadership team here that helps us do those things every day. It’s truly been a great experience for me. Personally, from the last time we talked, my family and I relocated to Jackson, Tennessee. This is the furthest south I’ve ever lived. It’s been an amazing town. I’ve enjoyed that.

Enjoying the weather?

We are. It’s a little chilly. I’ve lived in Minnesota before for anybody that knew me. I’ve lived in Minnesota twice.

It’s like a heat wave down there.

After experiencing the 33 degrees below air temperature during one of the polar vortexes, I’m very thankful for everybody to complain when it’s like 32 degrees and cold down here. It’s all relative.

Also, you’re the immediate past president of the NFDA. I know the NFDA has a lot of things going on planned for 2026. You want to jump in any of that?

Being on the NFDA Board has been probably one of the greatest honors of my career. I’m very thankful for that and give back to the industry a little bit. We were in Key West for the Executive Summit, which was a fantastic experience. We had some outstanding guest speakers. It’s a great chance to network, talk to people that you don’t see or talk to all the time. Share stories, share information, share best practices.

Next June, we have our annual meeting coming up in Indianapolis. For anybody that’s not familiar with the NFDA and take a look at it. It’s an outstanding organization. There’s a lot of good regional groups. Hopefully, this brings everybody together. We’ve added a couple of new Board members. I’m excited about having new faces, new blood, and new opinions on how to best serve the industry and provide both educational as well as professional development opportunities. I’m looking forward to seeing everybody in Indy next June.

I was looking at it. I saw a graphic for all the upcoming events for the NFDA. There was a picture of a bunch of people on a yacht.

That was in Key West. I’m a huge Jimmy Buffett fan. Huge Parrothead. Anytime I get to go down to Key West and retrace some of his footsteps, it’s a great experience for me.

Indianapolis has got a lot going on too but I don’t think you’ll see any yachts there.

I lived in near Indy for a couple of years so it’s almost like going home again. it’s a great city and very walkable. It’ll be a great time for everybody that’s able to attend.

We’ll tie it back into college football there. The whole State’s a little excited about The Hoosiers beating the Buckeyes.

I was at a Christmas party so I only got to see about half of the game. It was great to see the Hoosiers perform as well as they have. As much as I’ve moved, I’ve always tried to support some of the local teams. My college didn’t have a football team. I’ve always been a free agent. IU football didn’t have a lot to cheer for many years. Seeing the way they’ve performed and excelled in 2025 and 2024 has been fantastic for the State.

Good for them. They seem pretty excited. Anything else?

None. Thank you for the opportunity. I hope everybody has a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday. I look forward to an even better 2026.

Thanks for coming on and sharing your insights and experiences. I look forward to having you on again in 2026.

Thank you very much.

Cordova Bolt Celebrates 50 Years In Business

That was Scott McDaniel, Martin Executive Vice President and the NFDA’s immediate past president. The FDI number for November 2025 was 49.5 versus 55.3 in October. Visit FDISurvey.com to participate in the process and get a detailed PDF copy of Baird’s monthly analysis. For the top story. In 2025, Cordova Bolt in Buena Park, California celebrates 50 years in business. A milestone few companies reach, even fewer achieved with their founding values still intact.

The company was founded in 1975 by Moses E. Cordova and his wife, Rachel Verinda Cordova. Moses, a US Navy Radioman and the son of a Southern Colorado coal miner, built his career on determination. Famously calling a steel company owner every day for 30 consecutive days until he was hired. Rachel, a Colorado native with accounting experience, played an essential role early on returning to the business world after raising their family and helping establish the company’s financial and operational systems.

Cordova Bolt operates from a centrally located warehouse stocked with millions of pounds of fasteners. The company services all 50 USA States and exports worldwide. Known for sourcing hard-to-find components, the Cordova sales team has built a reputation for delivering where others cannot. Structural fasteners remain the company’s bread and butter.

Its products can be found holding together some of the nation’s most iconic structures, including SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Buena Vista Towers in San Francisco, the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, and many other bridges, hospitals, stadiums, and arenas. The company continues to support both small manufacturers and global corporations with export packaging, kitting services, local delivery, and customized 24/7 emergency response.

Cordova Bolt remains a family-owned business led by the next generation. Matthew Cordova serves as President and CEO. Working alongside him is his wife, Lorrie Cordova, who oversees administrative operations. Together, the Cordova leadership team continues to honor the company’s founding values while advancing technology, strategic partnerships, and modern operational systems. The company extends sincere gratitude to its dedicated employees, loyal customers, valued partners and friends who continued support helped shape its journey. Turn to Page 5 of the December 15th, 2025 Fastener News Report newsletter to see a Cordova Bolt anniversary picture.

Next up, Fastener Newsmaker Headlines. In corporate news, Portland Bolt Manufacturing completed an expansion of its Southeast manufacturing facility in South Carolina. Fastenal entered into a multi-year agreement with the Edmonton Oilers. Pgb-Holding acquired Dutch fastener distributor GebuVolco. Boeing Distribution launched a unified eCommerce site. Packer Fastener opened a new branch in Iowa. FireWall expanded its e-commerce platform to include press-in lockpins. TrueLink Capital agreed to acquire SouthernCarlson. Crossroad Distributor Source partnered with Ascension Equipment Sales. BTM Manufacturing added a rebuilt Planetary Threader to its facility.

In personnel news, Optimas Solutions named John Dick as Vice President, Commercial Development. Shane Dyer joined the Distribution Solutions Group leadership team as Senior Vice President, Head of M&A and Strategy. Stanley Black and Decker appointed Agustin Lopez Diaz as Chief Global Supply Chain Officer. Simpson Strong-Tie hired Kei Bullock as its new Executive Vice President of Human Resources. Brighton-Best International promoted Vivian Caban to Miami Branch Manager. LindFast Solutions Group appointed Heather Skiba, Senior Vice President of Operations for North America. Triangle Fastener Corporation promoted John Esposito to Southern District Manager.

You can get details on all of these stories and more in Fastener Technology International Magazine and the Fastener News Report monthly newsletter. Both available online at FastenerTech.com. Let’s turn to the back page to talk about camaraderie. Camaraderie shows up in many settings where people work toward a shared purpose. You can see it in military units, sports teams, schools, charities, trade groups, and on the job.

I saw a strong example of it at the 2025 IFE Fall Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, which was discussed in an interview segment in the last episode of Fully Threaded Radio. The event, organized by the Industrial Fasteners Institute, offered solid content learning, networking, and collaboration. What stood out most to me as a first-time attendee was the steady sense of trust, goodwill, support, and morale among the members and guests.

It may stem from the demands of making things. The IFI represents manufacturers of mechanical fasteners and foreign parts produced in North America. It was good to see the flags of the USA, Canada, and Mexico displayed together in Louisville. Another nice touch was taking the time for every attendee, nearly 200 altogether, to introduce themselves at the beginning of the general session.

A full report of the meeting, along with some good images, appears on pages 20 and 21 of the December-January issue of Fastener Technology International Magazine. Next up for the IFI is its 2026 IFI Annual Spring Meeting scheduled for March 7-10, 2026 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Events will include a board meeting, dinner receptions, keynote speakers, tours, golf, and divisional meetings.

IFI’s primary members are fastener makers. Associate membership is open to any corporation firm or partnership with a technical presence in North America. That supplies materials, machinery, equipment, or services to the North American manufacturers of industrial fasteners and foreign parts. If you’re interested in joining the IFI, visit INDFast.org/Membership. Get a taste of fastener manufacturing camaraderie. This has been Mike McNulty at Fastener Technology International Magazine bringing you the Fastener News Report. Please send your news, pictures, comments, corrections, or complaints to me at McNulty@FastenerTech.com.

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This is Carmen Vertullo with your Fastener Training Minute coming to you from the Fastener Training Institute and Carver Labs in beautiful El Cajon, California. As is commonly the case, our topic comes from a question via email from one of our Carver Labs clients. I’ll just read it to you because it’s short. It says, “Hi, Carmen. Can you please give me clarification on the ASTM A193 B7 markings. The spec says studs have to be stamped. I have always taken that to mean all threaded rod. However, we have a vendor that is telling us that it only applies to cut studs, not sticks of all thread. Can you please advise?”

That is an excellent question. I have firsthand background on it. Obviously, we’re going to not use my background to answer the questions. We’ll use the standard. This question revolves around the marking requirements for ASTM A194 B7 threaded rod. A threaded rod, first off, is not the same thing as a stud. A stud is a fastener that typically may or may not be provided with nuts. It’s cut and chamfered. To be clear, A193 requires that studs are marked.

If they are three eights of an inch or larger, you must put the manufacturer’s mark and the grade mark on the stud. You can use both ends if you have to. If it’s a quarter inch or larger bolt, the markings will be on the head. The question had to do with threaded rods. Unfortunately, or I guess fortunately, depending upon what committee you’re on. A193 is not much help in this regard because it doesn’t answer the question.

It sends us to another standard. It sends us to ASTM A962/A962M. A962 will tell us what the requirements are. First, we go to paragraph 4.1 of A193. It says, “Bolting materials and bolting components supplied to this specification shall conform to the requirements of specification A962/A962M. These requirements include test methods, finish, thread dimensions, macro etch, alloys-to only, marking, certification, optional supplementary, etc.”

It says, “If you don’t comply with A962, you don’t comply here.” We get that. We know we have to go to A962. There is another place in A193 where they address marking. Paragraph 15, it says product marking. That just says CA 962, but then it also references Table 4 and Table 5, which tell us what those grade markings shall be. Incidentally, it does also give us a piece of information unrelated to the question that lets us know Grade B7M, which is a modification of Brade B7. It no longer requires a line under the grade symbol. However, the line is permitted.

That’s a little bit of history. We’ll talk about that in a future Fastener Training Minute. We know where we have to go. We’re going down the rabbit hole to ASTM A962. Let’s find out what it says. ASTM A962 covers the quality requirements or what we call common requirements for bolting materials intended for extreme temperature use, high and low temperatures, whereas A193 covers high temperature materials. By the way, these standards that start with A, they are not all. Generally, they’re made by the A01 Steel Committee. Not the F16 Fastener Committee.

They tend to be a bit convoluted and address more steel and material properties than fastener issues. However, it’s good to know that A962 is applicable to not only A193, but also A194 for bolts. A320 for low temperature service. A47 which is very special bolting used in turbines. A453 which is high temperature bolting. A540 which is steel bolting for special applications made of precipitation hardening steel. A1082 which covers duplex and super duplex stainless steel. A962 is a very important standard. None of those other standards stand on their own. They require A962 to complete the requirement.

To answer the question, let’s see what A962 says about marking. It starts off that we go to Section 20. It says bars. You have to know the definition of a bar. It can be a threaded bar or an unthreaded bar that you intend to thread. “Bars shall be marked in accordance with specification A29, A484 as applicable.” That is not relevant. It says, “Bolting materials, including threaded bar, furnished, bundled and tagged, shall carry the grade symbol for the material and the manufacturer’s identification symbol or name.”

Here’s the important thing. “Marking of individual bars is not required as long as the bars are bundled and tagged or boxed.” We do not require that mark. By the way, this would apply to B16 as well. Any material in A193. It just has to have a tag or the box that it’s in needs to be marked. We commonly see these threaded rods come in cardboard tubes, which is the same thing as a box. While we’re on the topic, I mentioned the B16. B16 and B7 are very similar materials, both made of alloy steel. B16 requires an alloy steel that contains vanadium.

It’s intended for higher temperature applications up around the 1,100 degree Fahrenheit range whereas B7 is limited to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. They have the same marking requirements. I recall I said I have some background in this. I worked for a fastener supplier back in the day, a distributor. We stocked B16 rod and B7 rod in 3-foot lengths and 6, 10 and 12-foot lengths that stocked. It was just black steel. They look exactly the same. You cannot tell the difference by looking at them. Except you can tell the difference because B16 tastes like fried chicken and B7 tastes like tuna fish. If you want to take that test, you can figure out which one is which.

However, there was an industry, not a standard. It would be a practice. They would paint the ends of the B7 rod red. They would paint the ends of the B16 rod blue. That helped us a lot to keep them sorted out in the warehouse because we just kept them on a rack. You would go and get them. We cannot give that to the customer without putting a tag on it or doing something to indicate who the manufacturer is. You want to have lot traceability. That’s another requirement. We have a lot number and the grade marking on that tag.

That’s it. I don’t think there’s much more to know about marking for ASTM A193 B7 and B16. I threw that in there that we didn’t say here. It’s pretty common knowledge for people in this business to know that marking convention. The important thing to realize is a threaded rod, no matter how short it is. It could be 24 or 12 o r 36. No length is given. It could be 12 feet. Threaded bars are not studs. They’re threaded bars. Studs are not threaded rod. They’re studs. The studs should be marked and should also be chamfered. That’s the requirement. That’s it. This has been Carmen Vertullo with your Fastener Training Minute. I hope you learned something. Thanks for reading.

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Brian and Eric, back with you for the finale feature segment of the 2025 show season. Can you believe it, Brian?

That’s amazing. The whole year has passed way too fast.

It’s been a year. We couldn’t think of any better way to close it out than to invite our old friend, the ever-jovial Rick Rudolph with Rudolph & Associates, a well-known rep from the Northeast. Hi, Rick.

How are you? Good to hear from you, Eric and Brian.

Likewise. Staying warm, I hope, up there.

It’s very warm here.

It’s always warmer than we are. Pain in the neck.

We’re up to 13 degrees. It started out at 3 degrees at 5:30 AM.

I don’t know when folks are reading to this but we’re doing this as the winter sets in. Apparently, I’ve been advised we’re having an El Niño or La Niña, I guess it is. Which means we’re going to have bad weather overall an old-fashioned winter. Despite all the rampant climate change that apparently is impacting planet Earth. Be that as it may. You’re a well-known rep out there in the East Coast. I don’t even want to guess how many miles a year you travel. Do you pull it back a little bit in the winter months or you just keep driving until the snow flies?

I do between 700 and 1,400 miles a week. I go through a lot of cars and a lot of oil changes.

You should get an automotive sponsor, Rick, if you don’t have one already. You’d be great.

Get Shell or Castrol to sponsor you.

That’s a great idea. If any of those people are reading. Make sure you give them my contact information when they call you, okay?

I will. I don’t think they are, though.

Probably not. I try to see everybody. I try to see all my customers year-round. I don’t go to Florida for the winter. I go to Bangor, Maine, Burlington, Vermont, Buffalo, all the garden spots of North America, the Northeast. Sometimes, it’s right up there on the border with Quebec. People complain about the heat. I send them pictures of snow drifts.

Who’s complaining about the heat?

Some of the people down in Florida. Some of my principals down there. I don’t have customers. I get enough of a territory. I don’t need to be traveling down there. Anyways, this time of year, I’m on the road. Dropping off tins of cookies and calendars and different little things. I usually get invited to quite a few of the Christmas parties for the people. A lot of holiday parties from my customers because they feel bad for this lonely old guy driving around the countryside.

Anybody who knows you knows you have a whitish beard. Do you let it grow out a little bit for this time of year?

I did have a full beard but my wife made me trim it. She said it makes me look ten years older. Which scares her a little bit because I already am old.

You don’t need to get any older. I’d be the son.

It’s nice though to be out and see everybody. I’m calling on people. Children and the grandchildren of the people I used to call on back in the early days when I was repping.

You’re an old school rep. You’re doing the things that you’ve done for many years. They still work for you. I was going to ask you about that relating to younger customers. By and large, has it transitioned well for you? The founders and the people that you started with, you’ve watched them retire. Their kids and grandkids are already running it. How do you do that? Is it pretty smooth? Can you relate to these younger people?

Yes. My son Morgan is my business partner, as you know.

Doesn’t he mainly watch over your Caribbean accounts?

No. I think you know he did spend quite a bit of time being a sea captain. Running charter boats six months a year in the New England area and then six months a year in St. Thomas. He’s had an interesting life. I took him to one North Coast Fastener meeting on hydrogen embrittlement. I think you folks remember that one, don’t you?

That was epic.

He couldn’t keep away from it and decided he just wanted to immerse himself in the fastener world. He’s done very well with it. He just finished a couple of years of being president of the New England Fastener Association. He’s very much moved into the realm of being a fastener guy for life. It just happens to you. You can’t get out of the business. Once you get into it, they say you can’t get out of it.

How did you first get into it? I’m sure we’ve covered this before. What made you get into the industry?

I went to Northeastern University here in Boston on a football scholarship. It was a five-year plan, a co-op. We’d go to school for three months and then work for three months in the industry. My brother, who was eight years older than me, was a civil engineer. He ran a construction company. I worked for him in construction during the months that I wasn’t going to school.

I wanted to get into the sales aspect of building supplies and that type of thing. One of the jobs that I did have that was through the University was with a company that was a master distributor for Andersen Windows and Morgan Doors. I had to know that part of the business pretty well. When I graduated, I wanted to get into that. Everyone said, “Come back when you get some sales experience.” I said, “How do you get a sales experience if you can’t get a job to do it?”

I answered an ad. It was for a company called Rhode Island Bolton Screw out of Warwick, Rhode Island. They had a branch that they were opening in Massachusetts. They needed someone to be an outside salesman for them. The owner of the company, the father, who’d been in the fastener business all his life, said, “Here’s the Standards book. Study it. All your twelve years of public schooling, your college years. All they did was teach you how to learn your industry that you’re going to go into.” I studied the book. One day, the branch manager that I was working under came in and was making some calls on the phone to customers. He said, “I’m going to break for lunch man the fort.” He never came back. I then became the branch manager.

Where did he go?

They had to come send somebody up with keys to the building because they needed the keys to lock it or whatever. The fellow just took off. They couldn’t find him for a couple of weeks. He had some personal problems. They decided that, “You’re doing a halfway decent job. Stay with it.” I did. That’s how I got into the business. From there, knowledge is power. I went from there to going with Precision Socket Screw which was a master distributor. That eventually was bought by American Socket which was eventually bought by Brighton-Best. They already had VPs of sales and marketing.

Knowledge is power. I had to learn what worked and what didn’t—what the good employees did, and what the underperformers did that led to their termination. Share on X

What years are we talking about here, Rick?

Late ‘70s. They started off in the business in 1970 or 1971. By the time in the early ‘80s, I went out and became a manufacturer’s agent because I was working with the sales rep. I paid attention to the old timers at that time. Marty Nolan’s dad, Gil Nolan and Bob English that owned the RL English Company. Russ Phillips in upstate New York. All the good reps that I had the pleasure of working with, traveling with, and being mentored by. I got to learn what things worked and what things didn’t work. What the good ones did, what the bad ones did that we terminated because they weren’t performing well.

I want to go back to the thing that Eric asked you. The whole issue of sales repping is something that we think of sort of a little bit in the past. As we see, and I’ve heard everyone else has seen, that the younger people in the industry who will one day become the older people in the industry. The way they deal with sales is a little different. They’re more likely to be using their phone to deal with sales. They’re like, “I was looking up stuff.” How do they deal with you turning up to see them and sell them something? Is it strange to them” Have people warned them and say, “This is how it works?”

For some people, it’s shocking. We believe and we promote the fact that we like to do face-to-face. There are a number of people who jokingly call it tele-reps because as you say, they just use the phone. They say, “Thank you. How’s the things going? Let me know if you have any problems or whatever.” I’ve always found that when you show up and you look eye to eye to the people. They see that you’re there.

Even during COVID, I had people. After a while, I just got tired of making phone calls. I’m trying to do Zoom calls and Teams calls and that type of thing. I said, “Do you allow people in the building?” They said, “We don’t even let the truck drivers use the bathroom. If you were to come in, I know that you wouldn’t come in and try to infect us all.” They would take me in and I never stopped. I’ve had situations where I’ve been banned by dry cleaners.

For what?

One of the things is, people will show me, give me samples and say, “Can you quote on this?” I don’t know what the heck it is. Both Morgan and this fellow Dan Bealefield who covers part of the territory in the Mid-Atlantic States for us. We all carry thread gauges with us. We carry vernier calipers and micrometers in our cars.

I can’t wait to find out how this leads to dry cleaning.

I’m coming around to it. As my wife says, “Come on, Rick. Come in for a landing.” Sometimes, I don’t always take the samples out of my pocket. I had not one but two dry cleaners say, “What kind of business are you in?” I said, “I’m in the fastener business.” “Like what? What a fastener is, like buttons and zippers?” “Bolts, nuts, screws, washes, and rivets. That type of thing.” “I found this in my dry-cleaning setup. I had a call in the guy. I had to pay him $200 to go do a call in the building. He says none of this came from the machine. They didn’t get loose. Where do you think they came from?” I go, “It could be that came out of my pocket.”

You should have said, “I’ve got no idea.”

I should have stuck with that. A couple of people said, “Why don’t you take your business elsewhere? They’re costing me too much money.” That’s why I got banned. They weren’t very good dry cleaners anyways. They’re not around anymore as with a lot of things.

The machinery probably broke.

That’s probably what I should have said but I didn’t. Blame it on someone else. I just feel that when you’re doing face-to-face with people, you get to know them. You get to know their families. You get to know their personal situations. I’m there talking to them and “I went someplace. My wife took me out for my birthday.” “Your birthday was last week.” The next year, he gets a birthday card from me. People go, “You send out birthday cards to your customers?” I go, “Yes.” If you know them, they become your friends.

The fellow who hired me as well was a rep. He was selling his company to Würth. Bill Wisk down at Eastern Fastener in Connecticut. I’d been calling on Bill for years. He and I served on the Board of Directors for the New England Fastener Association. When it came time to sell the business, he needed to find someone to be the president of the company. He had three family members that worked there. They all suggested “Why don’t you get Rick? He’s a good solid guy.” He invited me down.

I sat down with him. It was on a Sunday. I was on my way to play in a rugby tournament. He said, “I’d like to talk to you about possibly taking over and being president of the company.” I said, “What happens if you decide to sell the business? What happens to me then?” He said, “I’ve already done that. They want me to find a successor so I’m suggesting you.” The fellow that was handling the mergers and acquisitions for Würth at the time was a fellow by the name of Ben Tabor.

Ben came out of the adjoining room and said, “Yep, they sold it all right to Würth.” I said, “Time to begin.” My partner at the time, God bless him, was a fellow by the name of John Phelan. I had to tell him that I was leaving the agency and going to be the president at Würth Eastern Fasteners. He was very distraught. He just shook his head and said, “I can’t believe this.” He goes, “Does that mean I get to keep all the money?” I go, “Yes.” He goes, “Okay. Good.” Poor John. We lost him. He passed away December 2024. Bill Wisk, the fellow that hired me passed away October 2025. That’s the hardest part, saying goodbye to old friends from the industry.

It doesn’t matter if you’re only 20 or 30. It catches up with you a bit later on.

I know. It’s strange. My high school graduating class stopped having reunions. They call them birthday party celebrations. They then stopped calling them that because the numbers were too large as for how old we were. They go, “We’re going to start having them now between 1:00 and 5:00 at a local country club because none of us drive at night anymore.”

I’m thinking, “When I leave my house at 3:00 on a Sunday afternoon and get into Gaithersburg, Maryland at midnight and work my way back the coast. I’m driving a lot at night. I don’t want to waste time during daytime when I can be making sales calls.” My wife went with me to one of them.

She is a geriatric nurse practitioner. She got into the car after the first birthday celebration. She says, “You can’t retire.” I go, “What do you mean I can’t retire?” She goes, “First of all, you love what you do.”

I do. I just look at it as I’m going around visiting with my old friends. It’s because all the people that I talk to that have obvious cognitive impairment, manifesting with eye contact and forgetting what they’re saying. Forgetting that they’re even talking to you and walking away. She said, “You’re still sharp as a tack.” I said, “You shouldn’t say that because we had somebody that was sharp as a tack that turned out he wasn’t sharp as a tack.”

Anyhow, I digress again. She said, “Staying on top of quotes, staying on top of orders, and all the different things that would go on in business, keep your mind active. All the people I talked to who were having problems with cognition had retired early. They sit around the house and watch reruns of Leave It to Beaver or whatever.”

All her idea?

I’m just doing what the wife told me to do.

Keeps you occupied.

It does.

You’re staying off the road at night mostly because of your eyesight, is it? Is it because of all the moose rutting season up there?

What’d you say, the deer season?

The moose rutting. The deer are bad enough. Way up there, you have the moose. Those guys will do a little number on your car when they come through the windshield.

As a matter of fact, for some of the folks who are reading this that remember Whitney Screw in Nashville and New Hampshire. The bookkeeper for Whitney Screw. She and her husband were up in the White Mountains driving along. The husband wound up hitting a moose. It came on the hood of the car. The antlers went through and decapitated the poor lady. Very sad. We’ve got black bear warnings as well as moose warnings as well as deer warnings. My son Morgan was driving and a deer ran into his car. It cost a heck of a lot of money to fix that one up. You have to be careful of your surroundings while you’re out on the road.

I threw that out there in jest. I didn’t realize it was going to lead to a tragic reality story. It was fastener-related, at least. The whole conversation, Rick, I introduced you as the always jovial. I don’t know if it’s necessarily hitting that mark quite yet, especially around the holidays. Are there any reindeer-related stories, by any chance?

Yes. When I would call somebody, they say, “Who should I say is calling?” I go, “Rick Rudolph. This is Mrs. Claus.” “Who is this really?” I go, “That’s my real name.” That only happens between Thanksgiving and probably around the middle of January.

I’m sure you get a lot of mileage out of that one. That’s good. I walked right into that one.

You did.

That’s your stock and trade there. You use it. Let’s get back to the question. You’re this old-school, gum shoe kind of sales rep but very effective. My questions from earlier were about how that’s translating into the current generation of fastener professionals. We like to bring this up to the present moment where you’re always taking the pulse of the industry to see what you’re seeing up in your region.

That’s fair enough. There seems to be a lot of activity as far as quoting. A lot of people are trying to figure out. Are they getting the best prices? Whereas in the past, people would get a quote on something or two or three items. They’d place an order. Now, they’re saying they’re just going back to their customers.

The customers are asking them to re-quote to see if they can get better pricing because of the tariff situation. Are they being taken advantage of by the present supplier? Everyone’s looking for the best pricing out there. You get the best margins. There seems to be more quoting going on than ordering going on. A lot of people ask me, “What about this? What about that?” It all comes down to some people are taking advantage.

When the tariffs first were announced, some people started putting the pricing on for stuff they’ve had in stock for many years. They do that looking at the replacement cost. A lot of people were hesitant about passing on the tariff situation to their customers for fear that they would lose them. After a while, when you’re winding, taking a look and your margins are dwindling. You have to do that. People understand that already but it’s day to day. It’s changing rapidly. One week they have a tariff. The next week, they’ve cut a deal with that country. The tariffs been reduced or eliminated.

You can’t predict anything. You’ve got no idea whether the president has a nightmare and wakes up. Suddenly, he decides he’s going to put tariffs on some place, double what they were the day before. It’s chaotic.

It’s a tough situation for buyers and management of any distributorship or manufacturer because some of their raw materials are included in there. Some of the different minerals that are going on, the tariffs on those. It’s a difficult time but there’s never been a time where it’s been a piece of cake. These are things that come up. It’s how you address it. Everyone has problems. It’s how you address the problems. How you try to rectify it and be upfront with your customer. I try not to lie to people because I can’t remember my lies. I try to be honest.

That’s very smart move. “What did I tell you last week?”

That comes full circle to the idea of keeping face time and maintaining that trust, that confidence that you’ve developed over the years. We’ll wind it back to the holiday season which we’re in as we make this. You’re busy sending out Christmas cards and calendars. That’s a little archaic in this day and age but it’s a very sweet and heartfelt gesture. You still do it. Didn’t you say cookies as well? Where do you get these cookies?

I buy them by the case. The people love them. I’ve been doing the same brand I’ve bought for many years. It’s Belgian cookies with the chocolate.

It sounds wonderful. You never get in any trouble with any food allergies or anything? That’s a thing that happens. People getting all PO-ed with you that you give them something that was cooked with peanuts.

It’s interesting because I did have to go back a little bit. I used to get these big jars of M&M’s chocolate-covered peanuts. I was dressed down by somebody saying, “There’s red dye number four here that’s got this in it. What are you trying to do with us?” The next time I went in, I brought him Brussels sprouts.

Touche.

Another time, broccoli. Fortunately, I don’t remember all of those things. It’s like the birthday cards. The birthday cards are going to my computer and the calendar. The computer says, “Does this repeat every year?” You go, “Yes, on this date.” They go, “How do you remember all this stuff?” I don’t. I cheat. In the old days, we used to carry the 3X5 index cards in the ‘70s when I was doing it and making sales calls.

You go in, “This guy’s name is Fred. He’s third desk down in the back, looks like Hoagy Carmichael or something like that.” I could remember who he was. I write down what his son’s name was and keep track. “Your son must be getting big. Is he out of college yet? He’s still got another year left, doesn’t he?” “How do you remember that?” All the secrets. My wife said I should write a book on how to be a sales rep.

I was just going to say these are some trade secrets rolling out. You smile and nod warmly and leave the rest to the imagination. It’s taking you a long way. This is very appropriate for this time of year where we look back fondly over the days of yore and think about things. By the way, you mentioned Marty Nolan. A very well-known rep here in the Cleveland area. You also mentioned his father who gave him his start. He still, each month, sits down and draws out his planner on regular paper. He follows that like a calendar and it works for him. I bet you it’s something passed down from his father. Some of these secrets still work, don’t they?

They do. It’s just being nice to people. You don’t burn any bridges with people.

Be nice to people. You never know when you might need them, so don’t burn bridges. Share on X

What you’ve done is you’ve kept the old secret. You’ve just brought it up to a slightly more modern time because it sits in your computer. Your computer works out when to remind you to send out a card or something like that. You had to put the info in to maintain it originally. You would have written it in your little index book.

It’s a lot easier to just print that page.

You guys wouldn’t know this. Earlier in the show, we had Zech Williams with the Young Fastener Professionals Group talking to us a little bit. I’m just wondering how many of those people who read it are still with us. This little trip down memory lane. Hopefully, some of them read the whole thing and picked up a few tips. Whether you’re in sales or what part of the fastener industry you’re in, that kind of sentiment that you’re sharing here, Rick, is still useful. People should keep that in mind.

When you come across people, younger folks, that are just starting out in the business. They say, “What does a rep do?” You say, “We go out and we promote with the boots on the ground for different manufacturers. It’s an inexpensive way for them to get coverage because we already have a lot of people that we know. They trust us. They trust the lines that we have. We basically are PR people. We go in and we tell them about what this company does. What they have as far as a prepaid freight, what the minimum orders are. That type of thing.”

They go, “We need to get money for the gas and all the other stuff and your health insurance.” That all comes out of my pocket. All of a sudden, it doesn’t seem that glamorous. I’ve had people say, “Do you need somebody? I’d love to do that.” I said, “Are you a good salesperson?” “Yes, I’m very good.” “That’s good because if you don’t sell anything, you don’t make any money. You get paid on what you sell.”

I’m a 1099. My son’s a 1099. A guy in the mid-Atlantic is a 1099. We cover our own expenses. You can drive a Humvee if you want or Sherman tank or whatever. You probably don’t want to be filling up the gas tank every day. All of a sudden, it doesn’t seem as glamorous that if nothing happens, you don’t get paid.

How do we get out of this with an uplifting comment here? I’ve been looking for an off-ramp and a way to do it in a jovial jolly way.

I sometimes feel like I’m George Bailey.

I’m liking this. Run with it.

I love what I do. I love my customers. I love my principles. It’s been a wonderful life. I can’t think of doing anything else other than what I’m doing.

That’s a big statement right there. That is uplifting. I appreciate you saying that. A lot of people in the fastener industry feel that way. It’s the time of year for us to count our blessings, isn’t it?

It sure is. I’ve been blessed. I’ve got grandchildren and trying to get schedules, appointments around. When you talked to me about setting up a daytime, I said my granddaughter’s last indoor soccer game for the year is happening. I’m going to be going to that. Leaving plenty of time so that I can go watch her play.

We scheduled around her last game of the season. God bless you for doing that. Rick Rudolph with the Rudolph and Associates. It’s 2020 since we talked with you on the show. We see you all the time at events and things like that. We’ll make sure it doesn’t take us so long to get you back. What do you think?

Been a pleasure guys. It’s always good seeing you. Looking forward to the next time we bump into each other.

Cheers to it.

—

Tribute To The Passing Of Sebastian Janas, President Of Sems And Specials

Brian, on this appearance, we didn’t talk with Rick at all about his prodigious rugby career.

We covered it a little bit in those previous interviews years ago.

We did. I believe that was episode 153, which is also when he told the story about how he shanghaied his son Morgan into the fastener industry.

He was quite happily captaining little schooners and things around the Caribbean.

Schooners, these things were ocean liners. He had the life of Riley. Somehow, Rick lured him into the fastener industry. Anyway, that’s on episode 153. You can go back. I have a trivia question for you because I know the answer. How old was Rick Rudolph when he finally hung up the cleats? He was playing rugby until a very advanced age. He’s playing at a serious level, too. Do you know how old he was when he finally gave it up?

I’m sure Rick told me but I’ve forgotten that. I know he was more than twenty years old.

He was well into his 40s and texted me back on this. He was 47 when he finally called it a career.

That’s a good age to be playing rugby.

He is a tank, hardcore dude all the way. So much appreciate all of his insights and good cheer. We mostly got good cheer during this one, Brian. He’s knocking on the door, it sounds like. He’s got a lot of perspective as he does so and shares it very generously with the industry. Rick Rudolph with Rudolph and Associates.

Also, on this episode, we like to thank Craig Penland with Eurolink and Zech Williams with Würth and the Young Fastener Professionals, encouraging people to read and get involved with career enrichment. Good advice all around. Scott McDaniel with Martin and Mike McNulty of Fastener Technology International presented their thoughts on the latest Fastener Distributor Index. January is another month. Let’s see if all the optimism is going to pay off, folks. Hopefully, it does. Marco Rodriguez from Cresa dropped some more of his commercial real estate wisdom. Thank you for that. Also, Carmen Vertullo had the Fastener Training Minute.

We also thank our partners and sponsors who made this season possible and looking ahead to 2026. It looks like green lights all the way. The title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio, Star Stainless, Goebel Fasteners and Brighton-Best International. Fully Threaded Radio is also sponsored by Buckeye Fasteners, BTM Manufacturing, Eurolink, Fastener Supply Service, Endries International, Cresa, INxSQL Software, Fastener Technology International, J.Lanfranco, MW Components, Solution Industries, Volt Industrial Plastics, and Würth Industry USA. Our email address is FTR@FullyThreaded.com.

I want to just take a minute looking back over a year of being involved with a great set of companies and friends that we have who are our sponsors. To remind you, it takes effort to do something. It doesn’t fall out of the sky, a whole show. It takes thinking and working. You couldn’t do this unless there were people who were prepared to front up some of the money to keep it all going. Our sponsors do that. We’re very thankful to them. I would encourage you to think of our sponsors if you’re thinking of fasteners.

Good advice, Brian. We bundle all of that support into all the things we do with the show, FCH Sourcing Network and the Fastener Distributor Index. Which has also been running for a good number of years. We’re into our Year 13 or 14 or something along those lines. It’s going strong. It doesn’t happen by magic. Thanks to our partners for that as well. We’re always looking for ways to support them and offer more value. We got our ears open on that.

Turning the page, we wrestled with how to close this one out because we typically like to go out on a high note. It just doesn’t seem like it’s going to work this time. It’s something the entire industry has got their attention focused on the very tragic news. The passing of Sebastian Janas, who has served as President of Sems and Specials out there in Rockford, Illinois.

Very well-known guy, just a solid guy. If I do my math right, he was 44. I did not know Sebastian extremely well. I had several very solid conversations with him over the years, most recently in Louisville at the IFI Meeting. Details are still coming out. This is very fresh news as we were putting the episode together.

We know that it involved some snowmobiling accident. Whatever it is, we just are so devastated like the rest of the industry. The passing of anyone in the fastener industry, anyone in our fastener family, is painful. It hurts a lot of people. It’s very difficult to know what to discuss on the show. There’s so many people who we’ve lost over the years. We have not mentioned them. We just couldn’t let this news go unacknowledged as we close out the year.

One of the reasons is because it gives us yet another opportunity to take pause and appreciate each day and everyone around us. At this time of year, we’ll just say that we wish all of you a season full of love and family togetherness. We want to thank you for the support that you’ve given us. Not just through sponsorships and so forth, but through so many other ways. It means so much. Rest in peace, Sebastian.

Amen.

From Brian and myself, our condolences go out to the family. To the Sems and Specials people as well. We’ll leave it there. I’ll just say for Brian Musker, this is Eric Dudas. Get out there. Sell some screws. Give someone you know a big hug. We’ll talk to you in the new year.

Make sure you use the Christmas time when you’ve got your family together to tell them how much you love them because you never know. See you in 2026.