Edmund's catalog became a source for optical and mechanical parts essential to amateur telescope making, including hard-to-find items such as optical glass blanks, pitch-lap ingredients, and a series of grit abrasives for grinding and polishing astronomical objective mirrors by hand. A compilation of Edmund's earlier pamphlets published as the book "All About Telescopes" offered many designs for telescopes of all sizes and configurations, which directed the builder to the relative Edmund catalog part numbers needed for each design. The "Factory Store" in Barrington, New Jersey also had a number of bins and shelves full of rare surplus items which never made it into the catalogs.