attaboy

As I understand it, Stanley shamelessly leverages it's great American pedigree while they are actually incorporated in the Caymans - or such. It makes me sick. I too am fed up with it and try as best I can to buy real American products from real American companies.

I've been making a concerted effort to switch over to 100% waterborne in my shop over the last couple of years. With the economy as it is most of the commissions I've been getting have been repair/refinish rather than design/build so I've been trying out lots of different brands and products and have found a few that I have come to like very much and appreciate being able to spray them without fear of blowing myself up. I've even all but totally given up on alcohol shellac in favor of a waterborne! It has required me to re-learn a lot and pay much more attention to ambient temperature vs. humidity and even barometric pressure and how these affect the application. I now have "go to" lacquers, poly's, alkyds that are waterborne that have been yielding excellent results.....the stains and glazes are another story though but I have hope that we will one day see acceptable waterborne replacements for them too.

Power tools for hogging out - hand tools for final fit...Oh yeah, and I wish I had become comfortable with edge tools at an earlier age. Starting with them later I lacked confidence and very literally held on too tightly which has caused tendon problems in my hands. In fact, I am now three weeks into recovery from surgery to remove a ganglion cyst and clip a "pulley" at the base of my right hand middle finger...