I am at work today ( Thanksgiving day) and it is painfully slow waiting until I can go home and eat. As I sit here I looking through various tool catalogues I keep coming across tools I am thankfull to have. Of course I am thankful for all the usually things on this holiday, but here are a few things that apply to woodworking that I have learned over the last year:
1. I am thankful to have learned how to sharpen chisels and plane blades. As a kid I remember complaining that the chisel would not cut and being told that I needed a bigger hammer. ( No kidding!!!)
2. I am thankful for my new veritas No. 4 handplane. Until I started reading Knots a few years ago, I also never knew that I was suppose to expect paper thin shavings from a hand plane, I never knew that it was possible to use a plane and not be left with gouges and tearout ( I also never knew that I was suppose to sharpen the blade : ( I thought handplanes were for roughing things to shape.
3. I am thankful to live in a city where I can go and buy various hardwoods for my projects. Where I came from everything was built with 2×4’s and if you were really lucky some pine.
4. I am thankful for my tape measure with metric readings, by the end of the day it is sure easier to subtract 20 from 120 than use my brain and think in fractions.
5. I am thankful that I learned how to tell if a square is square, I have amazed a lot of my friends with that one.
6. And last but not least I am thankful for a wife who asks me the same questions after I buy a new powertool. “Honey, why didn’t you buy the bigger one?” and ” So what’s next on the list? “
Anyone else??
Replies
Doc,
In Blighty we don't have Thanksgiving as Mr Scrooge deemed that Christmas was enough.
However, I am (on balance and despite various recent silliness by governments and other bigwigs about the place) thankful that there is a USA and that it escaped our colonialism. Whatever the reasons, I feel something of a special reltionship with the place, despite the incident with the tea and the propensity to hang on to imperial measure - although I see you at least have come to your senses and embraced the lovely millimetre. :-)
Here on Knots there is a fine collection of Americans who together illustrate the diversity of the place and the generous nature of the folk in it. Of course, I wouldn't want to emigrate as it's ever so pleasant here in Galgate. But I'm thankful I can take these virtual trips to what is still, despite everything, the land of the free.
Lataxe, a Yankophile.
What a nice topic. Let me see. Restricting myself to woodworking I am thankful for:
1. My wife for her understanding my passion;
2. The ability to purchase a sawstop and domino. These two tools have revolutionized my shop and woodworking- My work is now safer, more accurate, and more enjoyable;
3. Sufficient time to enjoy my passion. There is never enough, of course, but I have developed a nice balance between my regular life and my shop
4. The internet: without which I would not have the endless resources to the information I need to teach myself and advance in my passion/hobby.
pmm
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 11/27/2008 12:21 pm by forestgirl
While Canadian Thanksgiving was mid October (for which I spent down in Phoenix), there is still much to be thankful for.
I am most ever grateful to have a fully equipped and usable workshop which causes me no grief which I cannot blame myself for. All my problems are within my capabilites of resolving (messy shop, etc.)
I am thankful for having a good understanding of woodworking techniques and the opportunity to continue to practice and learn.
I am thankful having as much support as I do in my woodworking (and life) from family and friends, whether I have met them in person or knot. Friends who ask me for help and whom I can ask for help from.
Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
I am thankfull that when the guard on my joiner failed to retract and I shoved my finger in the joiner, I still have my fingertips.
Anyone want to buy a used Delta Joiner with a defective guard spring that can no longer be ordered?
What model is the jointer?
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
I was making a joke about the sale of the Delta Jointer. The rest of the post is true.
It was an old 6 inch variety, a click above a benchtop model. All parts are obsolete. It probably isn't worth more than a $100 at this point. I'd like a joiner planer combination, but shop space is at such a premium.
Regards, Scooter "I may be drunk, but you're crazy, and I'll be sober tomorrow." WC Fields, "Its a Gift" 1934
I'm not interested in buying it, I thought mabe I could find you a spring.
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
Oh,.....
Well thats another story. I tried Delta and Springs.com. I will post a Delta Part Number tomorrow. Regards, Scooter "I may be drunk, but you're crazy, and I'll be sober tomorrow." WC Fields, "Its a Gift" 1934
Model # of the jointer would help me more than the part #.
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
Doc -
I'm intrigued by your #6. What kind of booze does your wife drink? I want to get a case for someone who shall remain nameless, but whose questions regarding my tool purchases (and fantasies) usually include the phrase "Why do you think that you need THAT??!!" - lol
LOL !!!
I was afraid that of all my list that would be the one people thought I made up. No alcohol involved, I just have to smile everytime she brings home a new pair of shoes and agree to build her a new shoe rack when they start piling up on the floor. The last one was 7 ft tall X 6ft wide and held well over a hundred pair of shoes. She filled it up in about 1/2 hour and barely made a dent in her collection. But then again, she probably has more $$ invested in shoes than I do in tools and she only gets one use out of her investments!!! But she sure enjoys just looking at them.
Tony
Mine has plenty of shoes, but her real downfall is coats and jackets. In the almost thirty years we've lived here, we've never been able to use the foyer closet for guests coats. I once counted 35 of her coats and jackets in there and asked whay in the world she needed that many. Really dumb question. - lol
As far as the coats go....I feel your pain. I am left with one hook for my own coat, and most of the time I have to remove something from it just to use it. I have built my fair share of coat racks, endless hours spent cuting, sanding, routing, drilling, finishing, mounting....only to end up never seeing it again after 20 coats are piled on 6 hooks. I'm sure it still looks as nice under all that insulation as the day it was made. I even have coat racks hung in the garage, all the coats are saturated with sawdust and probably could never be worn again, but still, she smiles everytime she walks by and looks at all of them. Sure makes her happy!!!
What I am thankful for.
My life.
My Wife.
My Children.
And some of you folks in here!
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