I was already amazed at how awesome this list is for advice about wood and
tools.

Now I’m starting to be amazed at how valuable it is as a form of therapy. 

Not a hint of facetious in me when I make that comment. I found a lot in both
Ed’s original note and in Scott’s short reply that resonated with me; Ed’s gave
me a huge dose of hope. Scott’s I was able to find consolation in.

I’m a whippersnapper here too. Started working wood seriously a year ago. Joined
this listerv about six months ago. I’m 46 this year.

Ed, I do have flashes of the kind of joy you describe. I find it all over the
place, and if there’s a real pattern to when it happens I’ve not found it. I may
be looking too hard and getting in my own way. I can get it listening to a hawk
screeching from the top of one of my 300 year old white oaks on a clear Carolina
blue sky day. I get it every time I hear the owls in my forest at night. A
sunrise always gives it. Not sunset. I get it when I remember to be grateful.

In a galoot context . . . .  I get that joy when I buy a “dogmeat” hand plane or
chisel and make it useful again without robbing it of any of its history or
battle scars.

I get it in spades when I use a transitional plane that I got as dogmeat but now
makes that glorious hissing sound with effortless motion. I got it last night
working on some southern yellow pine in the process of building a spring pole
lathe. Largely due to advice given by the people on this list, I’ve gotten
pretty good at glueing up. (I’m the guy who panicked over his bench top a couple
months ago.) I have the stock for the sides of the lathe glued up and last night
was time to do the final post-glue-up end planing.

Two 3/4” southern yellow pine boards . . . . times two . . . locked beautifully
to the front of the bench I built with my own hands . . . with face dogs of my
own design . . . held granite solid by face vice that I improvised out of a
wooden screw that’s probably 200 years old . . . . my Stanley 129 and 34 making
that hss hss hss with the shavings popping beautifully and floating like
feathers . . . . I have a block of beeswax that Ray gave me, which he claims to
have picked up old in the early 60’s .. . . . and the smell of the pine and that
beeswax on the bottom of the plane . . . just remembering it is bringing back
the joy. And it was only last night so I know it’s not nostalgia.

I get that joy when I design something. I’m on a tight budget and other than the
occasional trip to the BBS for some dimensional lumber, everything I have to
work with is scavenged and repurposed. I don’t work to plans and I doubt I ever
will. I get joy out of making a design work with no ruler, only marking gauge,
bevel, engineer’s square, caliper and compass. The compass I bought new, the
bevel Ray bought in the 60’s, everything else is 100+ years old. If I design it
with repurposed scraps and it stands up and stays together when I’m done, that
gives me joy.

Yet I get Scott’s point too. I have 7 kids (yes, one wife; no, no twins; no, not
Mormon, yes Catholic) and they all have sports and activities. I had to sell my
F250 quad cab diesel 4wd for a Jetta because I put 10,000 miles a year on it
driving the kids around. When I’m not traveling for work, or leading conference
calls at all hours with participants from India, England and California. The
Jetta holds a surprising amount of repurposed scavenged wood, and I laugh every
time people with pickups and SUV’s at the BBS stop to watch and see if I can
really fit all that lumber into such a small car.

So “maniacal laughter and ignore the stares” . . . . that hit right home, Scott!

Right now my only real anti-joy is when I look at the execution of my design
from a technique point of view. I like using my mid-vintage Stanley 78. But I
love using my Kellogg Amherst MA rebate plane even more. It’s wooden, and has
150+ years of sweat and work in it. When I got it the iron was rusted into the
wood. It lost its depth stop ages ago so when I make a lap joint I have to hss-
hss-hss-hss then put the engineer’s square on it to see if I’m at depth. It
doesn’t have a knicker so crossgrain I have to use the knife. And when that lap
joint is assembled I can see lines and it frustrates me. I know if I used my
dusty and neglected $200 big-balls power router I could cut that joint almost
perfect in one pass, undercut the 90 a little with the striking knife, and I
wouldn’t see the lines.

I look at the router in its hard case on the shelf and heft the perfect weight
and balance of the salvaged Kellogg with it’s scary-sharp 3/16” thick iron that
was forged by hand . . . and I can usually come out neutral in the joy
department because most of what I’m building right now is for me and not for
sale or gifts.

That’s why Ed’s note was an inspiration and a hope. I have 20 years to arrive at
no-lines joints without the big-balls power router, by which time they’ll
probably be selling fission powered laser guided robots for milling work, or
home 3D printers that operate by voice command. But the Kellogg will still be
the Kellogg and I know the joy quotient will be sky high . . . . .






> On Sep 3, 2015, at 6:34 AM, Scott Garrison  wrote:
> 
> Ed Minch wrote: "... lately, for the last few years...
> 
>> 
>> "Has anyone else felt this joyous emotion with your woodwork or other
>> trade/craft/hobby?"
>> 
>> Well I may be a whippersnapper to some here on the porch but I like to
> think I have gained enough wisdom to believe that is a sign of a man who
> has recognized his true calling...what it is that makes him tick. Kudos Ed.
> Unfortunately for me my many interests are spread so thin that I tend
> toward maniacal laughter and choose to ignore the stares from those around
> me
> 
> Scott in duluth
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