Dear Galoots,
I hope this finds you all well and will be a bit of encouragement to those
who need it.
The last few weeks I have been able to become acquainted with a younger
fellow, he's 20 years old, I'm 37. His name is Lucas and he is a apprentice
cabinetmaker for an older / ready to retire gentlemen cabinetmaker that has been
rapidly reducing the work load for the two of them. I met Lucas through mutual
friends whom I have been doing some work for lately. In their basement he has a
small but quite efficient workshop full of the tailed mechanisms used in modern
woodworking that he has gladly shown me more than once and has grant me
permission to use whenever I want.
Needless to say I have an obvious bent towards hand tools and in
conversation with other woodsy type they are typically what I enjoy talking
about. He has a couple decent hand tools, a L-N no. 102 small bronze block plane
far above the rest. He says " why would I do it by hand if a machine can do it?"
I called him soulless, to which he took obvious offense towards. (We both are
church men).
A few weeks later now, he has come over to my home and is helping me get
some trim work finished up. Today was the day that he may have slipped! He first
used my L- N tapered dovetail saw (for a cross cut) and raved about how fast it
cut. Then I showed him that it was filed for ripping and not X-cutting. When I
made a single stroke with the saw and it dove over an inch his jaw dropped and I
think he wet his pants a bit! Then after lunch I said I was going outside to
rive some ash for a small project. He, without a word, followed me out the door,
kicking at my heals. We split the ash up and then I wanted to flatten it out
with my side axe. I wish I had taken a picture! His eyes were wide with
excitement! Needless to say I handed him the froe and axe, instructing him for
safety sake and let him have at it...
To be continued...
Nathan Goodwin
H.I.S. Carpentry
Honesty. Integrity. Service.
(617)347-6744
Blog: https://hiscarpentryblog.wordpress.com/
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