July 30, 2008

Breaking the silence

It's been a quiet week around here, I know, but that's mainly because nothing I can talk about in this blog (according to my secret rules) has pissed me off lately. Instead, why not check out something great that you might already know about: Medium Large.

And in a departure from the biting social commentary and cultural criticism you usually find here, I'll tell you about developments in my woodshop. A couple of weeks ago I visited Woodcraft and bought myself one of these, which after weighing in my hands I liked a lot better than its big brother, the #7. If price were no object, I'd have gone with this one. There really is a difference ... but not one I can readily afford.

So I took this thing down to the shop and spent some time messing with it ... sharpening it mostly. And then, since I'm not really in the middle of a major project right now, I turned my attention to my wavy-topped workbench. Ah HA.



A couple of hours later, exhausted and sweaty, my workbench was flatter.

Hey smartypantsed grammarians: yes, the bench was exhausted and sweaty. Lighten up already!

Today, I'll rub it down with oil (uh, yeah, still talking about the workbench, stay with me) and clean the rest of the shop in anticipation of the next project I intend to undertake: a morris chair. I'll be committing the sacrilege of using red oak rather than the traditional white oak, but the former is readily available hereabouts, and in fact I have a lot of it in my shed. Somehow that strikes me as being a little more eco-friendly.

So for the next few nights, since I don't like to start a big project on a weeknight, I'll be sweeping, sharpening, tinkering, puttering, and tuning. It's gonna be a blast! And hopefully I'll think of something more interesting to complain about next time ...

4 comments:

--S. said...

My favorite part of this photo is the weird gopher-shaped silhouette leaning against the wall in the lower right corner.

And I'm with you on the secret blog rules, although I suspect my secret blog rules might be different than yours.

JB said...

Well, that's actually a ghost Halloween decoration waiting to be painted. Though perhaps I'll paint it as a gopher instead. or groundhog. Whistlepig if you will.

I think you're right about the rules. But there have to be rules.

Francesco Marciuliano said...

Thank you so much for mentioning my strip! Of course, reading your post makes me want to set up my own woodshop...in my studio apartment.

JB said...

You know, I did a whole post on Morgan Freeman last week, and he didn't even bother to acknowledge it. Some people, huh?