Almost neander'd away

[mttt]

Grabbed the nice lil' block plane this weekend for a quick touch up. Dunno' what I was thinking. Had I been in proper-state-of-mind, I obviously would'a wresteled the whole top cabinet up onto the router table with a Whiteside upcut, solid-carbide flush trim bit.

Whoosh'ka, whoosh'ka, whoosh'ka. Cute lil' curls come flittering up and out. Driftin' to the floor like, softly, like gentle snowflakes.

Whoosh'ka, whoosh'ka, whoosh'ka. Wow, sure is quiet. Beautiful sun rays streaking through the windows. I see dust dancing, defying gravity.

Whoosh'ka, whoosh'ka, whoosh'ka. Wonder when I should hook up the sprinkler system? Gott'a get after them dandelions too. Wow - is that a blue jay out there?!?

Whoosh'ka, whoosh'ka, whoosh'ka. Whoosh'ka, whoosh'ka, whoosh'ka.

Not sure how much time passed - how long I was out. Not sure what exactly pulled me back - maybe a car horn, or maybe Nahm picked up the Disturbance in the Force.

For therapy - I spent the next hour running perfectly good 8/4 stock through the power thickness planer until it was 1/32" veneer. Brad nailed the veneer to some melamine. Spent the afternoon at the Milwaukee and Bosch outlet stores. That evening, I typed the entire Delta product catalog into Excel and then sorted everything by amperage.

All I can say is "Close one..." Good to be back.

[charlie b]

There's something about a sharp chisel paring a see-through sliver of end grain, a shoulder plane with the iron set just so shaving one sided curlies off the shoulder of a tenon, the quiet zdddd, zddddd, zddddd of a japanese dovetail saw in cherry, the zooosh as a #5 takes some of the top of a drawer front off, releasing the scent of cinnoman (sp?) as it exposes a fresh vibrant orange surface, the quick rap of a mallet on the top of a chisel handle. (the occassional "YIKES!" when part of you gets between the mallel and the chisel handle top ...)

Power tools hog off wood. With hand tools you sneak up on what you want, watching as you get closer and closer. And that attentativeness spills over into noticing other things - that dust dancing in the sunlight coming through the shop window, the jar of shellac on the window sill playing with the light as it passes through it.

Hand tools work at your speed, not 3450 rpms. There's tactile feedback that lets you know the wood does or doesn't like what you're doing. You can hear when something changes as you plane or chisel or saw. You're never going to burn the wood with hand tools. And there's no "Pucker Factor" like when using tailed demons.

(If you neander late at night there will be fewer distractions to pull you out of "that special place".)

thanks for the reminder

charlie b

[Conan the Librarian]

Nicely said, charlieb. Along those lines, I work in my garage in a fairly rural neighborhood well away from any big towns. Many's the time that I've looked up from a neander job to see a deer or three standing almost within arm's reach. They look more curious than afraid. I also have a group of finches that hang out in a tree right by the garage, and I get to listen to them playing around and chasing each other while I'm working. Every once in a while I'll get a hummingbird drawn to the red release pull on my garage door.

Not that those animals wouldn't come around if I was using power, but I doubt that I would notice them.

And thanks to you too, charlieb. Sad to say, but I sometimes almost take it for granted. Even neanders can get caught up in the pro*ject* to the exclusion of the pro*cess*.

Chuck Vance

[Larry Jaques]

On 20 Apr 2004 05:53:32 -0700, [e-mail] (Conan the Librarian) brought forth from the murky depths:

Finches are great little guys, aren't they? I love the quiet little sounds they make. If you're quiet and know how to listen, they'll talk to you on several different levels.

I strongly doubt that they'd come anywhere -near- a screaming routah or table saur.

Hear, hear!

After working with my neighbor's Husky chain saw for a few hours yesterday (he's paying me to cut Madrone stumps down to ground level so a stump grinder can finish them, and I brought home the carvable slabs/cubes), I wanted some peace and quiet time in the shop. I grabbed a piece of jarrah, took it to the band saur, and cut it into an L shape, slit the short side, then drilled a 1/4" hole in it. After finding the package of beading bits Robin sent to me (not personally, just LVT stock), I cut it into ovolo profile with a hacksaw and file and inserted it into the holder. After working with it for half an hour and just starting to see some improvement (removal of RBS from the bead in the mantle I'm de-RBSing) I realized that my arms were so sore from the chain saur work that I had to put it down and quit for the day. I had spent about an hour with the manual chain saw file sharpening chains for him, too. Anyway, I happily sneaked some Neander time into my day.

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[Mike]

I think you can "sneak up" using power tools but I agree it's not as rewarding.

....the quality of the task you're doing and the grain of the wood rather than being consumed with making sure you don't lose blood/fingers/etc.......

Your local birds have better manners than mine. A pair of mallards waddled up my driveway on Sunday evening and the female left a big present near the entrance to my gar^h^hshop. I hosed it off and then got the neighbor kids, who fed the ducks some bread. After the excitement was over, I walked back into my gar^h^hshop to find that the male had left his business right in the middle of the floor. They're very close to becoming dinner.

Cheers, Mike

[Rodney Myrvaagnes]

You have to be careful cooking wild mallards. They can be dry and tough if you don't handle them right. If hanging doesn't appeal, you might consider slow braising.

Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a

Capsizing under chute, and having the chute rise and fill without tangling, all while Mark and Sally are still behind you

[Conan the Librarian]

I guess I haven't listened *quite* that closely yet. :-) There are several who hang out in the crepe myrtle tree right in front of the garage, and they are a real kick to watch when they are playing around. They also seem totally unafraid of me; many times I'll walk into the house for a drink of water and when I come back out there'll be a couple sitting *inside* the garage on top of my wood storage shelves. :-)

Down here we get quite a few talkative birds, though I'm no ornithologist so I can't tell you what they all are. I do know the scrub jays, as they are loud and fairly obnoxious. And then we get a few redbirds depending on the time of year. And of course hummingbirds are common, we get an occasional hawk and lots of buzzards. :-} There's also a bird that sounds like a rusty gate hinge. Used to be a pair of them that I'd hear on a regular basis answering each other just after dusk. You know, I'm just starting to fully realize how much other stuff I pay attention to when I'm supposed to be wooddorking. :-)

But you'd be surprised what they attract. I think I posted sometime back that there was a wasp nest just outside the shop. I didn't bother them and they didn't bother me until one day I fired up my routah. Evidently they couldn't stand it, because they started divebombing me while I was using it. :-}

Where, where?

Yep, it's a Good Thing (tm).

Chuck Vance

[Conan the Librarian]

I always thought mallards were almost as bad as sh*thawks (seagulls, Paddy) if they're tame. Thanks for confirming that. :-)

We get them on some local fishing waters, and wherever people have fed them they become a real annoyance. They will literally come up and try to steal anything you set down on the bank. Sometimes they'll even chase fishing lures/flies.

If you do decide to make some duck soup, save the feathers for me. They have lots of uses in fly-tying. :-)

Chuck Vance

[Gary Greenberg]

This thread caused me to take a snapshot of last night's "Remains of the Day". I'm posting on ABPW w/ this thread's subject. Happy shavings, Gary

[Larry Jaques]

On 21 Apr 2004 04:52:10 -0700, [e-mail] (Conan the Librarian) brought forth from the murky depths:

Because you're so amused by them, I'll bet you have listened closer than you think but it didn't quite register.

That's because (having watched you in action) they know they're quite a bit faster than "that old, slow Neander."

Pra^H^H^HWorking silently in the House of Roy is like that. Yeah it is.

Routahs are truly karmic machines, aren't they?

There, there, of course. (You lauded charlieb's post.)

Yuppers. I need to hook up some motorcycle tiedowns to the assy bench so I can have a more solid worktop while I shape that mantle. Both vises (mechanic's, with metal, wood, and leather jaws + a 10" HF ww) I have are too high, so maybe I'll move the ww vise to the assy table, too, then set up a board jack to go with it for a temporary fix.

------------------------------------------- Stain and Poly are their own punishment

Comprehensive Website Design ======================================================

[Conan the Librarian]

Yeah, probably so. It's really about awareness and allowing yourself to open up enough to let those sorts of things register with you. Unfortunately, we are usually "tuned out".

Getting back into fly-fishing has been good for me in that regard. Being out in pretty places and trying to fool fish with nothing more than a handful of feathers or fur tied to a hook tends to get you tuned in again. And it's not meat-fishing; you're on the water for the whole experience, not just dragging home some dinner.

Beats being an "old, slow Nahmite", no?

Deep, Lar ... very deep.

I guess. Thankfully all of my karmas are still intact.

Yeah, I was actually intending to make a Firesign Theater reference there, but I screwed it up. (I should have said "There, there" and then you follow up with "Where, where".

Chuck Vance Just say (tmPL) I think it was from _Don't Crush That Dwarf_ ... maybe in the courtroom scene of Porgy and Mudhead.

[Morris Dovey]

Yesterday I was working on a spice rack for SWMBO - had my Record #80 in use for the first time in two decades. I looked up and saw some thing I'd never seen before: a /social/ gathering of hawks at the farm next door.

I didn't get a really good picture with the camera; but I'll post it over on ABPW...

[Jeffrey Thunder]

Ahh, good ol' Commie Martyr High...

I believe what you're after was side B of Waiting for the Electrician, though. (Hmmm... Is that a whiff of irony in the air?) Don't you remember learning your next three words in Turkish? It was during the Lord Kitchner/Kirshner introduction, IIRC.

The "Werewolf? There, wolf." schtick from Young Frankenstein was good, too.

OBWW: Don't grab that router, son, use your entrenching tool!

[Australopithecus scobis]

reference ...

You two memorized FST? But what about the elevator boy?

[Tom Watson]

I've waited for the electrician

but I usually get

"...someone like him."

(sigh)

Bath...

Towel...

Border.

"he will not, nay, did not die in vain."

I say - Crush that dwarf.

[Larry Jaques]

On 22 Apr 2004 05:51:48 -0700, [e-mail] (Conan the Librarian) brought forth from the murky depths:

Si!

Yeah, fishing is a meditative sport when you're not up against dozens of beer-swillin' "buddies".

My old bones tell me to go for the dark side of the Force as they creak any more. 'Tis indeed sad...

Do you remember that "Moms are like that" commercial?

Bien.

I would have handed you the pliers had I remembered that line.

- Don't be a possum on the Information Superhighway of life. ----

Dynamic Database-Driven Websites

[Larry Jaques]

On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 12:31:08 -0500, Australopithecus scobis brought forth from the murky depths:

What elevator boy? "I'm from Nairobi, Maam. Isn't everyone?"

- Don't be a possum on the Information Superhighway of life. ----

Dynamic Database-Driven Websites

[Conan The Librarian]

Damn. The memory ain't what it used to be. Not that it ever was. Dr. Memory?

I had no idea you were a FST-head, Dr. Thunder. :-)

Chuck Vance Just say (tmPL) He says he can shout, don't hear you.

[Conan The Librarian]

I've found that it's simple enough to avoid that. You just have to be willing to hike a bit. And I tend to fish rivers (streams, really), where I can wade to get to the best spots (or get away from Bubba).

I'm not a fishing snob, but I just find that this style of fishing is more in line with my general world-view. If you think about it, flyfishing is more like neander wooddorking, while the bass boat bubbas are more akin to Nahm. (Boy, that oughta get a reaction. :-)

I don't have any real physical infirmities, so I guess I'm lucky in that regard. And neandering helps keep the old bones from creaking too badly. (As well as maintaining my girlish figure.)

Nope, that one went right over my head.

And another closet FST-head comes out.

Chuck Vance

[Conan The Librarian]

I don't get the binary groups (well, I can get them but not the pictures associated with them). Got a link to a site where I could see that pic? I see hawks on a regular basis down here, but I've

*never* seen them in a group.

As for the Record #80 -- I'm assuming that's the same as the Stanley #80? If so, that awful screeching noise they make is probably responsible for attracting the birds. ;-)

Chuck Vance