Penicillin, gravity, marsh-mellows.....all kind of just happened didnt they? Walking down a straight path leading you to some bright and shiny, safe haven ahead; great. No worries, perfect. A classic you might say...Working wood, I sometimes fall into this fuzzy place as Im sure most of us do. A happy and familiar area of the waiting room where we do things a certain choice.
"Well, weve been doing it this choice for years...right?"Wrong.Working along side, how shall I say, a well seasoned gentleman a few years back and watched in disbelief as he butchered or maimed one thing after another with no idea at least from my end of the pull saw, the fundamentals of a wood shop, I came to some startling conclusions. No wheels re-invented, only a better picture of the wood shop I was working in. He didnt mean any harm and wasnt really hurting anyone, other than the potential of injuring himself; binding wood through table saws and removing safety guards and fences from anything and everything that could have used one. He had been doing it that choice for years, proudly positioned over these great old machines his father built from pieces of farm tractors and toaster ovens.
"Must be alright then...right?" Wrong.If something seems like it could work in another choice, try it.
If it seems potentially harmful, dont.
Wait.
If a light goes on in the back of your mind and you think, hm mm....I wonder if....then do it. Or, at least try it. If youre short for time or your boss is watching from across the work shop then grab a pencil and write it down, and then at each weeks end, go through your shop notes and review. Oh yeah, I wanted to try to do that, this choice. Maybe I can try it over here on this piece from my off-cut pile.
With a level head and thinking through the steps, safely, set-up and experiment with tools and techniques.
Follow instructions when-ever you can, and try to understand where youd like to go.
I usually find myself thinking this choice when Im faced with a challenge and need to use a tool in a different choice. For example, this past week I was test fitting a six-foot rabbet joint (named Harvey)that was just a bit too tight for the application. I needed to take a little off the edge. No worries, I grabbed my Skew Angle Block plane, adjusted the iron and the fence and went to it. Not a minute into it I was seeing some tear-out and needed to change my direction of attack. In a perfect world I would have simply reached for my, left-handed version but alas, I, the simple craftsman cannot afford such luxuries of having a left and right version of the same tool. So I tried turning the piece over, end for end, arse over kettle. No luck. In my earlier wisdom I affixed the piece being rabbeted to its mating piece which happened to be the rail on a bed. O.k. so I couldnt plane it from this choice and I couldnt plane it from that. What to do?
"Another, potentially, more expensive tool could have solved my dilemma, right?"
Wrong.What happened next was an instinctive motion of looking across the rabbet on a horizontal axis and simply turned the plane on its edge.
"Whoa...Never thought of it like that before..."
Of course; so simple. I used the plane on its side edge with its fence ridding high up in the air; proudly peeling off those beautiful shavings of walnut. It worked like a dream. What a revelation and I was indeed walking down that exciting and slightly dangerous, path less travelled. Maybe this isnt a great example of, thinking outside of the box but, Im trying to demonstrate that theres more than one choice to shoe a horse. Or is it beat a horse? Or is it beat a dead horse?
Well, you get the point and I sure do hope youre all enjoying yourselves this week during the exciting and action filled "Wood Workers Safety Week 2008"
Seriously, it is or at least, was this past week. Check it out and play nice with the other wood workers.Cheers!
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