The first part of the mission went off without a hitch. With lunch taken care of, we headed back to the Truck of Doom and consulted Google Maps for final approach instructions to Woodcraft.
The computer, as computers are wont to do, plotted a route that had us convinced it was crazy.
As a digression, today I was wearing one of my favorite shirts from Engrish.com. Because of its color, I tend to accessorize with my p-t.com ball cap and the cheap-o orange-on-black Casio watch
* that I bought for the specific purpose of someday using it to troll known horology nerd ToddG. At one point the road, which looks like it's going to turn into somebody's driveway at any moment, is meandering in a completely uncertain direction and I moaned "Of all the days to not wear my real watch
! It has a compass!" whereupon I was reassured that the Truck of Doom had one as well.In the end, we found the store, tucked away on a practically access-free access road.
And it was magical, full of eldritch engines for the crafting of wonderful things†.
*Because they're all orange, see? It's the closest I come these days to attempting to match my clothing to any kind of coherent color scheme.
† I wish Bobbi had been able to come, although the two of us think different things in tool stores: Bobbi will be admiring some esoteric two-handed reverse-bevel dovetail chisel and talking aloud to herself of all the wonderful things she could build with it, and I'll be next to her and hefting the slightly larger model, muttering "Man, you could really **** somebody up with one of these things..."
To the Danger shirt I can only add a tounge of frog because "inspite of it is sticky, it is never like the chewing guns."
ReplyDeleteAnd remember, "Never throw out the other person's head."
The wood shops are good, but if you want stuff that will fuck someone up, look to the leatherworkers. The round knife is a 4-6" WIDE blade, scalpel sharp, and stout as a circular saw blade. I've never tried it, but i bet I could cut through a deers foreleg with one in a single thwack. I have been around wicked sharp stuff, but nothing holds a candle to the round knife for pure "just holding this fucker is scary"
ReplyDeleteHory crap! For 5 bucks on sale you should pick up a back up shirt.
ReplyDeleteAll youse guys are poriticary incollect!
ReplyDeletegfa
More info about said Truck of Doom please.
ReplyDeleteI had a 1962 Chevy C10 long wheelbase fleetside for a time and it got tagged with the same nickname.
That's "Arr youse guys ..."
ReplyDeleteI am declaring August 12 "Talk Like an Asian Pirate Day" -- September 19th is just going to have to learn to live with it.
On the other hand, "Hory clap!" is open to interesting misinterpretation ... and possibly a painful intramuscular dose of 2.4 million units penicillin G.
Ah, Tam! Remember Highland Hardware, in the Virginia-Highlands area? Near George's Delicatessen, across the street from Church of Our Saviour, where I genuflected Anglo-Catholically many a time?
ReplyDeleteNow, that hardware store had some _serious_ woodworking tools. That's where I bought my Japanese water stone which I used to put a microtome edge on the iron of the cute little block plane I bought there, so as to slice thin, thin, thin slices from Hazel's finest balsa (< 4 lbs/ft^3). You need really sharp tools to work balsa, and also have to re-sharpen them frequently because of the mineral inclusions in the balsa.
Oh, if I could get out of this benighted place I would be happy to relocate to Montezuma, Iowa, which contains my two favorite firms in the whole world. Those would be Sig Balsa and Brownells.
P.s. At last report, Sig Balsa maintained a couple or three Company Kittehs. I don't know if that still obtains. I would hope that Brownell's also employs kittehs. They are good for the morale of the humans and keep the rodents under control, if they attend to their duty.
ReplyDeleteI'm just in shock that you're doing the 'girly' coordinating by colour thing (what about the shoes and turse?). Please don't tell me if/when you wear a dress, my world-view might not survive (excepting formal events - when pictures must be provided).
ReplyDeleteI myself decide on what sartorial splendour I will be presenting to the world today in the time honoured 'guy' methodology of 'if you throw it against the wall and it doesn't stick, it's clean enough for another weeks wear'.
I'm a leathworker, sometime... og's right about those tools. Keep your hands out from in front of 'em. What CAN slip and cut or puncture, WILL sooner or later.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've heard from some saddlemakers with a lot more years than I have, the round knife becomes more dangerous with use and wear.
I take it you didn't go to the night match in Oregon this week. I didn't either as I have editorial meetings all week, besides that I have no illusions about making 'selection' in a 3 gun match under any circumstances...
ReplyDeleteAll The Best,
Frank W. James
Frank,
ReplyDeleteMatch is last part of this week. All I want to do is better than last time, which shouldn't be too hard. ;)
Next time you hit the pistol range, take a side trip to Northwest Lumber (around 51st and Lafayette). They've got some interesting wood for projects.
ReplyDelete>>>† I wish Bobbi had been able to come, although the two of us think different things in tool stores:<<<
ReplyDeleteLong live the women of Rosholme!
Tandy Leather Works is on the East side of High School Road about 3/4 mile south of 38th St. The manager is a complete sweetheart who grew up in Gary.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, at least half of the tools in the store are the kinds of things you could put next to one of those "living history" displays on "Surgery in the Civil War" and it'd take an expert to tell them apart from the actual sawbones' impedimenta
Another certified horology geek. Mom, stepdad and grandfather were all watchmakers. Grandpa was an ass, but to his credit, he did have the distinction of making some of the clockwork parts for the timing mechanism of the first atomic bombs.
While I have some VERY nice watches at home, including a 1942 Breitling Chronomat, I'm currently wearing a Timex "Expedition" I got at the PX downrange. Ain't no shame...
gvi
Aren't they, like, right across the street from Mountain of Geese? And you couldn't find it?
ReplyDeleteKerry
Sig Balsa? Northwest Lumber?
ReplyDeleteIt's like there's a whole -World- of Woodcraft!
Well, Og, you know what they say; a sharp knife is safer than a dull one, because you can work it with less force, and thus control it more easily.
ReplyDeleteThe above assumes that one knows what he's doing.