Homecoming-ish

Recently I was back in Mordor and had the chance to visit with my old pal Tom.  I first met Tom at a community flea market, he was selling tools and I was looking.  I waited too long to get what I wanted from his table, but in our subsequent conversation he indicated he had another one and I could have it in exchange for some lessons in lathe-work.  That started a decade-long tradition of my spending Wednesday evenings in his spacious and well-equipped shop.  It seems even more spacious now since my projects are no longer there taking up space.

Mrs. Barn would occasionally ask on my return from these Wednesday evenings, “How’s Tom and his family?  What did you talk about?”

My reply was generally something like, “Sweetie, we are guys.  We didn’t talk about anything but woodworking.”   Wednesday nights were often dedicated to building workbenches and sharpening tools.

Since I moved to Shangri-la Tom has built some new workbenches (I was really impressed with both his Roubo-esque bench and a terrific little Nicholson) and has started some new projects, but going there was a welcome homecoming of sorts.  He visits me here with some regularity, at least a couple times a year, and he like so many others was crucial in the completion of the barn.  He has his own bench here, autographed by The Schwarz.

While driving to Tom’s shop I did notice that a regal oak tree along the driveway had come down.  It was at least 25-feet in girth.  For scale of the picture, imagine me standing next to this wreckage with my hand straight over my head.  It would have not reached the top of the horizontal trunk.  As you can tell, the tree was a mere shell of itself by the time it came down, with the core hollowed out by disease and rot.

We spent most of the afternoon going to our favorite local sawmill where I placed an order for 300 b.f. of clear southern yellow pine, just to add to the inventory.  The price has jumped since I last bought some clear SYP eight years ago, skyrocketing 33% to 60 cents a board foot!  I’ll pick up the order in three weeks and it will be ready to use next spring.

While we were chatting in the shop, Tom said, “In all the years you have been coming here you have only indicated one of my tools you would like to have, so I got you one.”  He had, and I was very appreciative of it.  It is an absolute treasure an immediately assumed a place of prominance in the shop

Stay tuned.