My Own Hardware Store

Given the intrusion of outside reality into the world of the workshop made manifest in the cancellation of the recent PATINA tool soiree; the cancellation of our regional Maple Festival, the social and commercial center point for our little county every year; the cancellation of some teaching I was scheduled to undertake in LA in mid-April; the closing of all schools and prohibition on public gatherings for the foreseeable future; the growing impetus for national quarantines — I was considering the coming near future for projects in the barn.  My temperament is amenable to the isolation integral to this routine, probably for an unhealthy length of time.  And, I realized that in many instances I am already my own workshop-related general goods store due in great part to the fact that the hardware section of the local feed and seed is better than it was but still only okay, and closes at 4.#0 weekdays and noon on Saturdays.  The closest good hardware store is thirty miles away with the same restrictied hours, and it seems that I mostly need something at 5.30.

Sure, I’ve got thousands of board feet of lumber from which to make stuff.  Even more I’ve got almost all the other things I need for a whole lot of projects.

My own little hardware store, mostly tucked into the space beneath the stairs, includes fasteners of almost every description along with a host of other fabrication supplies.

This is augmented by my stock of metal bar stock and similar stuffed up between the ceiling joists of my studio and in tubes next to my Emmert die-maker’s vise.  As long as UPS keeps rolling, delivering my frequent orders from McMaster-Carr, the only thing limiting fabrication is time and energy.

I’ve still got hundreds of pounds of shellac in the barn basement.  I’ve got hundreds of  pounds of beeswax and shellac wax I can process.  I’ve got everything I need to make cases of Mel’s Wax.

Mrs. Barn has the gardens underway, and is often in need of my help.

I’ve got a notebook full of sketches and ideas of things to make or try.

I’ve got several manuscript to work on.

Whether we are facing a “crisis” or a crisis remains to be seen, but with all of these aforementioned truths I guess I am ready to keep busy and productive for the coming days and weeks.