Why Wood ? - a bit of personal history in wood.

   In the summer of 1972 my father had earned one months vacation and the family decided that we were going to travel to Prince Edward Island in the big old family car.  I had just competed gr.8 and my little brother gr. 2.  There was no way on earth that I was going to be trapped in a car for days with a little brother and parents. (and besides I just like to be at home best).  The result was that Mom, Dad and brother had a great trip to the east coast and I got to stay with my Grandparents for a month. I didn't get to stay home exactly, but I always had my own room at Grama and Grampa's house, so it was the next best thing. 

   My Great Grandfather was the mason/bricklayer that built the building with the clock tower in this photo. My Mother's father was an electrician on that job too.  Once a bank and once the town hall and now I don't know what is using the building.  I've not been back to the town in a few years.

 I remember that month as a great time filled with cookies, ice cream, wood chips and a mighty and frightening thunder storm.

  My Grandfather was a wood worker, he renovated a couple of houses and built wooden runabouts, similar to the one in this photo, and just generally made stuff out of wood, he even made skis. 

      One of the tools that my Grandfather had was a wood lathe, it was a home made affair and the chisels were made from leaf springs and old files but it worked. I thought is was the best lathe in the world. Grampa had the lathe to make cant hook handles and ladder rungs, very old school and very practical.

a cant hook, a tool used to control and roll logs.
My Grandfather worked at a hydro electric power house  sometimes the workers pulled logs from the river that got caught in the boom above the dam.

   In shop class that year I had turned a bowl and so knew everything about wood turning. ( isn't youth great).  And after much pestering I was able to get Grampa to let me play with his lathe.  We went to the local bush and got some white birch and I went to work making wood chips in the garage. The other day I was rummaging around in a storage drawer and found this:

not the soda can, the candle holder!!

    which brought back happy and vivid memories.

   That little candle holder is a project dating from that summer in Bracebridge in my Grampa's garage.  I think my Mom has the other candle holder and I remember making a bigger spindle but don't know where it ended up.  Maybe my other Grandma got it.  

my lathe,  the model is no longer available

    If you are looking for a small, quiet shop tool it is hard to complete with a bench top lathe.  A basic lathe and a hand full of serviceable chisels does not have to break the bank.  You can spend all winter making a set of chessmen and only use a couple of board feet of lumber, so materials don't have to blow your budget either. 

   I now have two grand daughters and fully expect that my candle holder will find it way into one of their households and be a presence long after I am gone.  That's why? Wood.