Having written 1128 posts over nearly a decade I have never really broken into the "Big Time". I am not surprised, I chose not to get involved in Video Blogging six or seven years ago when that was the coming thing, and I know that I am not so skilled a craftsman that the internet hangs on my every word.
Today's blog is a clear example of why I am still here, but not a big noise on the net.
A coupe of weeks ago I picked up an armful of discarded cedar deck boards. Cedar is nice to work with, especially with hand tools. I used some of the boards to knock out a planter for our back deck and now I am making a bird house.
This bird house has been put together with glue and finishing nails and soaked with 1/1/1 finish.($). I enjoyed making this bird house which I will have my grand daughter paint when she is here for Christmas holidays. Why was the such an enjoyable project? I only used hand tools. Cedar is wonderful to cut and plane. While making this project my shop smelled of cedar and the floor was covered with sweet smelling shavings. My shop looked like something from a children's story where a white haired Grampa is making something for someone special. Well....I am a white haired Grampa (Opa) and I was making it for my oldest grand daughter.
I have a shop filled with tools, some good, others excellent, both modern and traditional. With my full 'power tools' shop I could have knocked dozens of bird houses out in time it took to make this one. All the saw dust would be collected in my shop vac system from my table saw and random orbital sanders and the product would be excellent. It would be efficient and praise worthy, every yard has room for another bird house.
Instead the process became the goal, not the product. As long as a bird house emerged from the time in the shop, how fast it happened did not matter.
So, I began rough cutting out the wood to length with a hand saw from my Grandfather's work shop, I'm 63 and I'm sure the saw is 25 years older than I am. That saw built houses and boats, boxes and furniture when my Father was a little boy. Once I got the boards roughed to length I used my Jack Plane to flatten then. I created mounds of feather-like shavings and filled my shop with the aroma of dry cedar. After I got the wood splinter free I cut everything to size. I have a rip saw from my Father's shop that is a joy to use and in dry soft wood, quite effortless.
I drilled some holes, drove some nails and used a nail set to sink the heads. And voila a bird house is born.
When you make a bird house don't just drill a random hole, find out what birds are in your area and drill an appropriate opening.
***Also don't put a peg below the hole. The birds that live there fly in and so don't need a peg, that don't climb into their homes. All the peg does is provide a place for a predator bird to perch while attacking eggs or baby birds.***
The other thing I did was put a good, useful handle onto my lovely new tea pot.
I have a copper wire core surrounded by small branches from our Mulberry bush wrapped in hemp cord. I'm not 100% convinced that this the the best look, I think the handle is too heavy for a delicate little pot but...it will do from now.
The more I work in my shop lately the more and am moving away from noise and dust. It don't know if this is a fad or evolution.
cheers ianw
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