New Old Tools

Did I mention that I like old tools? Yeah, I thought I did. I have new tools too, and I like them, but there's something special about old hand tools.

Thought you might like to see my newest additions ... a couple of nice old gimlets, and a fine Miller's Falls No. 2 drill.

Come by the house and I'll let you use them.

Chisel Handles

Oklahoma's weather makes the national news pretty often, it seems. If it's not the heat, then it's either floods, tornadoes, or something else. This time it's a major ice storm. But this past Saturday was a beautiful day, just perfect for leaving the garage/shop door open and working all day making large pieces of wood into smaller ones.
I had several old chisels awaiting new handles, so I set up the old 10-ER as a lathe and went to work. I wanted to experiment with the handle shapes and overall size, so I just started with a picture of some handles I liked, and started turning. The two larger ones are made from hard maple; the smaller one from pecan.

I like the shape of the handles, but I the sizes aren't quite right. I think I'll be better suited to handles sized between the larger and smaller ones. Also, I think I'll stain the next ones dark.

Riding Like a Kid

With the cool, windy weather and my general laziness, I haven't ridden any of my bikes in a while. But today the weather was perfect - 70 degrees, sunny, and no wind. So I took a bike ride.

Now this was no normal bike ride.

I pulled the old Nashbar steel bike out from behind my workbench and aired up the inch-wide tires. I put on tennis shoes instead of cleated riding shoes, because this bike has flat pedals. Instead of skin-tight riding shorts and a jersey I put on an old pair of mountain bike shorts and a bright orange tee shirt. My old sunglasses were nearby (not my fancy prescription athletic glasses), and I pulled a raggedy pair of gloves out of the cabinet in the garage. On my head I placed a retired $20 helmet that I still had lying around.

I headed down the street and across parking lots to the park and reservoir on our end of town. I rode around the reservoir a few times, down some side streets, and past the new Starbuck's. I have no idea how far or how fast I went, because I had no bike computer to distract me. There were only the canadian geese and turtles and birds and the bike and the road and me.

It was cycling for the fun of it.

And I loved it.