OldTools Archive

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28958 Rick <rgarza@i...> 1997‑10‑21 Re: bio&no4 story


Hello all,
I guess you could say my interest in old planes & handtools started when I "helped" my carpenter grandfather turn old ratty lumber into a simple box back i n the summer of '64. I can still recall all those firsts: the sound of a well t uned No. 4, the smell of the wood, drilling pilot holes, driving brads, oiling t he wood, ... all in a single afternoon. The deep pride I felt at seeing how nice it turned out.
My father introduced me to the wonder of electronics when he returned from serving overseas a year later. Crystal radios, soldering, schematic diagrams, oh ms law, tv repair, this became my life for the next several years. I remember fe eling the earth shake as I read that Popular Electronics issue about building yo ur own computer. We still chuckle over my dad's quote at that time: "What could you ever do with nothing but 1's and 0's?"
I realized somewhere along the way "building" things had become something m ore like a space shuttle operation than Kitty Hawk. I missed that feeling you ge t when working with your hands, running wild&free with just a fuzzy notion, and simple decisions.
A couple of years ago my grandfather had a massive stroke. Within hours our vary large & extended family had gathered from all over the country to the hosp ital to be near our patriarch. At times like these seems like everyone has a fav orite story to tell and I could not come up with a more treasured one than that shared afternoon of so long ago. The wordless lessons about pride, workmanship, mistakes, and correcting them have served me since.
I mentioned how heavy that Stanley smoother had felt at that time. My grand mother told us that he had bought it to when he built the first house they ever owned in the mid forties. My mom confessing (after all these years) that she was the one who left it outside in the rain after secretly playing with it. Everyon e seemed to remember this exact tool and my grandfather using it at one time or another. You would have thought the man was born holding it ready to smooth his baby crib. When he passed away we took comfort knowing that the things he built over so many years and for so many of us would still be here after we were gone.
A couple of weeks ago my grandmother asked me over. On the coffee table sat a slightly rusty, paint spattered, heavy casted, vintage smoother. She told me she wanted me to have it and was sorry it took her so long to find it as he had been using it to make some birdhouses for a neighbor. I picked it up and ran my nail over the iron and it was still razor sharp.
The emotions I felt can hardly be expressed in words. A fine well built & w ell kept tool that was a part of my grandfather's working life for almost sixty years is now in my keeping. You can see my grandmother understood what a common plane meant to a poor carpenter she had been married to for almost sixty years. She must have seen him take it apart, oil the parts, and store it away inside co untless times. She must have understood what it would have meant to be given to a grandson who now dreams of building fine wooden things. You see old tools have romance, a story to tell, work yet to be done, and a bonding with the craftsman that is near impossible to duplicate or relate to others.
Yesterday my 10yr old son picked up the plane and said "Hey dad, what's thi s thing used for?"
Hoping to be worthy of the bandwidth,
Rick

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