Mike Stafford
Member
- Messages
- 2,409
- Location
- Coastal plain of North Carolina
The WD-40 thread reminded me of why we hoard things.
Andy Rooney put it better than I ever could.
"When I come home with wood I have found in some obscure sawmill, lumberyard or farmers barn, my wife invariably asks one of two questions: "Don’t you have enough wood?" or alternately, "What are you going to do with that?" For me, having wood is an end in itself. I own boards that I would rather have hanging on my living room wall than a Rembrandt painting. At the bottom of my wood rack, I have stickered seven cherry boards 14ft. long and 25 in wide at their widest point. I used to have eight but I made two tables out of one of them. I had to eliminate one car from the garage when I built the rack to accommodate it. I bought this wood from a man who had kept it in his barn for 20 years. I like the tables but they do not give me any more pleasure than do the seven boards. I have looked down at that cherry several thousand times in the ten years I've had it and derived pleasure on every occasion. What would I do with them that could be better than that?” -Andy Rooney
I know for myself there is great pleasure in a beautiful piece of wood. I have saved really small scraps because they were just too good to throw away. And then some years later I found the perfect use for them. Maybe it was a miniature birdhouse or as an inlay in the lid of a box; or a pen, or an awl handle; or now as a knife handle. When I started saving these scraps I didn't know one day that I would be making knives and that these pieces of good wood would be the perfect size for the handle scales.
All I can say is that I made the right decision to save those pieces of wood. Now I have to find uses for all the other pieces too good to throw away.
Andy Rooney put it better than I ever could.
"When I come home with wood I have found in some obscure sawmill, lumberyard or farmers barn, my wife invariably asks one of two questions: "Don’t you have enough wood?" or alternately, "What are you going to do with that?" For me, having wood is an end in itself. I own boards that I would rather have hanging on my living room wall than a Rembrandt painting. At the bottom of my wood rack, I have stickered seven cherry boards 14ft. long and 25 in wide at their widest point. I used to have eight but I made two tables out of one of them. I had to eliminate one car from the garage when I built the rack to accommodate it. I bought this wood from a man who had kept it in his barn for 20 years. I like the tables but they do not give me any more pleasure than do the seven boards. I have looked down at that cherry several thousand times in the ten years I've had it and derived pleasure on every occasion. What would I do with them that could be better than that?” -Andy Rooney
I know for myself there is great pleasure in a beautiful piece of wood. I have saved really small scraps because they were just too good to throw away. And then some years later I found the perfect use for them. Maybe it was a miniature birdhouse or as an inlay in the lid of a box; or a pen, or an awl handle; or now as a knife handle. When I started saving these scraps I didn't know one day that I would be making knives and that these pieces of good wood would be the perfect size for the handle scales.
All I can say is that I made the right decision to save those pieces of wood. Now I have to find uses for all the other pieces too good to throw away.
