Thanks to everyone for saying hello.
I was finishing my Adirondack chair sample this evening and it brought to mind one of the saddest times I had woodworking. I’m sure you all can identify with this.
This took place about 25 years ago. My wife and I had just moved into our first house after renting for 5 years and I finally had a huge workshop in the basement. I had collected all the best tools, some from auctions, some new, some made from scratch. I had come across a farmer who had a saw mill and he became my source of all the local wood I ever wanted or needed. He had been holding a large amount of beautiful native cherry for me; it had air dried for over 8 months and it was ready to be turned into something special. I decided on a secretary, I could see how beautiful that cherry would be when finished. I designed it on the fly, a few sketches, a few pieces cut. Rough lumber cutting, planning, joining, and dry fitting, a few more sketches, and on and on. I started it in late fall and worked on it all winter. It was mostly complete, fold down front, all the drawers complete (my first dove tails on the drawers) all that was left was to mount all the hardware and then finishing. It was Easter and my sister-in-law’s family had stopped by and was going to spend 6 days with us. 5 children running around, so for safety I locked the door to the shop so the kids wouldn’t get into anything sharp. We lived in a ‘normal’ house for the North East, two story colonial with a full basement. The night before they were to leave all the kids took showers in the upstairs bathroom and after they were all finished I noticed water on the bathroom floor, but at the time I didn’t think anything of it. The visitors left and a few days later I went down to the shop to continue working on the secretary, when I opened the door I saw my work with dried water stains all over. The ceiling tiles directly above showed the marks of water, and quite a lot of it, it had come through the ceiling and directly on the secretary. No other water in the shop anywhere, just directly above the secretary. I thought; what are the chances that the water from the kids shower three stories up would make its way to my work-in-progress. Had I know about it when it happened I could have dried it off and only had a bit of additional sanding. But no, it got wet and then dried on it own. I sanded, planed, stained to no avail. Water stains too deep to make the wood useful.
That next winter I burned the wood in the fireplace.
I was finishing my Adirondack chair sample this evening and it brought to mind one of the saddest times I had woodworking. I’m sure you all can identify with this.
This took place about 25 years ago. My wife and I had just moved into our first house after renting for 5 years and I finally had a huge workshop in the basement. I had collected all the best tools, some from auctions, some new, some made from scratch. I had come across a farmer who had a saw mill and he became my source of all the local wood I ever wanted or needed. He had been holding a large amount of beautiful native cherry for me; it had air dried for over 8 months and it was ready to be turned into something special. I decided on a secretary, I could see how beautiful that cherry would be when finished. I designed it on the fly, a few sketches, a few pieces cut. Rough lumber cutting, planning, joining, and dry fitting, a few more sketches, and on and on. I started it in late fall and worked on it all winter. It was mostly complete, fold down front, all the drawers complete (my first dove tails on the drawers) all that was left was to mount all the hardware and then finishing. It was Easter and my sister-in-law’s family had stopped by and was going to spend 6 days with us. 5 children running around, so for safety I locked the door to the shop so the kids wouldn’t get into anything sharp. We lived in a ‘normal’ house for the North East, two story colonial with a full basement. The night before they were to leave all the kids took showers in the upstairs bathroom and after they were all finished I noticed water on the bathroom floor, but at the time I didn’t think anything of it. The visitors left and a few days later I went down to the shop to continue working on the secretary, when I opened the door I saw my work with dried water stains all over. The ceiling tiles directly above showed the marks of water, and quite a lot of it, it had come through the ceiling and directly on the secretary. No other water in the shop anywhere, just directly above the secretary. I thought; what are the chances that the water from the kids shower three stories up would make its way to my work-in-progress. Had I know about it when it happened I could have dried it off and only had a bit of additional sanding. But no, it got wet and then dried on it own. I sanded, planed, stained to no avail. Water stains too deep to make the wood useful.
That next winter I burned the wood in the fireplace.
