“Unless you think you can do better than Tolstoy, we don’t need you.”
— James Michener
Category: Personal Favorites
The Motto of the Sleeping
“‘Leave me to my repose,’ is the motto of the sleeping and the dead.”
— William Hazlitt, literary critic (1778-1830)
Cameras, Music and Bottle Openers
Some days my inbox is stuffed with odd questions about what I do. And when the number of those question eclipses the “What wood should I use for my workbench?” questions, then it is time to write a blog entry.
Recently, there have been a spate of the following questions:
Question: What cameras do you use to take photos and video?
I’ve always been a Canon enthusiast. I prefer the colors that these cameras produce, and I am comfortable with the controls. For blogging, I use a Canon G10 (now the Canon G12) for both videos and still photos. It is a remarkable camera with a metal – yes, metal! – body so it can take a hit. The photos are nice enough that you can publish them in a book (it’s what I recommend that some Lost Art Press authors use).
The best accessory ever for woodworking photography is a tripod. Don’t buy a cheap one. I have a used Manfrotto – you can pick these up on Craigslist and fix them up if need be. Mine needed a lot of tightening and adjusting. A tripod allows you to use available light, small apertures and long shutter speeds. That is the sweet spot for most woodworking photography.
If you won’t buy a full-size tripod, spend $28 and buy this Manfrotto pocket support. It lives on the bottom of my Canon G10 and allows me to stabilize it in the field when I don’t have a pod. This thing is 100 percent pure unicorn magic. I have personally made at least 100 sales by demonstrating this gizmo at woodworking shows.
I have a second Canon camera, a SLR, that I use for shop photography. Until January, I was using a Canon Rebel – very entry level – with good Canon lenses. I shot all my magazine articles and books using this camera, including most of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.”
In January, I bought a Canon 5D, a big step up that was made possible by you, the reader. Thank you. I also have an L-series Canon zoom on the 5D. Yes, that was a gloat.
I have some basic lights, but those are packed away. I always prefer to work with existing light.
Despite all the text above, I don’t obsess about equipment. In fact, I’m fairly oblivious. I’m much more concerned about composition and spend far more time studying that than reading equipment reviews.
Question: What is the music in your video?
I get this question every single day. I like Americana music, especially with a Southern flavor (duh, I’m from Arkansas). If you want to download some of the tracks I’ve used and search for other like-sounding stuff, I recommend two sites: freeplaymusic.com and freemusicarchive.org.
At freemusicarchive.org, check out the stuff from the Black Twig Pickers. That will sound familiar.
At freeplaymusic.com, check out these two collections of music:
Question: And finally, I saw your video on rasps and want to buy the belt you are wearing. Where do I get it?
The belt I’m wearing is from Thomas Bates. Yes, that is a bottle opener. It works great. However some people freak out when you open a beer for them and you take it to your bathing suit area to do the deed.
— Christopher Schwarz
Introducing SuperWoobie
I wouldn’t crap you – you’re my favorite turd, right?
So listen carefully. Deneb Puchalski of Lie-Nielsen Toolworks has made a great leap forward in woobie technology. He has created a woobie so perfect, so supple, so sensual that I am running out of words that I feel comfortable using about a rag.
Today I was teaching the first day of a class at Lie-Nielsen’s new classroom facility in Warren, Maine – more on that later in the week. As I and the students were sharpening our irons I started looking for something with which to wipe off my wet tools.
Hmmm. Where is my woobie? Did I leave it in Connecticut? Was it stolen? Mayhaps.
So I ponder the options. I can go to the restroom and ball up a lot of toilet paper and make myself an ersatz woobie. It’s a shameful wiper. But I admit I have done this before.
About the time I am looking for the bathroom, Deneb mentions that the blue rags hanging below the table are “charged with oil.” I reach down and touch… SuperWoobie.
CareBears farted eclairs. Smurfs burped lemon bars.
It was magical. This cloth was so oil-filled and wonderful and soft and…. In my hand was a 3M microfiber cloth that had been soaked in jojoba oil. It was the woobie I had always been looking for. I wiped down all my tools with it and it held tons of oil.
Deneb says he charges them with oil and then uses them until they get “funky.” Then he runs them through the wash and recharges them with oil.
You heard it here first, an interview with Deneb, father of the SuperWoobie.
— Christopher Schwarz
People Who Are No Longer Needed
“The world is filled with people who are no longer needed – and who try to make slaves of all of us –
And they have their music and we have ours –
Theirs, the wasted songs of a superstitious nightmare –
And without their musical and ideological miscarriages to compare our song of freedom to,
We’d not have any opposite to compare music with – and like the drifting wind, hitting against no obstacle,
We’d never know its speed, its power….”
— Woody Guthrie, from the liner notes of “Mermaid Avenue” by Billy Bragg and Wilco.