Category: Personal Favorites
Introducing ‘The Naked Lady Saw’
The following blog post contains artistic (no, that’s too strong a word), um, renderings of the female human body that might offend if you are the kind of person who blushes while visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art or viewing other high art, such as “Porky’s II: The Next Day.”
Click at your own peril.
The History of Wood, Part 27
Hand Tool Makers – at Arm’s Length
This summer in Maine, a bunch of us got a beer with Thomas Lie-Nielsen after examining a tool collection at a museum. When the check came for the drinks, Thomas picked it up and said, “My treat.”
I gave him a $20 bill, and he took it. Some of the other people around the table looked confused. Should they also pay? Was Chris just being a weiner?
“Chris and I have an odd relationship,” Thomas said, putting the $20 in his wallet.
That is a bit of an understatement.
This blog entry is written for all of the toolmakers out there who I adore and respect but are bemused by my sometimes-standoffish behavior. For a wide variety of reasons, I have always kept a certain amount of distance between myself and the people who make my tools. I don’t take free or discounted tools. If you try to buy me a beer, I will buy you a six pack. Send me an unsolicited tool and I’ll send you a check.
I do this for a simple reason: If you ask me to write something nice about your tools to help your sales, I can look you in the eye and say “no.” If I tell my students or readers that I like your tools, then they can be assured that I am not the tool of the toolmaker.
Plus, in order for me to sleep at night, I need to own every tool in my chest. No gifts. No discounts or favors. I pay the iron price for my iron.
Where does this crazy attitude come from? Journalism school.
During college, my wife and I were indoctrinated into the school of thought that you take nothing – nothing – from the people you write about. This cold approach makes you seem less friendly, but it will save your reputation in the end.
(My wife, Lucy, a reporter at a local television station, won’t even take a drink of water from the public fountains at city hall or the school district. She’s even more hardcore than I am – one of the things I love about her, by the way.)
So toolmakers: Don’t take it personal. I support your work. I love the risks you take. And I have a weird and somewhat embarrassing relationship with the things you make for me. But if I seem off-putting, remember this: It’s me. Not you.
— Christopher Schwarz
You Can Call Him ‘Roy Jr.’
I wish I had thought of this Halloween costume for my kids when they were helpless. These days it’s a struggle to get my 18-year-old daughter to wear a handlebar moustache.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Leo, who is dressed today as Roy Underhill.
And it looks like Roy approves of the costume.
— Christopher Schwarz
