A somewhat different post.
I've recently been back to the Isle of Wight and brought back a large amount of tools from what was my Grandpa's workshop. I previously brought back a lathe and a load of woodturning stuff as well, with full intention of getting on with a whole load of woodwork.
And yet it hasn't happened.
This time around I feel somewhat at a loss. There is so much stuff here that I am simply bedazzled by it. He was something of a polymath when it came to handicrafting. Tere are tools for cabinetry, carving, metalwork, boatbuilding, housebuilding, plumbing, gardening and some handbuilt bastardised tools which I simply have no clue what it was for.
As far as it goes, Im absolutely game to just jump headlong into trying to work things out, but there are strong pulls that are stopping me, and it wasn't until today that I kind of realised what they are.
The first is the sharpness of all the tools. The last time they were sharpened was by my Grandpa. They hold an insane edge. An edge that was created by long hours of practice and one that I can't even hope to attain. To start using these tools on wood- and most likely mis-using them- would blunt them and I'd have no hope of bringing them back to their current state.
Along with this is all the things I ever read about sharpening tools.... don't do this, don't do that, whatever you do don't do this or you'll ruin your tools etc etc. You can be assured that given half a chance, I'll probably do all of those things and, in all likelihood, ruin a tool that has been well loved and cared for, and that stays my hand from even trying.
Another issue, closely linked to the sharpenss thing- and alluded to in the paragraph above is the concern that I'm simply not using the right tool for the right job. There is a lot of import seemingly placed upon that concept... the issue is, I have so many tools, and have no real concept of which tool should be used for what. Which ones are the lathe tools? Which are cabinetry? How, exactly does this thing fit into that thing.... and was it meant to in the first place, or did it go into this one?
With this is the question of "do I have the right thing?" I can't tell what grit the sharpening stones are. I have no idea if I buy something that eventually I'll find out I have something else that would actually have done the job. Is it better to have a single tool that you know how to use? or a multitude of them that you simply are perplexed with....
Alongside all of this is the fear of messing up. Of taking a decent bit of blank wood that *could* have been turned into something beautiful, and just hacking it apart into sawdust, shavings and bits of mishapen wood. The potential for a piece of wood is ALWAYS there, but once you've attempted to make it into something, that's it. It's gone, as has the chance of making the thing that it *could* have been.
The main thing I have been doing is asking a lot of very annoying questions to the few people I know that *might* have a clue as to what things are (sorry Tom and Phil), but although I vaguely know *what* things are.... knowing *how* to use them is a different matter. YouTube is coming in handy in terms of trying to understand the usage... but actually getting on and doing it is a completely different matter- generally due to those fears and thoughts detailed above.
I'm not really sure how to get over this- apart from just get on, do things wrong and break things- which I am really loathe to do.... perhaps better a tool to be used and abused than not used at all?
It'd be better if I could use them properly though.
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