Another day in the life of NL

It was busy all day the way through until around 11pm. Electrical work and plumbing, some flooring and siding whilst on the non-construction side we finally had the last of the benches in the hand tool workshop and freed up the machine shop. With only vises left to fit and two weeks to the first class it felt good. I am in the middle of making some tool cupboards for my creative workspace and have one more tool chest to finish before next week but it felt good flopping into bed last night after so productive a day.

I feel compelled to discuss Nicholson files with you. For the first time I can recall I found myself struggling to top a saw with a 10” flat file from Nicholson. I glanced along the teeth and found it breasted—not what I want on a tenon saw and even most other saws really. I tried again and it was the reverse. It had to be the file, as you can 'breast' a saw with a flat file but not hollow one. I glanced along the file and sure enough it had a 1/8” curve along the length. In The Home Depot Store in Sarratoga Springs I opened four packages to make sure I got a flat one, thinking I had simply bought a bad one from otherwise generally straight stock, fact ended up being that none of the “Hecho Mexico” files were flat in any way. So we will have to find a new supplier. We found the same with some of the 6” saw files by Nicholson too. Some might say that this doesn’t make any difference but let me assure you that it really does.

Yesterday was a truly splendid day with all the wonders of Springtime buzzing, flying, bursting and waiting for that perfect moment to bring new life. The pond at the front of the shop was stunning. Canadian geese have built their nest just west of the pond in the swampy land and Cardinals and nuthatch call constantly for a mate. The day was filled with good production but timeout to see the maple bloom and the leaves unfolding on the willows.

More exciting things today as I work on my creative workspace.