Remarkable Things

It is a remarkable thing to me, an older man, an old man, seeing where everyone is around the world that reads my blog. People watching my videos afar, looking at what I type up and then sending me messages. I post a blog one day in the morning and by midnight 18,000 people might have read it. The numbers diminish each subsequent day but the content gets read for years then. Chiagozie Ugor in West Africa, Fernando Cela Pinto, Dmitry Glazov are all names to make me think, but more than that, the outcome has become one of identity, association and sharing—a sharing of interest separated by thousands of miles and many cultural alternatives. I think I will always be amazed that a craft can be so unifying and indeed bridge building too. Think of it! Someone in Mali is building my workbench right now. Someone else in Egypt just Googled how to use a #4 bench plane and then a Kiwi found out she'd been left a plane by her grandad on the South Island. These are remarkable things aren't they?

When I first started I could readily tell where people were from. Today that's impossible. I like it though. I think of the affiliations we all have and the willingness of all to share in the community plan from a spirit of generosity and care. So someone there in United Emirates illustrates a struggle with a tool and another in Melbourne, Australia reaches across the great divide to become the human bridge of knowledge and care and both. In India a family builds workbenches for a home-based workshop. The husband gave up his day job after years of doing two. He writes me a message via FaceBook and tells me he is getting more and more orders. He was an unhappy accountant but now he's a very happy woodworker making many things.

So I return to my own workbench and develop my idea. I just finished off the coat racks and drawings this past week and now I have set out my stall to make  sleigh bed and a small table and something else, I forget what. I need some shelving for my home workshop and I heard from my friend that there is a place nearby that jas some heavy plywood at a good price. Hope it's still there when I go tomorrow. I'll hook my trailer on because i just discovered some non conventional pallets made out of 2x12s and 4x4s and they too will make either some good shelving or good staging. Waste not want not!

Of course next week we will start filming the new series. I am excited about that. Lot's to do! Oh, and you might like the latest YouTube video I did on reading the grain. I think it might help you if your struggling a bit to understand some things. Here is the link.