And a happy Black Friday to you too. Personally, I choose to spend days like these hiding in the relative safety of my workshop. It's not that I oppose commerce. Full Disclosure: my livelihood depends on it. Honestly, I'd be thrilled to find out that everyone who ever wanted a shiny Gramercy backsaw decided to buy one today.
Though, to be fair, we don't make anyone schlep to a mall for our wares. I realize our online catalogue doesn't exactly represent the old-fashioned way of doing things, but at times like these, it certainly feels like the decidedly civilized approach.
The point is that I'm not going out today. Purchases will, undoubtedly, be made, but my shopping trips are likely to involve not more than shambling between the kitchen for coffee and then back to my laptop. The rest of the day is hereby reserved for that most-pleasant of workshop activities: puttering.
It is my firm intent to put aside pending projects for the day, and instead mess with whatever strikes my fancy. I might even do some carving. It is for this reason that I've layered my post with a Laughing Jackass and a conventionally treated pomegranate.
As part of our fall publication, Modern Edge Tools, we included a section for people interested in starting to carve. To supplement that section, we published some foliate carving templates. If you want to check them out, hit the black and white "M.E.T." button at the top of this page.
In any case, while reading this week's issue of Work, I happened across the designs supplied with "HOW TO PAINT A STAINED GLASS WINDOW BLIND" and couldn't resist reposting them here with the suggestion that we all have a crack at carving them. I am nothing if not an enabler, and I believe puttering to be a noble pursuit, especially on days when Madison Avenue tells us we ought to be conducting an wonky-wheeled shopping trolly through some pre-dawn discount bedlam. Happy Carving! –TIM
Disclaimer: Articles in Work: The Illustrated Weekly Journal for Mechanics describe materials and methods that would not be considered safe or advisable today. We are not responsible for the content of these magazines, and cannot take any responsibility for anyone attempting projects or procedures described therein.
The first issue of Work was published on March 23rd, 1889. The goal of this project is to release digital copies of the individual issues starting on the same date in 2012, effectively republishing the materials 123 years to the day from their original release.
The original printing was on thin, inexpensive paper. There are many cases of uneven inking and bleed-through from the page behind. Our copies of Work come from bound library volumes of these issues and are subject to unfavorable trimming, missing covers, etc. To minimize harm to these fragile volumes, we've undertaken the task of scanning the books ourselves. We do considerable post processing of the scans to make them clear but please bear with us if a margin is clipped too close, or a few words are unreadable. We would like to thank James Vasile and Karl Fogel for their help in supplying us with a book scanner and generally enabling this project to get off the ground.
You are welcome to download, print, and pretty much do what you want with the scan for your own personal purposes. Feel free to post a link or a copy on your blog or website. All we ask is a link back to the original project and this blog. We are not answering requests for commercial downloads or reprinting at this time.
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ps MET is great, we need more of this and less of the modern glitz.