Toolbox & Scars
I'm a tool guy I'd say. I love tools, new tools old tools, tools that are uncommon and your basic everyone should have this tool guy. I grew up with a dad who collected every kind of tool because as he taught me you never know when you will need it. Well I'd say I still have that outlook on tools. I've always liked tools and the older I get the more I like them. This I hope will be a fun journey. I want to share my experience with tools I got kicking around my shop to tools I work with at work and hopefully ones I don't use but can go checkout and share. Now I will be honest I'm not a word person I misspell a lot and don't know how to make things sound right so you know. Also I'm not a professional tool guy just someone who loves them so don't think I am an operational manual. This is also something for me so my posts might come often or far in between. My life is full so this will be a back burner kind of project. If you do visit and see something you like or a story I share reply. I want to know what people like . Some pictures will be of my own tools taken with my crummy shop camera or my phone I may use some nice ones I find on the net but as I said this is of my journey with my tools so I will want to share with you the tools I call my own. So I think that covers the rough outline of what I'm going to be trying to write now let me share a story or two about my tool love.
Well as I started out with I've always loved tools but in my mind I didn't think I fit the tool guy stereo type. Well I didn't when I was younger I now look like a tool guy with my burly beard and the don't come on my lawn you dam kid attitude. But when I was younger I thought you had to be super tough and ultra manly to like tools so I just admired them for a long time. Well that changed when I got married. Because what every newly wed couple needs is a set of tools for your standard home projects. So I started "the great gather". I would buy any tool I could afford and take any tool anyone would give me. My wife bought me dollar store tools for our first Christmas seeing we were newly weds and had little money as most new couples do but it didn't matter because I wanted to use those tools. My dad would give me a hard time every time I'd pull out my dopey little tool box with my dinky tools out but I was so proud of my tools I'd just laugh and use them. Most of the time they'd brake right off the bat and my dad would bring me one of his old ones next time he'd come around.
My wife and I lived in an apartment for a little over a year before we bought our first home and in that year I gathered a lot of miss matched hammered tools but they had character and I knew no one would steal them. I think my Philips screw driver had a flower print on the handle when we moved into our home. Well with our new home came a nice two car garage and my inner desire to have a small tool shop so I could be a do-it-yourself home repair man. So I'd ask for tools for any holiday, anniversary, birthday, and special occasion that called for gift giving. I'd like to say I got all my tools at once but that is not the case. Heck I still ask for tools at every moment I can. But I did get my little tool space and its grown so nicely since.
I will leave you with one last story because I think it helped fuel my ambition to build up my tool collection. It's a two part so bear with me. Growing up my granddad had a very nice wood shop that I always thought was amazing and I always wanted one when I got older so I could be like him. Well once I started my tiny table shop in the corner I wanted to start with getting woodworking tools. So after we moved into our home I jokingly asked my mother in law for a wood lathe for Christmas totally thinking this was out of the question but I did have the plans of getting one after with my Christmas bonus. Well on that Christmas we went to her house to do gift giving at which I wasn't receiving very many gifts. I assumed it was because she didn't like me so I was going to take this as a definite sign. Well towards the end she told her sons to go down stairs and get my gift and bring it up. When they sat that beast of a gift on my 110lb body I was shocked she got me something so heavy. Now imagine my shock when I opened it and not only did she get me a wood lathe but a top of the line wood lathe. I think that was the second time I almost cried at Christmas. That one gift though started a very large spark to get more tools and make more things.
This is where I leave this for now. I hope I didn't bore you to much I am known to ramble so you will be reading a lot of all over the place blogs. Hope you enjoyed.
-Cheers-
.JPG)
I've had a lot of fun with this girl. I'm not going to go into to much here I'll wait till I get to my lathe post but we've had good adventures playing around on this.
