Homebound adventures (with old tools)

Once the wave of realization that I was grounded and isolated for the forseeable future receded, I realized that my life really wasn't going to change much. I work from home 3 weeks out of 4 (more or less), and my community/family is, for the most part, elsewhere. Sure, I really miss working from coffee shops or pubs for the enjoyment of a different venue. Writing greeting cards from a park is hardly the same! But for the past year, my main means of leaving the house has been on foot, and neighborhood walks are as enjoyable as ever. Figuring out how to replace the exploration stimulus was my bigger worry. Fortunatly, I have a garage of old tools that I'd been planning on working on since... well, I bought the jack plane for $7 at Shipwreck Day in high school. It's been collecting dust and rust since then! 

  Jack plane with its first curlicue shavings! 

The jack plane was already mostly ready to go; a bit of touching up with sandpaper and a morning trying to get by the blade pitting with diamond stones had it cutting perfect curlicues out of basswood. It was really my first time using a plane, and the learning curve was steep... a few smashed and scraped up fingers taught me that my plastic Rubbermaid sawhorse-bench wasn't going to handle the lateral forces (shoving) that comes with smoothing wood!

 With plane, a few chisels, and a saw ready to go, I went dumpster diving. Currently, my main source of lumber is old pallets that I find on Craigslist and chase down with hammer and cat's paw. Luckily, my roommate can fit one in her Prius, so I've even gotten a "bonus pallet" courtesy of her sharp eyes! The result has been a couple of small boxes for organizing my desk and reading table, and the first of a series of tries at some bread knives for friends!

 Still only half-restored but taking beautiful shavings, I also got the old Stanley #5 cutting a few weeks ago. It was just in time to smooth a blocking board that I made for someone in my craft group here. I was amazed at the surface I could get from basic construction 2x6 lumber! Speaking of smoothing, I also found a scraper made from an old saw blade in my bin o' old tools (probably from Uncle George?). Whoever made the scraper preserved the maker's stamp on the saw. C.E. Jennings stopped producing tools in the 1920's, which means that my scraper is likely more than 100 years old!