GreenBoy
Established Member
Hi sawdust makers!
(Sorry if this seems a bit rude but this is what swimbo calls me - and to be fair with my ability isn't far off the truth!
)
Anyway, as i have had the week off i had some time to go along to the D&M Tool Show at Kempton park on Friday. This was very expensive for me as the wife used the day to go shopping in Cambridge with her mother!
The show is very interesting, especially if like me you have never been before, and the beauty of going on a friday is that i was one of the younger people there as most were retired people. What was most interesting was the knowledge of the visitors of the tools they were looking to buy - they had obviously done their research and were grilling the stand holders on every last function of every power tool imaginable. I genuinely learnt more listening to these other people than the stall holders.
So onto the shame.... I happened to be walking past the Bahco stand during a quite moment, and the stall holder asked me if i would like to try their new Handsaw which is a system of an ergonomic handle with replaceable blades. At first i couldn't see the point, but on reflection i can see it could be useful if you work on site as the multiple blades pack nicely into a small space.
The problem with asking me to try the saw is two fold. First i have limited experience, and to date not aquired a great deal of skill. Second i am left handed.
The Bahco system has a left handed handle, but required the stall owner to retrieve this from a colleague, at volume.
This caused several members of the public to stop and watch. So no pressure there then...
Now for an <excuse>- for those of you who don't go to many exhibitions like me, you take the opportunity to gather lots of catalogues and reading material and this means you end up with several carrier bags of stuff, not to mention any thing you have purchased to deal with. My mistake was not putting this stuff down out of the way but instead put it between my feet to keep it safe... which has the effect of putting you in an unnatural stance for sawing wood - </end>
So, i cut the wood held in the saw stand. Actually cut is possibly too kind - butchered, is possibly more accurate, as this was by far the worst cut i have ever made (Honestly i was already blushing from this and was looking to make another cut to straignten up the timber), and this caused more than one comment from the crowd. (You woodworkers can be such a cruel bunch!)
Give credit where its due the stall holder tried to ignore the result, and was about to go into full salesperson mode, when one of his colleagues piped up and asked me what type of mitre cut i had tried to produce. There was a fair bit of snickering from the crowd at this and i just went red... and left - and no i didnt buy one - i will stick with Irwin's
Apart from this i enjoyed the show including wahtching the editor from one of the woodworking magazines blagging some freebies from one stand - watchout for a possitive review of clamps in a magazine soon.
So last thing thing is this - apart from the obvious of keep practacing, any one know of any evening classes in the east herts / west essex area? I dont want to be in this position when i go back next time...
All the best
GreenBoy
(Sorry if this seems a bit rude but this is what swimbo calls me - and to be fair with my ability isn't far off the truth!
) Anyway, as i have had the week off i had some time to go along to the D&M Tool Show at Kempton park on Friday. This was very expensive for me as the wife used the day to go shopping in Cambridge with her mother!
The show is very interesting, especially if like me you have never been before, and the beauty of going on a friday is that i was one of the younger people there as most were retired people. What was most interesting was the knowledge of the visitors of the tools they were looking to buy - they had obviously done their research and were grilling the stand holders on every last function of every power tool imaginable. I genuinely learnt more listening to these other people than the stall holders.
So onto the shame.... I happened to be walking past the Bahco stand during a quite moment, and the stall holder asked me if i would like to try their new Handsaw which is a system of an ergonomic handle with replaceable blades. At first i couldn't see the point, but on reflection i can see it could be useful if you work on site as the multiple blades pack nicely into a small space.
The problem with asking me to try the saw is two fold. First i have limited experience, and to date not aquired a great deal of skill. Second i am left handed.
The Bahco system has a left handed handle, but required the stall owner to retrieve this from a colleague, at volume.
This caused several members of the public to stop and watch. So no pressure there then...
Now for an <excuse>- for those of you who don't go to many exhibitions like me, you take the opportunity to gather lots of catalogues and reading material and this means you end up with several carrier bags of stuff, not to mention any thing you have purchased to deal with. My mistake was not putting this stuff down out of the way but instead put it between my feet to keep it safe... which has the effect of putting you in an unnatural stance for sawing wood - </end>
So, i cut the wood held in the saw stand. Actually cut is possibly too kind - butchered, is possibly more accurate, as this was by far the worst cut i have ever made (Honestly i was already blushing from this and was looking to make another cut to straignten up the timber), and this caused more than one comment from the crowd. (You woodworkers can be such a cruel bunch!)
Give credit where its due the stall holder tried to ignore the result, and was about to go into full salesperson mode, when one of his colleagues piped up and asked me what type of mitre cut i had tried to produce. There was a fair bit of snickering from the crowd at this and i just went red... and left - and no i didnt buy one - i will stick with Irwin's
Apart from this i enjoyed the show including wahtching the editor from one of the woodworking magazines blagging some freebies from one stand - watchout for a possitive review of clamps in a magazine soon.
So last thing thing is this - apart from the obvious of keep practacing, any one know of any evening classes in the east herts / west essex area? I dont want to be in this position when i go back next time...
All the best
GreenBoy
