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Snips... ;-)I think I found something...Reminds me of one of my early students....
Back when I was starting out teaching, and what we now call "oldtools" were known as "junk", I made a point of requiring my students to "buy" the tools they needed as the need came up. I always kept a collection of good user grade "spares" floating around, and the students would usually buy out of my stock. One of my students happened to be on the shop on the day that I made a major score that resulted in my upgrading almost all of my "decent" user chisels to a complete (even larger than I had at the time) set of "Really Good Chisels". She (the student) watched me unpack and hone the new set, and pretty much stopped working. We played around with the new chisels for a while, and I pointed out to her that she had a long way to go on her project. At the time, she was still working out of the "public" set of chisels I kept in the shop (which meant that she had to at least hone them before each use, as they just didn't get the care they should have). She went back to work, but kept wandering back to where I was working for this or that. Eventually she asked what I was going to do with my "old" set of chisels because she figured that she was about at the point where she should be getting her own set (she was), and since I had that old set, and it was all matched and complete and all, it would be a lot easier than picking through the bin of "spares". Besides, if she got stuff out of the "spares", they'd need to be re-habbed before she could use them, and she was already pretty good at fixing buggered up chisels (she was). Problem was that even though they weren't a top-notch set of chisels, they were worth a lot more than the standard set the students would pull out of the spares, and I knew that she couldn't afford to pay a fraction of what my "old" set was worth. I just didn't pay my students (OK, these days apprentice is probably a better word) that much (now they pay me, so I guess now they really are students...). I told her I'd think on it and get back to her. I ended up giving her the set of chisels for about what a comparable "spare" set would have cost. Why? Because I was never going to use them again, she would (probably for a long time), and she was one of my better workers. I wonder if she ever realized what a bargain she got. I know that she moved on to work in a custom cabinet shop, and ended moving away to get married. Last I heard she was still doing custom work, on her own, but that was about 20 years ago...... Sometimes its better to let things go to where they'll really be appreciated than letting them go to someplace that will give you a good cash Return on Investment.... James DuPrie |
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