Devon Prescott
06-02-2019, 10:27 PM
Saturday I got up very early and starting sorting and organizing. I tackled the various forstner bit boxes - I have a few bits I have bought (project specific or on sale too cheap to pass on) and a large set of my grandfather's bits. Grandpa passed in 2009 at 99 years old.
I was cleaning his bits with a stiff bristled brush when it occurred to me - I have never used those bits. That sawdust was leftover from grandpa.
I started looking closely at his old bits -they are mostly Chinese but decent. Over half of them show what look like some file marks on them from hand sharpening -something that I would not have noticed 10 years ago.
In a way I think keeping his bits separate from mine was a kind of denial that he is gone. Grandpa taught me a lot of what I know about working wood and metal including a love for creating.
I sorted them together with mine all in one drawer finally.
I used one of them later that day to make some bolt clearance holes in a hockey puck (mounting my flex shaft post to my side bench with a rubber puck in between). I ordered some inexpensive Chinese metric bits ($23 for a full set of carbide bits) and I will sort them all together when they arrive.
They are all my bits now and if they are going to get dusty again I will have to do it.
I was cleaning his bits with a stiff bristled brush when it occurred to me - I have never used those bits. That sawdust was leftover from grandpa.
I started looking closely at his old bits -they are mostly Chinese but decent. Over half of them show what look like some file marks on them from hand sharpening -something that I would not have noticed 10 years ago.
In a way I think keeping his bits separate from mine was a kind of denial that he is gone. Grandpa taught me a lot of what I know about working wood and metal including a love for creating.
I sorted them together with mine all in one drawer finally.
I used one of them later that day to make some bolt clearance holes in a hockey puck (mounting my flex shaft post to my side bench with a rubber puck in between). I ordered some inexpensive Chinese metric bits ($23 for a full set of carbide bits) and I will sort them all together when they arrive.
They are all my bits now and if they are going to get dusty again I will have to do it.