Flashback Friday # 181

Yep, That's My Saw

Hello. It's so nice of you to make room in your busy schedule to drop in. Pardon me while I tidy the place up a bit. There's saw dust everywhere.

Why is there saw dust everywhere? I'll tel you why. In my last installment of Flashback Friday, I told you about working as a finish carpenter. We cut a lot of wood while making floors, stairs, banisters & trim. You need a good saw to do that. How would you know which saw is yours if you are working with other carpenters? You could do something plain like writing your name on it, however, Dad had a distinct way of knowing which saw was his.

Dad worked fast. We got paid by the job, not by the hour. There was no dilly-dallying around him. There was a problem with that, he wasn't always careful. I'm not talking safety careful, because he was extremely careful regarding safely handling the equipment. My first day, he took my hands in his and held my fingers up for me to see. "Be very careful.", he said. "There cannot be replaced". Long time readers know that his father lost his fingers in a farming accident.

The way Dad wasn't careful was that he didn't always check to see what was under the wood he was cutting. I heard the buzz of the saw and then here a loud "zing" and then the saw would get quiet. He had a habit of cutting the cords off his saws. He'd cuss, then get the black electrical tape and put the cord back together and commence cutting. I lost track of how many saws he had done that to.

Once, he even cut the cord off of an electric miter saw. He was cutting lots of pieces of trim the same size. The set the stop and proceeded to cut those pieces like a sawmill. Grab, cut& move down. Grab, cut & move down. Once he grabbed the cord with the trim and had cut through it before he had realized what he had done. His buddy didn't let him live that one down for a long time.