Weekend Update

This weekend the woodworking show was in our area.  My son had mentioned he wanted to go so we got up bright and early to drive across town to get there.  Show was interesting, saw a few things I had not seen before and stocked up on a few items I was short on, Bandsaw Blades for one.

My son however had a great time and ended up walking away with a few things himself.

The reindeer came from the Carter Bandsaw guys, the squirrell puzzle came from the DFW scrollers group, the aztec calendars came from the Epilog guys and the (2) Pen Blanks came from Craft Supplies USA, the woodturners Catalog.  The last one being the key one here.  We were looking in their booth at a few different things and my son brings over a couple of pen blanks and tells me he really likes them and wants to turn them.  We work our way over to the register to pay.  The guy who helped us asked my son if he was going to turn these himself, which he answered yes, because he will.  I confirmed they would be for him to do and not for me.  The guy continued to ring us up and then provided us with a receipt for 0.00.  Told us to send a picture of the pens to his boss when they are done, which I gladly told him we would.

Not that the pen blanks would have been expensive at all, but I was very appreciate of the generosity of the company.  As I have mentioned before, I was looking for someplace new to purchase pen supplies from as my last vendor has done me wrong too many times, we will definitely be buying our stuff from here now.

that brings me to another thing, somewhat off subject, but I was surprised that this little exhibition hall in Mesquite texas was packed with people, some of the aisles were too crowded to get down, and yet there may have been 2 or 3 other people there my age.  There were a couple of people there with small kids but no one with kids my son's age.  Has woodworking become a retiree hobby?  Or is it that too many younger people dont have any interest in it?

And back to the real world.  After leaving the woodworking show we stopped at wood world in Dallas on our way back home so I could buy some 8/4 maple for the secret project.  Selection was somewhat down this time, but they still had what I needed.

and continuing on with the secret project, I worked this weekend and got all the 4/4 pieces rough cut on the bandsaw and have most of the 8/4 pieces cut.  I have the three largest pieces left to do.  It rained most of the weekend so no work was done on the bricklaying project although I have the supplies and tools and am ready as soon as the weather cooperates.

DD