Magazines

New technology is great, isn’t it? At least while it’s all working as intended, that is. The minute it starts to play up it’s a very different picture indeed… Now, the lucky ones amongst us will have a small child or a random surly teenager knocking about the place. If this is the case, then all is fine and your problems will soon be resolved. I love their fearlessness and seemingly natural intuition to fix almost anything.

Helpless
For a lot of us though, and I count myself among this number, when things go wrong they really go wrong, and they rarely go right *pause* for me (as the song has it). If there’s a way of avoiding the feeling of helplessness that comes with facing a blank screen or encountering the wrong type of connector plug, then we should all be taking it.

Headache free
I think the almost complete lack of unsolvable problems posed by the average woodworker’s kit and tools goes a long way to underlining its continuing popularity. A person in their own workshop is master or mistress of their own domain, and, as I’m sure you all know, that’s a very good feeling indeed. There should be little in our woodworking environments
which give us headaches. There’s nearly always a straightforward solution, often as simple as tweaking an adjustment screw, fitting a new blade or just squirting some oil about the place.

New tricks, new dogs
Yesterday a couple of my college students were fixing up some old hand tools they’d acquired through various means. Despite their lack of basic practical knowledge – sadly the norm with many young people these days – they responded to suggestions with a heart-warming show of vigour and enthusiasm. It was an absolute pleasure to show them various tricks and techniques to repair and improve their kit, and a delight to see their responses when everything worked out as intended. Repairing things is always a very satisfying achievement, whether out of necessity or just because you can. And if it’s something that was heading for the skip – like most of my computer equipment – well, that’s even better.