New Years Resolutions

I’m not one for New Years resolutions. They seem like something that people put off too long and the gimmick of giving them a tag makes them seem novel.

Losing Weight Would be Smart

Lots of people would like to lose weight. This year may be a good year for me to do it, too. Not for any imminent reasons, but 50 is a few years away and I see enough to know that it’s more beneficial to do it earlier in life and not later.

Quitting Forums and Commenting in Pointless Blogs

I also intend to stay off of the forums, or at least mostly do it going forward. For me, forums are always kind of an illusion of potential. There’s potential to push the discussion forward and somehow have that become a collection of useful information. But it never happens. Forums were really created as a medium for advertising, an offshoot to another business (think Woodnet as a forum created by a publisher, or Knots on Fine Woodworking), or whatever else.

The dynamics aren’t there for them to become an organized and efficient discussion of anything other than new beginners, people who have progressed from beginner to beginner over 15 years and the businesses that rely on finding a continuous stream of wide-eyed folks intent settling in to imagining woodworking for a long time.

The potential isn’t there. If you’ve ever frequented the UK forum for example, there’s a group of relatively well adjusted folks, but the discussion goes nowhere. And there are some cracks, and in my opinion, one fraud – in my opinion – who probably never really has done much hand woodworking, but has been there for as long as I can remember. Paul Sellers would win an election for parliament among them if parliament were to be filled only with fine workers. And that’s appalling.

But one has to think a little harder, and many are smarter than me – what’s the conversion rate of someone coming in and getting good advice, and actually intending to use it. It’s just too low to bother, and the minority of really fine posters who used to frequent forums 10+ years ago – they’re gone. Moderation on forums isn’t there to try to boost the level of discussion – it’s counterproductive.

I’d love it if there was some kind of setup where the George Wilsons and Peter Ross’s of the worlds could kind of command and curate an area of expertise, where the questions and fine guidance sort of filtered up into an organized area of information, but it’s not to be. That would be a business nightmare, anyway, as those folks would talk about what to make, not what to buy.

And I wouldn’t get into discussions chiding a retailer for selling a $95 diamond hone with really insulting marketing or ad copy that looks to be a $6-$11 per unit Chinese stone. That would be good. But it’s that enormous margin, and the “everyone wins except the person looking for advice, they just don’t know it yet” that makes them go.

Spending on the Materials – the Making

There’s a point where you get into hobbies of woodworking, instrument making or tool making, where just trying to progress and purchase the things you need is daunting….

……and then you get to the point where you do one of two things, or both:

One is tool upgrades. This is something manufacturers do. Makers get to a point very quickly where this isn’t a limitation.

The other is buying expensive materials.

There’s no way around the fact that if you start making nicer things, you’re going to be buying materials. In some cases, you need to have them on hand for a while before using them. Exotic wood is a good example. Even that which is advertised as dry and aged doesn’t pass the lip test (damp wood is cooler than everything else when you take it out of packaging), or the weight/shrink test.

If you want to make nice things, I think it’s probably more useful to find and source good materials than it is to constantly ponder tools.

I don’t need more tools, and what I do need from time to time, I’ve learned that making is better than buying. Buying is expedient – “ah, I solved the problem”. The result can be mediocrity or just tying up household money for no reason. I don’t really even need more materials right now, but sometimes the consumption of belts and bar stock steel is pretty high.

Without the illusion of continuing to upgrade tools, or the fear of having lots of stuff and not measuring up to its potential, I feel more comfortable just spending the money.

I’ve long thought having a dewar of liquid nitrogen would be nice. I suppose the dewar is a tool, but why i don’t have one is an indication of past habits. They’re not expensive used. However, tou get the dewar, and the consumable that goes in it isn’t free and has a fairly short life span. It is something that would improve my stainless knives by improving terminal hardness, and it would add some crispness to my carbon steel tools. So rather than dream about $3000 belt grinders, electric furnaces, and $2000 anvils, I’m getting the dewar.

And when I want bar stock for a project, no more screwing around trying to save $2 per tool on something a little cheaper.

Reflecting

I’ve done a lot of reflecting on what making will mean going forward. If I can’t get into the shop three or four times a week, I am unhappier even than the forum version of me who wishes that the TOS would allow someone to tell Facob to take a hike, or to just blast the people on the forums who offer nothing in terms of making, but are quick to spend a whole post telling someone they spelled an irrelevant word wrong.

I’m getting older, and I guess over the next several decades, will start the decline – or continue it – of decreasing limberness, eyesight, patience, ability to absorb new things, and who knows – I could lose my parents early or have a spouse who decides she’s had enough of the husband who makes a *whole lot of dirt*.

There’s no grand plan, just refinement to finally break some of the stupid habits that I’ve had that are controllable. and I won’t say I “wanted” to do them earlier. Maybe I’ll make a post about “want” at a future time as one of the permanent tattoos on my brain came from an older female coworker of mine who let me know about using the word want, and how it’s a word for losers unless “want” is paired with what you are doing everything you need to do to …well, do. I haven’t wanted to lose weight, or drop the expedient entertainment of the forums or maybe really adjust my behavior about keeping things I don’t need or not buying things that I could really use (good materials, with discretion). I want to do those now.

Somewhat heavy on my mind is pondering what it is that we owe each other. Absolute honesty and advice with good intentions, not carrying the water for someone else and above all – doing it without regard to whether something will make me look bad or too direct or whatever else. I think we owe that to each other, and I think we owe to each other putting aside concerns about whether or not it may help this business or that business or not make a group of fans of some guru unhappy.