# Just thinkin back.



## Swallow (Jan 13, 2010)

After reading some of the posts about safety in the woodshop it brought back memories, some good and some not so much. My first job was working for my Grandfather in his Pattern shop, I started there when I was twelve part time and worked there until I left to go to university. Now I don’t know how many of you know exactly what a pattern shop is but it’s not a place where they make dresses. No Siree it’s a place where foundry patterns are made and as most of our work was done for the oil industry and large metal working machinery manufacturers some of these patterns can be massive and as a consequence many of the tools used are also huge. I mean this ain’t a place where one finds tools from wally world, I’m talking band saws with 48” wheels, disk sanders with 48” disks that ran from start to end of shift simply because the spinup and spindown time took to long, 12”jointers with 9 foot beds, massive 14”Oliver table saws, huge wood mills and massive pattern lathes twelve feet point to point. Plus all of the assorted metal working equipment like large mills, shapers and lathes Any one of these tools would not simply injure a careless worker but would just as soon kill him outright. It was a fascinating place for a kid.

And oh the wood, lift after lift of Honduran Mahogany, and white pine number one pattern makers select, full ten quarter stock, twenty two feet long, no checks ,no splits and no knots otherwise known as a perfect plank. It would come in by the flat deck truckload, but I imagine that those days are long gone. And then there was the smell of the hide glue pot that someone had left on the stove overnight and it had cooked out and burnt. It is a stink that is not soon forgotten. What a difference forty some odd years makes Huh?

But back to the subject of safety, anytime someone new would start working in the shop my Granddad would wait until the newbie would be working at the band saw be it large or small. He would then tell the new guy that he needed a favor and would give him twenty dollars and send him down to the local butcher shop which was just down the street and tell him to tell the butcher to cut up some fresh pork chops the way that he liked them cut. The butcher was a good friend of the family and the story was always the same.

The newbie would order the chops and tell him who they were for and then the butcher would take out a rack of pork from the cooler invite the newbie to the back of the shop, set the band saw fence at about 1/8” and then proceed to slice the rack of pork into bacon chops really fast. After the newbie returned to the shop with said pork chops my Granddad would open the package and ask if they had had a good chat (well yeah) and whether the butcher had invited him back of the counter (well yeah) and whether or not he had watched what the butcher had done with the chops? (well yeah) Then my Granddad would lean real close to the newbie and say “that’s good, THAT’S REALLY GOOD because now you know just how Easily that band saw will cut MEAT and BONE”. The looks on their faces were always priceless, then my Granddad would call in the shop cats and feed them the chops. He always said it was the cheapest lesson to teach. The rest of the pattern makers would just smile, they had in their time all visited the butcher shop as did I and even today when I fire up a band saw or any other power tool I still remember those words.

Sadly the large pattern tooling shops are all but a thing of the past and pattern makers are a fast dying breed. But after a lifetime of working in a Lab I’m getting back into woodwork, as I have my log house to finish here goes Nuthin. So far retirements a hoot. And remember people it is the digital age so lets all keep our digits. OK


----------



## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

Great story swallow!!!


----------



## DerekO (Jan 20, 2010)

Your granddad was a smart man.


----------



## Swallow (Jan 13, 2010)

Thank you Derek, he was that and more, my Granddad died at 104 years of age and worked till he was 97. He must have had something going for him HUH.


----------



## Swallow (Jan 13, 2010)

Thank yuh Bill


----------



## oldbilbo (Nov 10, 2008)

Thanks for sharing that, Swallow. I can almost smell the timber here tonight....

:yes2:

#8


----------



## CanuckGal (Nov 26, 2008)

Great story! Thanks for sharing!


----------



## papawd (Jan 5, 2011)

Really good story, it reminds me of things my grandpa (papaw) used to tell me and now I am a Papaw (grandpa) try to tell my grandkids good life stories / lessons


----------



## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Great Story. Wish I could have been there with you.


----------



## OPG3 (Jan 9, 2011)

Cool story Swallow, Not related to shop safety but that reminds me of the time about forty years ago that my father-in-law told me he was going to go to his shop and drill some square holes. I laughed and said "Yeah right", or something to that effect. He said, "I'm not kidding - I am going to drill some square holes". Well, we still laugh about our bet (of a steak dinner), he said, "You want to bet me I can't drill square holes?" I said "of course - how stupid do you think I am?" That is the day I met the hollow-chisel mortising machine. To this day, I cannot cut a mortise without remembering him ordering the most expensive steak on the menu - at my expense. *OPG3*


----------

