Happy Holidays 2023

It is the morning of Christmas eve 2023 and I am in my workshop-cum-office enjoying a warm cup of coffee and Haunted bookshop in my Boswell Bing’s Favorite. It is a cool 41 degrees F and the outside world is still wet from some rain that passed through late last night. Hardly an idyllic Christmas scene out there, but at least it is warm and cozy in the shop

The year has gone by quickly, too quickly in fact, As I prepared to write this morning I looked over last year’s holiday post and realized that many of the things I had planned to write about actually happened in 2022. It is strange how our sense of time can be distorted. I would have wagered that I made at least 2 pipes this year,but in reality all of my pipe making occurred in 2022. My day job has been much more stressful this year than it has in a long time, and I guess that combined with all the other things life throws at you have led this to be a very fleeting year. Time doesn’t only fly when you are having fun, it certainly doesn’t slow much when you are facing a deadline.

Despite that, I actually manged 2 blog posts this year. I know that is not really something to be proud of, but I do try. I don’t see the point of writing just to generate content. This blog was never intended to be a social media phenomenon. It is simply a way for me to document some of the things I do and share that with a few of you that might care. But I will say that getting a comment now and then really makes it all worthwhile. So please feel free to just say hello anytime. You will make my day. The post on making a set of french wheels did very well (by my blog’s standards) and the cheap chisel post got far less attention than I expected. But it was fun documenting the process for both of those efforts. And the french wheels have worked so well that I made a few 5 inch versions, so I count that as a success.

In the shop, I have been spending a lot of time on non-pipe related stuff, but in many cases I have been building skills that will make me a better pipe maker (and I will make more in time). We had a mulberry tree taken down on our property, and with the help of my friend Eric I used the mulberry logs to learn about green wood turning and turned some bowls.

Mostly rough shaped to dry for a year or so before finishing, but I even managed to turn a live edge bowl of sorts.

And I made a few tampers…more than I really need, but they are a fun way to use up small pieces of wood. Below from left to right we have cherry, white oak,ebonized cherry (that surprised me) mulberry, ebonized white oak, cherry, bocote, and cherry (I have a lot of cherry). The bocote is a beautiful wood, but I am highly allergic to it and it took almost 2 weeks for all the itchy hives and blisters on my arms to go away. I knew this from previous experience, but thought the blank was cocobolo. The 2 woods look very similar when oxidized over time. So no more bocote for me.

And my darling wife got the idea that I should make wooden spatulas for the whole family. I turned out the 5 in the picture below in about 3 days. That is a marathon by my standards, and I still have to make 4 more before the new year.

I enjoy doing this work, and obviously there is only so many tampers and wooden spatulas a man can use. I still have my website, and I am not going to be doing pipe repair work anytime soon, so I have thought about the possibility of offering things like this for sale. I don’t know what sort of interest there wold be in tampers, wooden ashtrays, (spatulas and spoons??) but I may give it a try later in the new year. Let me know if you think that is a good idea or just an annoying waste of time.

On the personal side, the family is well, although there have been health scare on both sides of the extended family. My wife lost her aunt Evelyn who lived to a good age and is now at peace with her husband. And I had a weird existential moment when I discovered that a high school friend, someone I knew so well that I was the best man at his wedding, had passed away. The really sad and strange part about this is that we had lost touch and grown apart a long time ago, and he actually died a long time ago at a very young age. No one knew to contact me, and I just found out about it. It is strange because I would think of him on occasion and considered trying to look him up. I never did and I regret that. Lesson learned. Life is fleeting, keep close to those you love.

So as we celebrate the Christmas season and look forward to the promise of a new year, I want to wish you and yours peace, health, and happiness in the new year and all the best wishes for a very Merry Christmas.