Morning Wood – I've Missed Ya

As I discussed last week, the previous weekend, I was home for my 25 year high school class reunion.  I slept Saturday night in my parents' house.  They moved off the farm and out of my childhood home about a year and a half ago.  They moved into town, and into my grandparents old house (both grandparents had passed on, that's why the house was open.)  So, there's a room there in the basement that is sort of "my room" since I come home the most often of the kids.  It's got the bedroom set from my childhood room (a nice old queen size bed and tall boy dresser).  So waking up in there can be a little "Twilight Zone"esque first thing in the morning, until I get my bearings.

Sunday morning, I woke up, and was greeted with by the sight of some serious morning wood.  Ah, old friend it's been a while, but there you were, thick tall, tapering from the base, until bulking out at the top.  A nice honey colored glow about ya.  Standing tall and proud.

Impressive, and you weren't even turned on.

We are talking the lamp I made in shop class my sophomore year, right?

That was the year that I tried to do the normal stuff for guys in my school.  A semester of small engines split between one quarter of class room and one quarter of shop, and a semester of industrial arts split between a quarter of drafting and a quarter in the shop.  I'm MUCH better in the classroom than I am in the shop. 

While most of the guys in the shop class made their lamps out of glued together bits of pine so soft, you could probably whittle the lamp as fast as you could turn it on a lathe.  Me?  Nope, I did things the HARD way.  We had some wood from an old barn we tore down.  So I used a 3 foot  by 8 inch chunk of old growth oak barn beam.  For those of you unfamiliar with different types of wood, oak is a "H.A.R.D." wood.  (Heavy And Really Dense).

I spent a week "rounding" it down on a table saw.  Okay, I knocked the corners down enough so it would spin on the lathe.  Please note, I should be dead.  An unbalanced chunk of solid oak spinning at 957 RPMs, and a novice trying to turn it down?  Are you serious?  It only flew off the lathe while at speed once.  It may or may not have been related to these stains on the back side of the lamp?

Anyone?  Cowguy?  Those are rust stains.  Rust?  From what?  Old rust nails that I found "the hard way".  Now-a-days, I'm sure you'd use some kind of metal detector or something when working with reclaimed wood. 

SISSIES!

I have no idea what grade I got in the class, but I should have got an A+ for simply not maiming myself or anybody else.

We recently rewired the lamp and it works as good as ever.

This post was inspired by two recent posts by Cowguy.  [THIS one and THAT one].

Speaking of "inspiring,"  this little YouTube nugget inspired me to click "buy it now".