|
Safety first
In the photos, you can see three tool rolls, two made of leather and one of canvas. I have another made of nylon or some synthetic material with rasps, files and a couple of other tools in it.
The rolls contain, in order: 1. Large wood chisels and gouges for wood that I'm currently not using for lack of space for medium to large-scale work. 2. Wood chisels for use with plaster and other non-wood materials. 3. Wood chisels and gouges for wood and linoleum only.
I'm moving the wood chisels and gouges in the canvas roll, which are what I'm using most at the present time, to the leather roll where the large ones are now and moving these to the canvas roll. I also plan to replace the non-leather rolls with leather ones at the earliest possible date.
The reason is that the other day, I hadn't noticed that a chisel had cut through the canvas. When I picked up the roll, it made a rather deep cut in my hand. It was razor sharp and the cut was quite clean, although painful, and the wound healed quickly. I tried to think of it as a tribute to my sharpening skills but I would still rather not repeat the experience.
I don't mean to sound preachy, but if this keeps anyone else from slicing open his or her hand, it was worth it.
I think it's always worth noting that workshop safety must always the absolute top priority. I regret that I did not start out knowing this and unfortunately, in my experience, not all employers share this opinion and some of the things I see on YouTube videos make my hair stand on end (well, not literally).
One of the reasons I post here is to try to encourage others to try some of the techniques I'm demonstrating. It's not rocket science, after all. And while none of it is as potentially dangerous as welding, glass-blowing or casting in bronze, it is possible to hurt oneself, for instance by touching something you've heated up with the hot air gun (done that) or banging your left hand with a hammer (done that) or dropping a bag of plaster on your foot (haven't done that). So, end of sermon.
|