Wilson Burnham Guitars

A tool rack gives every tool a place to call home without enclosing it inside a box. Sandor Nagyszalanczy, Setting Up Shop , 2000 A couple of years ago I needed a tool rack in my shop, it was hard to make the time to build what I really wanted, so I cast around on the internet and found this design (click here ) which I adapted. It went together quickly and I used it for several years even though I didn't like the design, the tools kept tipping over in the open rails. You can see the aforementioned tool rack just above the right hand side of the work bench. As I said, it worked. On a recent Saturday I made the time to disassemble the old rack and built what I really wanted from the remains! I laid out all the tools I use on a daily basis onto the old rail board, figured two inch spacing between each tool and then went at the board with a brace and bit. Every tool has it place and I don't have to worry about one falling through an open rail. It's nice t

Here is where it all begins. It is a fine thing to be able to plane square and saw straight but these skills are lost on work that is measured and laid out incorrectly. Aldren A. Watson, Hand Tools, Their Ways and Workings , 1982 I try not to collect hand tools anymore, my tool chests are full to over flowing with wonderful antique tools that I don't necessarily need anymore, but I do have a soft spot for four fold one foot rulers. I picked up this nice Lufkin ruler in Leadville, Colorado, on my birthday, my wife and I were on our way to Crested Butte and Kebler Pass for a short vacation. This ruler was at the Western Hardware Antique Mall , in a case along with a gorgeous Stanley No. 1 plane ($1175) and a few other nice Stanley and Winchester tools. I picked it up so I can use it to measure the thumb to pinky length of potential customers to establish what string length will be best for them. This unmarked one foot four fold ruler belonged to my maternal grandfath

...like the classic Laurel or Bay..., it[Umbellularia californica] has a spicily aromatic and evergreen leaf. Hence the name of Green Baytree, Spicetree and Pepperwood. Donald Culross Peattie, A Natural History of Western Trees , 1950 Just north of Manton, California, on the back way into Shingletown, there is a series of springs that flow out of the volcanic mudflow ridge which are surrounded by pepperwood trees. This grove was a classic grove of the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, no under growth, gray to tan trunks whose bark gave out the same peppery smell of the leaves. It was a good place to stop when I would help my uncle gather cattle because of the luxurious shade. Here we would loosen the cinches on our saddles, lift saddle and saddle blanket off the back of the horse to air out his back some. After we and the horses had a drink of water, we'd cinch up, swing into the saddle and I'd grab some leaves off the tree and crush them under my nose as we rode off. The