One time tools.

Tools and skill are two different things. I am getting the Clear Spring School woodshop ready for next week's ESSA box making class and have been painting guitars. We have a very large sow and 8 or 9 piglets hanging around the feral hog trap, but the sow refuses to go inside. The feral hogs are smart, and the trap, once its danger is understood does not work. The mother pig stands outside and lets her piglets go in and out through openings in the wire while she tries to put her nose under the edge.

In other words, our feral hog trap could be called a "one-time tool," but that name is already taken. Woodcraft Supply, normally one of my favorite woodworking tool suppliers, is selling "one time tools" with the "one time" referring to their marketing plan of them being available only one time. They've had great success with some of their one-time tools and those are being brought back, not as two-time tools, but under the same brand label. The advertisement email from Woodcraft warns, "This is your last chance." And that's what they said the last time this particular "one time tool" was offered.

The big concern I have with these tools  is that you may actually use them "one time," to see if they work, then put them away in a drawer where they are never found again, except when your wife is arranging your estate sale and the auctioneer asks her, "what's that?"

There is an idea among woodworkers that a vast collection of tools is required. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some tools are required, but some skill also. I suggest extreme caution in buying "one time tools." Some may actually be useful to you but without having first developed some skill, you'll end up with a useless collection of little value and have no sense to discern what will be useful to you and what not.

It seems to be widely noted in the media that Donald Trump is the worst presidential candidate of all time. He says racist things, has no experience in public office, has been married three times, thus providing evidence of huge disturbance and mismanagement in his private life, he claims business success despite 6 or 8 bankruptcies, he is petty and petulant, and he is apparently beloved by nearly 40 percent of the American people. I attempted to explain this phenomenon in an earlier post during an earlier presidential election. Why JP ain't smart. 

You can help Trump get a purple heart of his own here: Help Trump get a purple heart. I think sending Trump to war would be a good idea, as it might remove the glory of it and help him to understand the adverse effects.

Make, fix, create, and extend to others the joy of learning likewise.