The Light Lens: Time travels

by T. Touris –

My New Year’s resolution is to build my time traveling skills. Last month I grabbed my old 1920’s vintage Stanley No. 4 time machine/hand plane and began making wood shavings. Instantly I was transported back to my teen years when I found this simple tool in a small collection that used to belong to my grandfather. That’s when I learned how patience and a sharp blade could transform wood.

A tool tote recently found in my father’s basement sent me back to the 1930’s. Inscribed with the name Brunn and Co., I learned that my grandfather had carried that tote to go work at the Pierce Arrow Car Company in Buffalo. He probably carried the trusty Stanley No. 4 in it to help create finely crafted custom wood interiors.

Over the past month I’ve been putting the old No. 4 to use hogging out thick shavings to level out a new workbench top that’s going to send me back to the eighteenth century. The bench design is from a French dude named André Roubo, who created an amazing record of woodworking during that period. I’ll be using him as a guide for future explorations of the past.

I’m not sure where my travels will take me next. There are some cool Roman workbench designs that look interesting. Anyone have a toga I could borrow?