Just to break the monotony.

You know,  cutting open boxes,  stacking up the paper to be used later by Daughter Number Two and son-in-law.  Wandering around the house with some item or other in my hand wondering where it should go. That kind of monotony.

It’s all fine and dandy to say opening moving boxes is “just like Christmas”,  but it turns out it’s well… not.

Like that’s a surprise.

It just so happens that a company that I know and love (hey, my customer number ends in ‘86,  so that’s how long I’ve been coveting their wares) had free shipping this week,  so I thought I’d break out the gift certificates.

Every year at Christmas,  I end up up with a certain amount of gift certificates from Lee Valley.  My kind of Christmas gift.  Really.  I have plenty of socks,  not to mention most any other type of clothing imaginable. Probably enough to last me ‘til the end of my days.

 

*hint*

Anyone not sure what to get me for Father’s Day or my birthday?   Right.  You can even order them on line…

 

I do tend to hoard them just a wee bit,  but every so often I see fit to treat myself to a ‘Christmas present’. 

 

I was really tempted to buy some tool or other when I was over in Europe.  Just to,  you know,  say I bought something there?  The only thing with that is,  Lee Valley seems to import most of the good tools that one can find in Europe,  and although we cringe at the HST here in Canada,  it turns out that the VAT in Europe is even higher.  Most often it hovers around 19%.  They very cleverly build it into the amount you pay,  so you’re only aware of it once you take a closer look at your receipt,  but when it comes right down to it,  this little gem that was delivered today is actually cheaper here in Canada than in the same country that it’s made.  Crazy.

Some of you probably haven’t been hanging around long enough to remember that I actually went to the factory where they make these hand planes,  back in November of 2008.

It just so happened that Travelling Companion had a meeting in Bonn,  and I had sniffed out the location of the factory where they are made in Remscheid, Germany.

Even though it was a Friday and there wasn’t much going on,  or maybe because of it,  the owner took me on a little tour of the whole production.  It was awesome.

I won’t bore you with recounting that whole thing, but you can read a little about the history of their factory here.

 

 

They make sure to put the name on the outside of the box,  just to add to the excitement.

 

Oh here,  let me turn that around for you.

 

Those of you who may be a little more familiar with German will have noticed that they didn’t exactly translate from one side to the other?   The German says something about “Hand plane adjustable without a hammer”,  and “The joy of good tools”.   Dat ain’t wat the English sez.  Sometimes it’s not a bad idea to speak a second (or third) language.  Even if you’re just a woodworker.

And here it is.

Kinda sweet,  huh? 

 

OK, so maybe I’m the only one who gets a little giddy when I pick up one of these things.  Fine.  I’ll go away now.

 

Not much doing today.  Still unseasonably cold here in the Great White North.  Supposed to go a few degrees above the freezing mark on the weekend.  Oh goodie.  To think that last year at this time they had record high temps.  (like 23°C.)  HOWEVER,  this is actually more like what spring conditions are supposed to be.  We want apples.  We want maple syrup.  When it’s too warm,  *things* get screwed up.  I can live with it.  Really.  All the plants start growing too soon,  and that’s bad. 

And that I’m afraid,  is the extent of my agricultural know how.

 

Have a fine weekend.

 

Thanks for lookin’.

 

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