I had an interesting experience this week. A grandson’s birthday is coming up and “grandma” decided that carpentry tools would be just the right thing for his seventy birthday. I agree, early exposure to basic tools provides a “leg up” for the rest of your life. Of course, that was just the start of the project, she also suggested that I built a tool box! Not just any old tool box, but an old fashioned carpenter tool box – the kind with an open bin, and a long handle over the top.

When I was a carpenter many years ago in the “way back time” – I used a similar box to carry my tools with me during the day. This was before the time of those fifty pound “nail belts” that carpenters lug around these days.

That sounded like a fun project, so I accepted it as a task. However, when I went to my shop and tried to find appropriate wood for the project, I realized that perhaps I had used up most of the scrap wood that I have been saving for a use such as this. Over the years I have been saving aside wood and things for the future when I would find a need for them. It mostly looks like junk, but when I resurrect something that was to be thrown away for a new project, that is part of the fun for me.

In this case I came up blank. However there were some old shelves that I had saved from my wife’s cabin near Lake Tahoe. Her grandfather and father made the cabin around 1925, and it was the family get away for years. My wife inherited the cabin, but a landslide caused us to tear it down and give the land back to the forest service. While tearing it down, I saved a few pieces of wood and some windows that looked like they might have a future life. I found three old, heavily painted, warped boards from that cabin. I don’t know why I didn’t toss them – they were pretty ugly and useless looking. But… one was the right size to make into the tool carrier.

I decided to see if I could save it, so I cut it into size and planed the wood to get rid of the ugly paint, and get something closer to the thickness that I wanted to use.

What a surprise!!! The wood is Douglas Fir, over 100 years old, and perfect! I have never seen wood that is so beautiful. It is beautiful in all ways. The grain is straight and tight, perfect – no knots, no sap, no nothing wrong – just perfect. The smell is awesome! There is something magical about fresh cut Doug fir that always smells just right. It is light, strong, perfect!

The wood is so great that I became really intimidated to do anything with it. It felt like a huge honor to just be able to see it, touch it, and smell it. Not just wood – but magical, old and mystical wood. Really – I know this sounds silly, but that is the way I felt. So that really put the pressure on to make a “perfect” box – just to honor the wood.

Of course, I didn’t manage to make a perfect box – I made a box that represents my personal skills. It is “okay”, better than amateur, but far from “perfect” in any way. But it is still a magical box for me – I just hope I didn’t dishonor the wood too much.

I have two days to finish the project, I think I can accomplish that. I wonder if my grandson will feel the energy of this box, or if it will just be another “thing”. That doesn’t really matter much – it is special to me. Not the box – that is a simple thing not particularly well done. But the wood, my God, what a special thing. I realize that almost no one will understand what I mean, you can’t until you have spent perhaps hundreds of hours caressing, smelling and listening to wood at this stage of a project. I have done that, and this is really something special.