Hey guys. I’ve been lurking around here for a year or so but I never post much because my work is nowhere near the level of what many of the guys here are doing. However, I had an experience this weekend that taught me a valuable lesson and I wanted to share it here.
I woke up Saturday morning with one goal in mind. I wanted to finish a couple of sheaths I had been working on. All I needed to do was stitch them, add a couple of rivets, and burnish the edges. Piece of cake.
I started on the first sheath and nothing was going right. Even threading the needles was a struggle. Progress was slow and twice I snagged the thread on a bolt on my stitching pony and pulled the needle loose. I finally finished stitching the first sheath and went to set a rivet. I was rushing and not paying attention when I cranked down on the arbor press and squished the leather. Only then did I realize that I had put the rivet in from the wrong side. I hoped to salvage it by drilling out the rivet but that just made a bigger mess of things. By now I accepted the fact that I was going to have to start over. I was debating whether to go on with stitching the second sheath or to start re-cutting the first one.
Then it hit me….STOP. Just stop. Know when you’re beat and move on. I dropped my tools and walked away. Went upstairs, turned on the TV, and just sat there. Fixed some lunch, walked around the yard, and just cleared the mind. A few hours later I was back in the shop feeling like a new man, cutting and gluing, and everything was fine.
So there it is. We’re all going to have those days where nothing goes right. Sometime you can forge ahead and get thru it but sometimes you can’t. Learn to recognize those times and don’t fight it. Cut your losses and move on. It’s not an earth-shattering concept but one that can be difficult to accept, especially if you had an upbringing like mine where any problem can be overcome with enough hard work.
Anyway, that’s it. I just thought I would share and maybe help keep someone else from beating their head against a wall needlessly. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Best of luck.
Brian
I woke up Saturday morning with one goal in mind. I wanted to finish a couple of sheaths I had been working on. All I needed to do was stitch them, add a couple of rivets, and burnish the edges. Piece of cake.
I started on the first sheath and nothing was going right. Even threading the needles was a struggle. Progress was slow and twice I snagged the thread on a bolt on my stitching pony and pulled the needle loose. I finally finished stitching the first sheath and went to set a rivet. I was rushing and not paying attention when I cranked down on the arbor press and squished the leather. Only then did I realize that I had put the rivet in from the wrong side. I hoped to salvage it by drilling out the rivet but that just made a bigger mess of things. By now I accepted the fact that I was going to have to start over. I was debating whether to go on with stitching the second sheath or to start re-cutting the first one.
Then it hit me….STOP. Just stop. Know when you’re beat and move on. I dropped my tools and walked away. Went upstairs, turned on the TV, and just sat there. Fixed some lunch, walked around the yard, and just cleared the mind. A few hours later I was back in the shop feeling like a new man, cutting and gluing, and everything was fine.
So there it is. We’re all going to have those days where nothing goes right. Sometime you can forge ahead and get thru it but sometimes you can’t. Learn to recognize those times and don’t fight it. Cut your losses and move on. It’s not an earth-shattering concept but one that can be difficult to accept, especially if you had an upbringing like mine where any problem can be overcome with enough hard work.
Anyway, that’s it. I just thought I would share and maybe help keep someone else from beating their head against a wall needlessly. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Best of luck.
Brian
