Gluing Balsa

Rufus!

Hey, when I started whacking plastic (model cars) in the late 1950's, I instantly saw the value in my dad's insistence on my keeping my first pocket knife razor sharp! IIRC, Dad gave me my first (and only!) pocketknife when I was 10 (even in the mid-1950's, a boy became a man the day he received his first pocketknife). Dad and I had a Saturday nite ritual, wherein we'd sit and sharpen our pocket knives on the oil stones he kept, while we talked about the "affairs of the world", or whatever that might mean to a 10-about 14yr old kid. I still have that penknife (Dad always said that a civilized man carried a small knife, no hog-sticker for him!), which was my modeling knife until I was almost 18.

Art Anderson

Gee, Bill! Most $$ I ever made mowing lawns was for AA Potter, Dean of Engineering at Purdue. From about 11, until I graduated from HS and moved on, I used to drag my lawnmower (yup, mine, not Dad's!) 10 blocks, across the Purdue Campus, generally with my bicycle, to Dean Potter's home, weekly, without fail, and mow his lawn. Not just cut the grass, but groom it, rake it, edge it, he had to have it "just right". If it was particularly hot (Indiana in July can be tropical), Dr. Potter often kicked in an extra dollar for my efforts, and always, his housekeeper would make a sandwich of some kind, and an ice cold tall glass of lemonade or iced tea, once I was done.

Potter was a great old man, Russian immigrant who made out very well, and never gave me a moment's grief, as long as I paid attention to the details of his 1/2 acre lawn, which was banked up about 5' above the sidewalks (Oh, I had to sweep up the walks when done--AND leave nary a bit of debris in the expansion cracks either!). My standard pay for all this? $2, plus the occasional tip. Oh, and when I graduated from HS, and he found out I was starting college, away from home, in summer school, he came to our home, with a graduation card, and the first $50 bill I ever saw, outside of Dad's wallet.

Oh, and the proceeds of this enterprise? Well, at least half the money went to buying cool model car kits!

Art Anderson

in article snipped-for-privacy@mb-m29.aol.com, EmilA1944 at snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote on 12/26/03 2:26 PM:

Great idea. Wish I'd known that 50+ years ago!!

Milton

in article snipped-for-privacy@mb-m29.aol.com, EmilA1944 at snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote on 12/26/03 2:38 PM:

Sounds very familiar. When I was in grade school, the boys were expected to have small pocket knives. During WWII a lot of small country schools barely could afford a teacher so we sure didn't have a pencil sharpener. Our pocket knives were the only pencil sharpener we had and we had to sharpen the girl's pencils since they didn't carry knives. "No pockets" I was told.

I can't remember anyone ever being hurt by a knife and certainly no one was stupid enough to pull one in a fight. No so today, I'm afraid.

At the moment I have my Dad's last knife, a 3 1/2 inch Boker, in my pocket. It's still sharp although it gets used often. Great for opening the mail and packages.

MB

Now THAT'S a...er...hot...idea!

Yeah - I can share in that one, too. My grandfather first introduced me to a pocket knife by showing me how to whittle a propeller out of a popsicle stick sometime around the age of 6; sitting on the porch or the back steps while he was smoking his pipe. Some of my best memories as a kid...

I guess my first real pocket knife was my Cub Scout knife, and then my Boy Scout one...I wish I knew what I did with them now that you've jogged those memories...wouldn't be surprised if my mother has them. I envy you still having yours.

Since those days, I've always carried a Swiss Army knife - one similar in size to my Scout knives - and I keep the blades sharp enough to shave with. Won't leave home without one. And I now collect folding and fixed blade knives of all sorts...no swords, though...yet.

I guess I should have expanded the statement about CA sticking to the plastic wrap. It does, but it is not a problem- the sticking isn't that much. One tug and the wrap comes clear.