Recently Joey has been on a quest to restore some of his Grandfather's chisels. This has led to a new appreciation for what it takes to maintain and use the tools. The mediative practice of sharpening the blades all the way through to importance tools have played in our human evolution. This is a slightly deeper conversation around, meaning, purpose and building something.
Recently Joey has been on a quest to restore some of his Grandfather's chisels. This has led to a new appreciation for what it takes to maintain and use the tools. The mediative practice of sharpening the blades all the way through to importance tools have played in our human evolution. This is a slightly deeper conversation around, meaning, purpose and building something.
whatever I want to talk about. Well, I didn't get to ask you last time about the chisels. We kind of did talk about it but you were like no, no, no, let's not talk about it. And I'm interested in this because you are very passionate about this. Yes, and yeah, I wanted people to, you know, like you know, hear my journey, passion, projects and talk. Maybe this has something to do with it.
Speaker 1:You're in a samurai, yeah, so I've, um, I've always been a woodworker at heart, nice, um, loved it at school. Man's work, jesus's work, yeah, just loved it. My, I used to, um, my grandfather used to. You know the when I'd go and stay with, like, my grandparents, my dad, dad's, parents's parents, um, one of the things we do is just go into the garage and just build something. Yeah, you know, and he was a, he was like a, like a rough kind of woodworker, sure, and so we build like a little fucking shelf thing with a drawer in it. You know, and I and I I mean at the time it was, it was cool. You know, it's just like going to the shopping center. That was cool too. Yeah, but I've, I guess it was it. It was very, um, formative, yeah, impactful because I have always loved woodworking, so I loved it at school. It was one of the few things I did well in in my like, year 12, hsc, um, and I also love woodwork, by the way, yeah, and I know right, we talk about it a bit and so, anyways, it's always been something that I've wanted to do more of when we're in.
Speaker 1:When I was in the film industry, I was because I was the truck bitch for a lot of it. I could express a bit of my woodworking passion there, because your job is to like make sure that the truck is housing all of the equipment in the best way possible. So it's like, oh, what can I do here? And you know so I would through those years, I would like invest in tools and, you know, do some shit. Anyway, got to keep the passion alive to some degree while owning a gym Yep, because we build a lot of parts of the gym Jobs to do, yeah, so I bring my tools in and you know that kind of thing. So it's always been there in the background. Since we got our farm, I've been like sick, this is my time, yes, this is my thing, and so I've been sort of on a process of just accumulating tools.
Speaker 1:Now, there's kind of two categories of tools, as I see it. There's the tools that you need to do the practical work. So you know whatever fucking garden tools tractor tools yeah, you know whatever fucking garden tools tractor tools, drill, yeah, you know that sort of shit. But then there's, like the woodworking stuff, that that I have the passion towards, which is like more of the joinery, well, like a nice to have. Yeah, exactly, I don't, I don't need to be cutting dovetails, you know, but I want to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, actually, I sent, actually I sent Joey a. As soon as I saw it, I'm like Joey's going to fucking love this. Like, my partner sends me a lot of memes and stuff on Instagram, but occasionally I'll send Joey something and it is a rounded chair leg, oh yeah, but he, it's got a dovetail. But he turns it, he rotates it into, yeah, and it sits flush, it looks so strong, fucking joint it. Yeah, it sits flush, it looks so strong, fucking hell it's. It's kind of magical too. Yeah, there's something very satisfying about seeing something so precisely done. Oh yeah, it's immense. Yeah, that was, that was unbelievable, um, but so, yeah, so I've, you know, been sort of on this thing, my.
Speaker 1:When my grandfather died years ago like I don 10, 15 years ago I inherited some of his woodworking tools and he had a modest collection of tools, but you know some cool stuff in there and I got some of his old chisels and one of the things that was in there was a honing guide, which when you sharpen chisels you need a honing guide and you don't have to. Before honing guides were invented, people did it by hand hand, but to be precise about it, using waterstones. Honing guide is like the thing and I'd had this sort of sitting in my. I've been carting it around with me for years. I'm going to get to those one day. I'm going to get to those and I can't remember what the, what the catalyst was, but sometime, sort of towards the end of last year, I'm like it's time. Oh, that's what it was.
Speaker 1:My mom gave me a voucher for a japanese tool shop here in sydney uh, how cool, called japanese tools, australia, and she's like you know, it was a christmas criss-crangle thing. She's like there you go, it's like 200 bucks. And I was like holy shit. And I'm like awesome, I, I knew it was. I told her to give it to me. She's like, what do you want? It's meant to be secret, but what do you want? I'm like, just give me a voucher for this shop, gordon Ryan's new introduction on sharpening tools. But so, bro, if you're into that shit, you go to this website. They've got a beautiful JapaneseToolsAustraliacom I think you showed it to me it is. They got beautiful photography and they like I'm blown away. They bring over really nice tools from Japan and they're not that expensive, and I think it's just because, like, craftsmanship in Japan has always been highly revered and so their tools are just generally very good, yeah, and they've just maintained like a beauty and an aesthetic to them and a functionality. And so, even though they like you compare them to like the stanley stuff that you see in bunnings and you're like, look at these fucking chisels are unbelievable they're really not that much more expensive, right? So I think I put it.
Speaker 1:I spent a little bit extra and I was like, oh, what am I going to get? I got a few things, got a saw, got some some you know marking tools, some rulers and stuff, and I was like waterstones. Oh yeah, I gotta learn about this. So I was like, let's get some waterstones. And so then I jumped on youtube and I'm like, how to sharpen chisels? And so I went down this rabbit hole, watched a bunch of different videos and I was like man, this looks fun. And sure enough, they're all using the honing guide. And I'm like I think I have one of those honing guides.
Speaker 1:So I went to the garage, put out fuck, there it is all rusted. So de-rusted it like, brought it back to life, took it apart, oiled it you know wire brush to remove the rust, like. And I'm like man, this is a beautiful little instruments. My grandfathers, fuck yeah. And so I just started working on my chisels, and so I've been. It's taken me a bit of time, but I've been working through them, sort of on sequence. I've done my chisels, haven't done my grandfather's ones yet I think that'll be easy.
Speaker 1:I did my dad's first, actually, okay, and that was real cool because he lives, you know, a couple of hours away. I went and spent a weekend with them last school holidays and I was like dad, we're fucking sharpening your chisels and chisels, and he's like what, I don't fucking use them anyway. I'm like mate, just humor me, trust. And it ended up and my dad's like a resistant guy to just, you know pretty much, you know, I'm guessing similar to yours. Like like if I were to say to him like, oh, mate, let's, let's do something together, let's go get it, he'd be like he'd find a reason not to sure, and it would not be because he doesn't want to spend time, but just be, because it's like that's impractical. You've got better things to do. Why don't I look after your son and you and Misa can go.
Speaker 1:So it was interesting that like I'm like I'm just going to go and do your chisels and I spent like almost a couple of days in his shed doing these chisels, learning how to use the stones, and he would come in and we'd end up like having this like couple of hours together, nice, and I was like this is pretty special, you know, that's cool. So that's the journey. So I've done the chisels, mine and his. I've got my grandfather's ones to do. But before I jump into that, I've started working on the hand plane Right, and so I'm in the middle of restoring one of my grandfather's hand planes, which is an old American made Stanley. Yeah, like round one at the curve bit at the back, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:And they're like you, you'd use the same honing guide to do plain, the plain blades that you would for the chisel blades. Okay, interesting, yeah, I am interested, I have. I have many questions. But it's more.
Speaker 1:I'm wondering how you even secure or hold a plane blade like with a chisel. To me it makes sense because you've got a handle and it's quite long, and but a plane blade, I feel like if you're doing that wrong you could fucking slice yourself up or it would be hard to like manipulate. Well, that's, that's what the guide does. So you know when you like the plane blade, when you pull it out right, it's like a, like a flat plate, yeah, you know. And so the honing guide is it's got a screw on it that opens it out, okay, and so you place the blade in, then you screw it up and the sides kind of clamp in on the edge of the blade and then, based on how far you project the blade out of the honing guide, that determines the angle of the cut, nice, and so the the, the honing guide comes like it's imprinted on the side, um, how far the projection needs to be to meet certain angles, and so generally you're looking for like a 30, 25 to 30 degree angle, okay for your cutting edge and so, um, the way it works is then you've got the honing guide attached and you've got the edge of the blade sitting at the front of it. You just you hold on to the guide and just place the whole unit on your stone. The guide has a little rolling wheel that sits on the stone and then the blade is resting on the front, so you just keep gentle pressure and just go back and forth. Yeah, so it makes it really simple. Oh nice, yeah, perfect, perfect, yeah, okay, that makes a lot more sense.
Speaker 1:I'll, um, I did see the video on your instagram story of you working the chisels on the yeah, on the stone. Did you see how many guys were like, fuck, yeah, like my man, oh, bro, I love that. Like, yeah, you are man. Like it just spoke to so many guys yeah, it's a, it's a dude's thing. I mean, we actually have a lot of, uh, female subscribers for this chat, so they might be like what the fuck is this? Chisel blades, what the fuck? But I mean, maybe not. Maybe there's some ladies out there. They like them. Some chisel blades, what the fuck? But I mean, maybe not, maybe there's some ladies out there. They like them. Some chisel blades. I mean, you know, I do follow a couple of excellent female woodworkers, couple on youtube, couple on the gram, definitely it's uh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, the thing that is interesting to me is because I was obsessed with, uh, samurai culture for a long time and so I watched a documentary about, about folding steel to create sword blades like thousand folds to make the densest, sharpest, like how long it took to make a sword and I was like fuck, that's incredible. And they talked about like ball milling minerals together and oh my God, it just sucked me in because I was like there's so much time, effort and energy to make what appears to be kind of simple. Yeah, but it's, it's a long piece of metal that you've sliced people with. Yeah, but it's, it's a, it's a functional artwork, it's, it's, it's a. There's a beauty to it, but it function. Yeah, and I think that's the thing that I appreciate about a really good tool, whether it's a knife, chisel, like anything, even like a good hammer, like if it, if it's well weighted, it sounds strange, oh yeah, like um in Kill Bill, when um Hattori Hanzo and she gets the sword and she kind of holds it at the hilt and the handle and the blade kind of balances and she kind of grabs it and there's a good weight to it. I think you get that with good tools, that there is an inherent um, beauty feels like the wrong, like a balance. It's a balance and it's a nice feel. Yeah, other than the function is the feel of the tool itself. Yes, I think there's actually a special thing to that, even though we're disconnected from it. Oh, absolutely, and it's. It's interesting.
Speaker 1:You mentioned that I was trying to think about, like you know, I think most people can resonate with, like that feeling of like a really nice implement, right, it's almost like an iPhone, right, when you first like, if you, when you first laid your hands on it, you're like man, this is nicely built, like that's a real Apple thing, right? Yeah, um and with with tools it's funny because they have a like they're utility, like they're a utility, right, they're designed for a thing. But then we know that when you're handling tools and and nicely made tools, and you look after them and you maintain them and care for them, they become something more valuable and I was kind of I've been reflecting on that and I think that tool making, like the maintenance of implements over the evolution of our species has been such an important thing, right? Yeah, think about like working with stone tools to make yourself a hatchet or a spear and you're like shaping a fucking piece of flint to the perfect. Like that takes a long fucking time, and then that implement is used to hunt or to kill right and like cut skins. Your success is based on the usability of that tool, yeah, right, and also the skill needed to to use it.
Speaker 1:Um, so I think, in a way, I think that it taps into, like my love for sharpening chisels, which I'm doing so that I can start making fucking dovetails and shit. But at the moment, I'm like I'm happy just to keep sharpening these bad boys. Like this is really fun. But I think that what I'm experiencing there is almost tapping into this heritage now DNA, like ancestors. Yeah, because why are so many dudes frothing on me sharpening a chisel? Because they're like fuck, yeah, bro, I feel that, yeah, do you know what I mean? I agree, I agree, there's definitely the sword making in japan. It's like, why do they put so much? It's just a beat. Like no cunt.
Speaker 1:This is like yeah, uh, the, the future of it, like the, the success of a nation was built on this like won and lost on the effectiveness of this. But but I think it goes one step deeper, which is the meditative nature of the process. Yeah, which isn't just the outcome. You're like no, I just, I like doing this shit. Yeah, like it's. There's a like, and I actually it's funny, ola doesn't listen to this podcast, which is good, but I really like sweeping. Oh, wow, I'm into it, I. If you want me to even rake, like raking, you concerned, she might hear it because she would be like, well, why don't you sweep more? I just used the vacuum. I said I like I didn't say I do it, no, but I, I'm about it, it it works well, because she doesn't like to do floors right.
Speaker 1:Mopping too. I, there's something about it like Like, if I mop, I think of it like a huge. I think it was Crouching Tiger, hidden Dragon, where, like the, the pagoda or whatever is getting bombarded with arrows and inside the guy has to write the perfect fucking calligraphy with the oh wow, with the brush, some shit. And I I actually think when I'm mopping a floor is that I'm kind of like it's a huge brush and I'm painting the floor with water and soap and what I don't know. Same thing when I'm sweeping, or you look at, like Zen gardens, when they rake the stones in a certain way that it has to be relevant to the other stones and stuff like that, it takes me out of the bullshit of my mind. Yep, and I don't know. Oh, absolutely, yeah, oh, absolutely, yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's, yeah, hugely meditative, yeah, yeah, I totally vibe with that. So I mean great outcome, obviously you've got this really useful tool, but great process too, right, yeah, yeah. And I I'm definitely more into the process right now because I would think if I, if it was more the outcome, I'd already be like in there using the chisels, but no, I want to move on to the next chisels. Perfect, yeah, man, can I just throw this on the end there about chopping wood.
Speaker 1:This particular guy where we talk about you know, chop wood and you know it wasn't chop wood, carry water or something like that, it was a book, but we talk about it for preparing the body. This one guy just liked splitting wood. That was like his kind of Sunday meditation, and this guy was actually, I think, a fairly successful entrepreneur. He just started splitting wood and then he saw next door his neighbor also had a pile of wood that wasn't split yet. He said to him hey, dude, can I split your wood for you? He's like sure, can I split your wood for you? He's like sure, fucking go nuts, because he got really good at it. So then he was like oh, I got through all my wood really quick. I need more wood to split. Like you know, instead of taking me two hours, it took me half an hour Getting stressed out, not splitting any wood. I need more wood to split.
Speaker 1:And he ended up starting a business and so he started employing like slightly older men who were not very busy and got them to be wood splitters. Oh, wow, and it turned into a business Cause he's like I want to share the joy of this process with other. Well, he just was. He didn't mean for it to be a business, but he, he loves doing it. And then he started kind of sharing it with other dudes and they're like, yeah, I fucking love splitting wood Because people, the dudes and they're like, yeah, I fucking love splitting wood. And then it's like because people in their neighborhood have have, uh, wood fires and end up being like a bigger thing. Wow, but yeah, yeah, I used to. You know, same I used to split wood for my grandma back in the day. My mom would send me over and be like you go help your grandma out, and I'm like, sure thing did you like it at the time. I love it, I love it. I love it now, like I. I think's a.
Speaker 1:It's a cool thing to just like have to try and pick the right spot, yep, and you've got to just get your technique right and you've got to hit it correctly, yeah, and you know, if you didn't like he doesn't split, or you're like fuck gang. And then, but when you hit it clean, fuck, is that satisfying. Yeah, and just doing that over and over again, it's like you can just lose yourself in that, and I think that's probably, you know, that's mindfulness. That's what we had, yeah, for generations that we have lost now, yeah, we've got to reclaim it somehow. Yeah, like you, you kind of parallel the feeling when you're in that moment doing that to the feeling when you're sitting on the couch, doom scrolling, and you, that doom scrolling is like filled with like so gross stress and excitement and like some kind of angst. Yeah, versus this thing. That's like inner peace and calm, so pure, yeah, it's like, yeah, I'm, I'm very, you know, like, say, with the farm stuff, feel very fortunate to have that in my life, because a lot of the activities there have that kind of quality to them. Yeah, you know, you could.
Speaker 1:You could argue that it's, it's an exercise in futility, the whole thing. Well, just because you're like, okay, we're going to maintain this whole shit, but, but, but, there's a beauty. But I, but, if you enjoy that, which I obviously do, you could also argue that email is an exercise in fucking futility too. Right, but I think if it gives you peace and it gives you purpose, fuck. What more can you ask for? Yeah, because you can't really buy those things. No, you know. So, man, that's awesome, thanks. Thanks for asking. Yeah, it's cool. I'm keen to hear more about your carpentry escapades. Fuck, I'll keep you guys updated, awesome.