Being Nice Pays Off

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

You may remember that the re-building of the shop next to me was noisy a while back. I didn't complain, but was nice and they gave me several thousand dollars of wonderful track lighting for my new shop.

Well, the noise is gone, but the interior finishing guys have made a mess of the dumpster area behind the store. I could fuss about it, but instead just pick up after them and say "Hi" when I see them. I was putting in some trash that missed the dumpster when they were chucking it in, and noticed a strip of padded urethane flooring that was faux-wood grained sitting next to the dumpster. It was 2' wide and about 16' long. I rolled it up and went to ask if they were throwing it out. They looked sort of funny at me and said, "Yeah???" I told them I could use it in the new shop for all sorts of things. They then gave me some more scraps that they hadn't thrown out yet. I said thanks, and took it all to my van. I went to the Tropical Smoothie on the other side of the store and bought them a $20 gift card, and told them to have lunch on me. A little later they knocked on the back door, and said they had finished cutting the flooring and wanted to know if I would like the rest of the scrap. I said, "sure", and went over to their back door. They brought out a 6' wide by 16' long roll of flooring. They said I could have it. Then they gave me about 40 feet of the 4" rubber cove molding to match. They even carried it to the van and put it in !!!

I am telling you, it sure pays to be nice....best $20 I ever spent.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Good for you Stacy. :thumbup:
It is sad that many people don't understand this and think the opposite, that you need to be mean if you want things to go your way.

 

[james terrio]

Cool story. Funny how a box of donuts or case of beer can really improve relationships between people

 

[shotgunner]

Ohhh masterful one, you are so clever!! Clever indeed.

Do it again another time with the same guys and they'll call you about discards all over town!!

 

[Mattohn]

"Hey man, lets bring this over to that guy, maybe hell buy us dinner too!"

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Just had a knock on the back door again. They had some more in the truck. I now have enough to do the floor in one of the clean rooms in the shop.

 

[Dmitry.M]

Sometimes a baseball bat makes the same. (It was a BAD joke ).

 

[james terrio]

Hey Stacy, the floor in my shop is looking pretty rough too... just sayin...

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

My original intention was to use pieces of this as pads to chase sculptural work (hammer raising patterns and shapes in copper/silver when making 3D weather vanes and such). It has just about the right "give" for soft chasing.
I'll have scraps for that ,too, but I am really thinking that I can floor the jewelry and knife assembly room floor in this. No cold, hard concrete floors in that room will be nice. If it isn't enough for that room, I will use it in the "man cave" office room.

 

[John N]

nice!

theres an old saying I hear every now and then, ' you catch more flies with honey than vinegar '

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I drove to Richmond today to meet a seller who has obtained some more of Ron Frazier's supplies. I am trading some future knives for this stuff. The batch is a knifemaker's treasure trove.
There is a whole elephant tusk, a stack of large ivory scales, MOP, sheep horn, stag scales,Camel bone, a couple unfinished blades, and a bunch of handle he made. One is fluted elephant, another is reeded mammoth, there is a carved caribou handle, one from wolf leg bone, one carved in ebony, and more. Oh, and a huge piece of superb mammoth tusk.

 

[jaymeister99]

Nice! Thats awesome!

It rare anything like that happens around here (in New York)! The general attitude is that people don't appreciate or care so why try to be nice? But thats not always the case, wish more people thought otherwise!