In light of the exellent thread on the TL-29's started by Blues, I was thinking back on one of the most die hard users of that pattern that I ever knew. My old boss at the last place I worked before retiring.
After working for the Watkins-Johnson company from 1980 to 1997, they got in line with a lot of other U.S. companies and sent our jobs out. I beleive they called it outsoursing for lower labor costs. Anyways, I found myself at a low point of my life, looking to start all over again at a new job. I ended up at a little hole in the wall place in Frederick Maryland, dirty, cheap owners, and little tooling for the old machines they had. The one bright spot in the affair was I ended up working for the best boss I ever had. Paul.
As the weeks, then months passed on my new job, Paul and I struck up a friendship that lasted past my leaving the place. Paul was a gear head and took great pride in the 65 G.T.O. he'd had since high school and restored, and drove to car club functions. But engines were engines, and we'd talk motor talk, and he'd come over and look at my sportster I'd jumped up from 883cc to 1200cc, and made a few other changes on. I'd look over his 389 and tell him how my dad had loved Pontiacs, and Paul agreed dad had good taste. He lived on a farm not far outside Frederick, and in the summer evenings tended his fields. Hay and corn.
Being a knife knut, I took notice of his worn, weatherd old TL-29. To Paul, it was simply a tool, nothing more. It was very darkly stained, and the blade had been sharpened down about 40%. The screwdriver blade was still functioning, and he used that like an extension of his fingers.
In day to day use around the shop I'd see him use the screwdriver blade for many things, and the knife blade opened up a zillion packages of parts. Once in a while he'd take out a worn Norton brown India stone from his took chest and give it a quick touch up. Paul did keep it sharp. I don't know when Camillus stopped using wood handles, but this one was an old one. Paul said he'd got it from his old man, who'd probably taken it home from the war. That's the second big one.
One day at work, Paul was a bit upset, as he'd lost his knife. He turned the shop upside down, and couldn't remember where he'd set the knife down. He went through every box of parts that was finished and due to be shipped out, to no avail. No TL-29 was found. This put Paul in a blue funk, and I tried to cheer him up by telling him it was easy to get another. That didn't work, as he said this one was an old companion.
It ended well though. Just after lunch, his wife called from the farm, and said she went to move the tractor out of the driveway, and found his knife on the tractor seat. I though Paul was going to cry for joy. You see, Paul was one of those 'one knife' guys who would carry one knife their whole life. But then he was a one gun guy too, as well as a one car guy. He'd had the same Remington 870 since he was just out of high school, and used it to get his deer every season. In the spring he'd take off the slug barrel and put on a full choke shot barrel and get his spring turkey.
The next day, Paul was giving the old TL-29 a touch up on the old Norton, and I asked him when he was going to retire it. He looked up at me, and said "As long as it gets the job done, why should I think about it?"
I had no answer to that.
Maybe there's something to the one knife man, or the one gun man thing. Those guys always seem so darn good with what they have.
After working for the Watkins-Johnson company from 1980 to 1997, they got in line with a lot of other U.S. companies and sent our jobs out. I beleive they called it outsoursing for lower labor costs. Anyways, I found myself at a low point of my life, looking to start all over again at a new job. I ended up at a little hole in the wall place in Frederick Maryland, dirty, cheap owners, and little tooling for the old machines they had. The one bright spot in the affair was I ended up working for the best boss I ever had. Paul.
As the weeks, then months passed on my new job, Paul and I struck up a friendship that lasted past my leaving the place. Paul was a gear head and took great pride in the 65 G.T.O. he'd had since high school and restored, and drove to car club functions. But engines were engines, and we'd talk motor talk, and he'd come over and look at my sportster I'd jumped up from 883cc to 1200cc, and made a few other changes on. I'd look over his 389 and tell him how my dad had loved Pontiacs, and Paul agreed dad had good taste. He lived on a farm not far outside Frederick, and in the summer evenings tended his fields. Hay and corn.
Being a knife knut, I took notice of his worn, weatherd old TL-29. To Paul, it was simply a tool, nothing more. It was very darkly stained, and the blade had been sharpened down about 40%. The screwdriver blade was still functioning, and he used that like an extension of his fingers.
In day to day use around the shop I'd see him use the screwdriver blade for many things, and the knife blade opened up a zillion packages of parts. Once in a while he'd take out a worn Norton brown India stone from his took chest and give it a quick touch up. Paul did keep it sharp. I don't know when Camillus stopped using wood handles, but this one was an old one. Paul said he'd got it from his old man, who'd probably taken it home from the war. That's the second big one.
One day at work, Paul was a bit upset, as he'd lost his knife. He turned the shop upside down, and couldn't remember where he'd set the knife down. He went through every box of parts that was finished and due to be shipped out, to no avail. No TL-29 was found. This put Paul in a blue funk, and I tried to cheer him up by telling him it was easy to get another. That didn't work, as he said this one was an old companion.
It ended well though. Just after lunch, his wife called from the farm, and said she went to move the tractor out of the driveway, and found his knife on the tractor seat. I though Paul was going to cry for joy. You see, Paul was one of those 'one knife' guys who would carry one knife their whole life. But then he was a one gun guy too, as well as a one car guy. He'd had the same Remington 870 since he was just out of high school, and used it to get his deer every season. In the spring he'd take off the slug barrel and put on a full choke shot barrel and get his spring turkey.
The next day, Paul was giving the old TL-29 a touch up on the old Norton, and I asked him when he was going to retire it. He looked up at me, and said "As long as it gets the job done, why should I think about it?"
I had no answer to that.
Maybe there's something to the one knife man, or the one gun man thing. Those guys always seem so darn good with what they have.
