You never know what you'll find

Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith

Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith

ilmarinen - MODERATOR
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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Aug 20, 2004
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I was looking for a piece of aluminum angle for a bracket. I pulled out a cart that I had under the stairs to see what I had. I didn't find the size I wanted ... but did find a tray of mosaic rivets I had been looking for for a year. That was pretty exciting, and then I found a tray of tanto and wakizashi blades that I had set aside to do togi on during the winter (two or three winters ago). I'll take some photos later today.

Just proves how much I need to finish installing stuff and get everything on the shelves and in drawers. I plan on labeling the drawers and such and maybe making a master data list to look up where things are.

Tell us about your unexpected finds.
 
I need to clean and organize the shop-badly.
Really badly.
Every time I do, I find all sort of treasures. I mean, there is a 14" bowie knife that the shop "ate." Totally disappeared. If I need something, and can't find it after a cursory search I just order more.
 
I like to fumble and play with my handle materials. I do a lot of telephone work from my home and I just play with them while being transferred to the the right person.
I also carry it around the house, loose track of it and sometimes am surprised about the materials I've forgotten that I lost
 
My health took me out of the shop for more than a dozen years. Messing around in there again, I keep finding cool stuff I have forgotten I had.

Probably the biggest smile was created when I was going through the engraving bench drawers and came across a bunch of silver sheet and wire. Picked that up only to reveal the real surprise: about 30 oz of silver ingot and two very nice gold ounces I had stashed there and totally forgot about. That was a fun find. Amazing how fast a woman's hand can move to snag up two ounces of gold...

Finding a brand new pack of nice sharp cobalt countersinks in the drill drawer yesterday made for a smile, too. I used one that very moment! Good find! Simple pleasures! :)
 
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I had a similar experience today, but reversed. I sat down for lunch and my wife placed next to me, a pair of blueberry muffins. I rotated away to smile and say thanks. She appreciated that :) and then I turned back to see my one muffin (paper and all) remaining and a departing labrador.
 
oh good it is not just me finding New/Old things every time i go to a old box of stuff....
best one a drawer full of ivory... gold bars for making miniatures... 2 swords where i got to make everything but the blades (he he)
 
Holy Moly I've been missing my trusty 6" scale/ruler for 6 months. It just disappeared. I've had to use a foot long one and that's very inconvenient mostly. I just found it on the computer desk's pen holder (old coffee cup), just looked over and there it was. It's been right in front of me for this whole time. In my defense though I rarely have the light on.
 
We jewelers call that the "black hole in the bench" where things disappear and reappear weeks or months later right in front of us where we have look 100 times.

It is actually a trick of the brain. When you are sure something is not there your brain may ignore the image it receives as irrelevant, and see only a blank area. If it was not possible for the human brain to ignore most of the huge quantity of photon data dumped into the visual cortex we would not be able to process images in real-time. We selectively see and hear what we are looking/listening for based on comparison data we have stored in the brain. We dispose of all other input as irrelevant. This allows us to spot our kid in the crowd of kids in the playground and for a mother to hear her baby's cry in a room full of screaming kids.
Trivia - This data dump issue is why squirrels run and stop when crossing a road. They have all sensors at full speed when exposed to the many dangers from above and around them in an open space and their small brains can't process it all at one time, so they stop for re-buffering and then proceed.

A trick to finding things we can't seem to see is to look from a different angle or in a different light (use a bright flashlight) or go away and come back later after giving the brain a break from searching. My standard procedure is to say out loud, "I'll find it tomorrow", and then forgetting about it for now and going to do a new task. It is usually right there when I come back later or tomorrow. Usually, it is in a slightly different placement or position, or of a different color than I thought it was.

My worst nightmare is setting a tool/knife/wood block/paper/etc. down unconsciously and not looking at it to store the location in my brain. I may look for it for weeks until I accidentally find it while doing some other thing. I still have at least 5 flashlights somewhere in the shops/house/cars.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
We jewelers call that the "black hole in the bench" where things disappear and reappear weeks or months later right in front of us where we have look 100 times.

It is actually a trick of the brain. When you are sure something is not there your brain may ignore the image it receives as irrelevant, and see only a blank area. If it was not possible for the human brain to ignore most of the huge quantity of photon data dumped into the visual cortex we would not be able to process images in real-time. We selectively see and hear what we are looking/listening for based on comparison data we have stored in the brain. We dispose of all other input as irrelevant. This allows us to spot our kid in the crowd of kids in the playground and for a mother to hear her baby's cry in a room full of screaming kids.
Trivia - This data dump issue is why squirrels run and stop when crossing a road. They have all sensors at full speed when exposed to the many dangers from above and around them in an open space and their small brains can't process it all at one time, so they stop for re-buffering and then proceed.

A trick to finding things we can't seem to see is to look from a different angle or in a different light (use a bright flashlight) or go away and come back later after giving the brain a break from searching. My standard procedure is to say out loud, "I'll find it tomorrow", and then forgetting about it for now and going to do a new task. It is usually right there when I come back later or tomorrow. Usually, it is in a slightly different placement or position, or of a different color than I thought it was.

My worst nightmare is setting a tool/knife/wood block/paper/etc. down unconsciously and not looking at it to store the location in my brain. I may look for it for weeks until I accidentally find it while doing some other thing. I still have at least 5 flashlights somewhere in the shops/house/cars.
Click to expand...
I’m the world’s worst for unconsciously laying items down then having to waste time looking for it shortly afterwards. I frequently have to remind myself to slow down and focus on what I’m doing.
 
Looking at things through a camera/phone can help with this problem. It changes the angle that you usually look from, and changes the lighting. It can make a difference. At least it does for me...
 
I heard once that if you're looking for something (e.g. something dropped in the grass), to look from right to left. Because we're so used to reading left to right, we're wired to recognize shapes but also to ignore a lot of info (demonstrated by the text where all the letters between the first and last letter of each word are shuffled around but which is still fully legible, or when you're challenged to count the letter "f" in a text only to find your brain ignores the word "of".). Looking right to left forces your brain to process everything. No comments to the validity of this statement, but sounds plausible. Haven't had a chance yet to do a double blind test ;-)
 
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