Leland writes:
>>I wish I had been documenting all the wonderful notes and drawings
I have seen while pulling apart old buildings. What a great book it
would be.<<
One of the best work techniques I learned from my dad was how to use a
clipboard. After he passed away in '89 I was clearing out three file
cabinets filled with his lifetime of work and documentation--notes,
drawings and project papers on everything he had made, and a lot of what
he thought or dreampt, since 1915. One item was a single sheet of
yellowed paper dated May 16, 1959, half in his handwriting, half in
mine. It recorded a project I had forgotten about, but now think of as
my first formal piece of work, done, according to the date, when I was
nine. It was the replacement of a broken picket on the neighbor's fence.
My dad has outlined the project with these headings: "Date, Customer,
Work, Materials, Labor, Drawing, Costs." Most of the notes are in my
handwriting: "ponderosa pine select out knots, oil prime two coats paint
[with paint color dabbed on the paper, one in my dad's thumb-print one
in mine], nails from Vint, 1 1/4 hr at bench, 1/2 hr paint, 1 hr at
fence, 1/2 hr more paint, a full scale sketch of the gothic arch at the
top of the picket..."
The back of the paper was blank, except for this one note, dated a year
later, which my dad left for me to read half a century later: "john did
good on this picket, work & paint holding up, has now learned to ride
bicycle more carefully"
Since those days I've always had a clipboard in my tool box. I was often
chided and sometimes derided for using a clipboard. The other tradesmen
would say, "yeah, here comes *leeke* with his CLIPBOARD." The power of
the information on the clipboard is what they were talking about. That
information and the power that springs from it is what I used to shift
from trades work to contracting, and from contracting to consulting,
then sharing what I've learned through writing, etc. The good Lord knows
I'm not smart enough to keep all that in my head.
>>Best, Leland<<
Leland, you write "best," which is a good reminder. I'd ask my dad, "how
good do you want me to do on this work?" He would always say, "do your
BEST." Then he taught me, "to do your best you have to always do better
than the last time"--which is, of course, why we keep notes and look
back on what we do, to know what WILL be better.
I still have his clipboard he used since the -'20s, with a little crown
embossed on the steel clip, masonite board with rounded beat up corners.
I've recently started using it again--and what do you know, it still
works. You can see it in action here, at a session with Rhonda Deeg's
preservation trades students:
http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk/fm/memo.php?pwd=d0494e-5968&jt=00:00:00
Sue asks, "What do you like most, paper work, or craft work":
http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk/fm/memo.php?pwd=d0494e-5968&jt=01:34:12
John
by hammer and hand great works do stand
by pen and thought, document the lot
--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://listserv.icors.org/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
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