Steppingstone Museum Day One
My first day at The Steppingstone Museum was an eventful one. I met the shop Master, Wade Whitlock about 30 minutes before the museum opened and we had some time to catch up on each others backgrounds. Wade has been volunteering there since 1992 and he is really “the rock” of the organization as he always seems to be there. Wade is a member of the Society of Workers in Early Arts and Trades also known as SWEAT and he knows his stuff!
After regaling him with my own stories from the shop I was given a provisional Journeyman title. The provision being that I had to prove my skills throughout the day. We then took a tour of the workshop and it’s tools as well as our adjoining barns displays of Farming and Coopering tools. Wade told me that since I was there not only to volunteer but learn that I would not be expected to interact with the guests and I could just keep working as the guests are just as interested in watching the work as they are in asking questions. I immediately shuffled that off and told him that I was most looking forward to speaking with the guests and telling woodworking stories. I was after all a performance major in college. I seem to always be looking for a stage.
During the shop tour I learned a lot about the tool collection. It turns out The Steppingstone Museum has over 40,000 tools in it’s collection so we have to keep most of them in controlled storage and occasionally rotate new ones in. The overriding principle though is that all the tools in the shop be in working condition and ready to be taken down off the wall and put to work. Certainly some of the tools in the collection are rare enough and beat up enough that they stay in storage so as to protect them. It does seem a shame that so many tools don’t see the light of day or taste the wood and sweat of woodwork, but I imagine this dilemma is at the heart of most museum curation. You want to share what you have with the public, but to do so degrades and jeopardizes the artifact. With our shop being open to the elements (we have a roof but only three walls and no AC) the level of protection we can offer is quite small. I did discover a great new “tool” called Ballistal that is used to protect everything. It was invented by a German prior to World War II for German soldiers to protect their gear from the elements. The idea was to have one product that would care for metal, leather, and wood. This stuff is still being made today and is sold as Sportsman’s oil. It applies much like Boeshield T9 but you can also buy it in liquid form. The museum applies this to their tools once a year and that keeps them rust free! Here I am oiling and waxing my planes constantly! I’m thinking a switch may be in order.
Before long we had guests wandering through the barns and I hung back a little to let Wade take up the narration about the farm and it’s history hoping to soak up as much history as I could. We had a family down from Pennsylvania who was particularly interested in the Cooper display and while Wade was taking them through that process, I peeked next store into the main shop to see if anyone else had come by. Sure enough we had several more people pop in so I wandered in to see if I could answer any questions.
Fast forward 3 hours later and you will find me seated at the bicycle style treadle lathe turning beads and demonstrating infinite speed variability and forward and reverse capabilities for smoothing a cut. In the back of the shop are a couple of ripped and crosscut boards, and several boards in various stages of flattening. As my surge of guests moved on and I caught my breath I realized Wade had been watching me from across the shop.
“Yep, you’re officially a Journeyman now.” he said with a smile.
Not a bad first day and I think I hold the record for shortest completed apprenticeship in history now.
