My Mallet - aka - Bone Crusher

One of my favorite tools in my shop is also one of my most hated.  My mallet.  I use it for so many things, it's the most versatile hand tool I have.  I'm talking hand tools here.  The mallet serves as a hammer, a mallet (duh!), a plugger hammering in thing-a-jigger, a weapon of mass destruction, a gavel while arguing with my help (my kids) and I even use it for stretching the shoulders and upper back.  In fact, scary thought - I have been known to accidentally put it in my purse and carry it around with me (unknowing of course).

Right Foot broken toes

left foot broken toe

I have two mallets.  One is shinny and new and never ever used and there is the "Bone Crusher" or as I refer to it as the "Toe Smasher".  It has earned this name in July of 2013 when i accidentally dropped it on my big toe on my right foot.  I broke my toe.  Then in August of the same year, I did the same thing to my left foots big toe.  That one broke too.  Have you ever had a broken toe? Other than taping it to it's neighbor there is nothing that can be done.  You hobble along and go on with your business.  Thankfully I broke the phalanges and not the knuckles of them both - so the hobbling was at best a cute shuffle.  The worst part of it all was not being able to get a pedicure because of the healing.  I had to keep them as straight as possible.

Broken Thumb

Broken thumb

Then on December 23rd during the Christmas rush of getting all the bunk beds ready for deliveries for Christmas Eve I smashed my left thumb.  What a royal job I did too.  I was separating a top bunk from a bottom bunk - because I build them tight, I had to use the mallet to get that extra umph.  Sledging away I was beating the block and wham, full force right on my thumb.  Looking back it may have been better to use a clamp to keep the block there, lesson learned.  But for that time after working a 9 hour shift already, I didn't have that hindsight.  I threw the mallet across the room, my face and thumb felt like it was going to explode, I drooled, I couldn't breath - it hurt so bad. Then the breath came, and I cried and screamed like a girl.  I am a girl so I will not apologize for that.  After 10 minutes of sniffling and realizing my thumb was indeed broken and numb.  I put some duct tape on it and finished the bed i was working on and another one.  I finally went to bed 5 hours later.

The next morning however, my thumb was obviously swollen, very hot and the pressure I felt was unreal.  I felt as if the skin was going to tear at any moment.  I was hoping that binding it would work, but I knew I needed to have it drained.  So unlike my toes, I had no choice but to visit the ER.  They burred an nice hole in the nail and let it drain.  That day's work went so smoothly because the entire thing was actually numb and I couldn't feel anything.  Just a little medical tape on the knuckle to prevent it from bending and I was good to go.

3 months healed

Again, in hindsight I really should have gone to the orthopedic.  Here it is in March (3 full months later) and although all is healed per say, I still have no feeling in the tip of my thumb.  I still can't press my truck's key fob buttons with that thumb.  When I do, I can't feel my thumb tip on the button, but this shooting pain goes from just under the nail to the base of the knuckle when I press. So I have some damage there somewhere.  But it is usable and I have no issues in using the pad of the thumb for anything.

Since I'm a firm believer in rubbing dirt in the "owies" anyway or repairing a good cut with super glue (Do not use gorilla glue - you will have a little bump in there forever) I am happy with the outcome.  One thing I am really happy with though, having broken both my big toes, I now have to routinely go in for pedicures to help with the nails growing properly.  Ahem..I'll take that punishment any day! I gave up on having nice finger nails a long time ago, but I love pretty toes.

Lincoln Logs & Sloppy Joe's

Cabinet/pantry Circa 1934

Remember when you were a kid and you played with Lincoln Logs?  Making a log cabin, with those window cut outs and a roof - you would day dream of it actually being your house one day. Maybe if you were lucky enough you had sloppy joe's for dinner, needing that bib that was obviously needed while eating but afraid to wear one in case you looked like a baby?

Believe it or not, those two famous things have another meaning in adulthood in reference to furniture.  Lincoln Log Furniture and Sloppy Joe furniture are also names that was once thought of as cheap but sturdy furniture.

Simple Benches

Child's Bed - everything is reclaimed

Sloppy Joe Furniture were geared towards very low class and usually made out of salvaged and reclaimed wood and sold at a small profit or was made for personal use.  You have seen pictures of tables, chairs, benches etc during the depression.  Nothing went to waste and if it wasn't burned for heat, it was reused.  This was called Sloppy Joe Furniture.  Among the social classes, obviously if you had this furniture, this meant you were at the bottom of the ladder - income wise.  Art-Deco was left to the upper middle class.

Lincoln Log Build / Simple but stylish

Jump up to 2014 and what furniture is popular?  Sloppy Joe.  Customers are paying a hefty premium of salvaged wood and reclaimed items.  The only difference between then and now, it was made of necessity back then and today, the Lincoln Log build takes over with a huge heaping spoonful  of Sloppy Joe.

Lincoln Log building - is not a nice term either when used by a master carpenter.  The idea behind the name calling is that anyone can build with Lincoln logs.  Seriously, everyone has played with them, you stack them and make something.  So compared to inlay's, joinery, curves and carvings and angle cuts and wooden masterpieces, stacking wood and making it work is a bit derogatory to a highly skilled carpenter and finisher.   But there in then lies the difference of style, function, knowledge and the whole sloppy joe effect.    Lincoln Log furniture is built by those that know what they are doing and sloppy joe furniture was built out of necessity and repaired many times over.

Combine the two styles and you have the current furniture trend.  What I find ironic is the complete swing in favor of the sloppy joe style.  The sloppy joe pieces were not meant to last over time and were considered the low of the lowest in decor - they were built with the idea of them breaking.  Today however, with all the press-board and MDF furniture and veneer (every store sells them from cheap to expensive) the good old fashioned solid real wood, even though considered sloppy joe still outlasts most of the furniture built and manufactured today.  In today's market and furniture trends (not much has changed by the way) - you are supposed to change out your furniture every 5 years or so.  That is what bigger box stores are wanting you to do, therefore nothing is built to last.

So who is the real Sloppy Joe here - a carpenter who builds simple furniture at affordable prices that will last a life time or an assembly line, packaging press-board and odd shaped screws with directions that aren't in English?  But as always, things change and the market is slowly but surely realizing that the words "cheap" and "quality" don't go in the same sentence in describing furniture. Customers are seeking out hand made Lincoln Log built items that can be described as "affordable" and "quality" in the same sentence.  Especially when it is built locally.