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That old binder at the craft fair who fixed my rookie mistake
Back in 2019 I was at a small craft fair in Boise showing my first batch of sewn bindings. An older guy named Tom came up and just stared at one of my books for like two minutes. He finally pointed out that I was using waxed thread way too thick for the paper weight and showed me his own awl with a smaller diameter. I had been struggling with tearing pages for months and never connected the dots. He sat down and walked me through the right thread size for different signatures right there at his booth. Has anyone else had a random encounter with an old timer that totally changed how you do something?
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danielh811mo ago
Man, that's a great story! Tom sounds like a real legend. It's wild how one tiny detail like thread thickness can just wreck your whole workflow and you don't even see it. I love that he just sat down and showed you right there instead of just giving you a lecture.
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spencer6641mo ago
Stumbled into a gun show in rural Idaho back in 2011 and an old timer named Earl showed me how to properly degrease a rifle bolt after I spent an hour scrubbing with the wrong solvent. He pulled out a little jar of something he mixed himself and told me to use that instead. He also pointed out that my firing pin spring was worn out and swapped me a new one for a can of soda. That guy saved me from a whole lot of misfires and I still think about him every time I clean a gun.
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