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So I'm at work yesterday when the phone rings... "Hey Dad, where is your drill?" The hair on the back of my neck began to rise.... "Why is that, sweetie?" "Just because", she explains... "we're working on a surprise." My 14 year old daughter is quite gregarious, and loves to build things. I know that my wife who exhibits nothing but flawless judgment is home with her. Surely my wife will supervise whatever is in the works... I leave it in the hands of fate. When I get home, it is dark. "Hey Dad, come see what we made..." As she leads me into the back yard, i see by the dim back porch light that a new tree swing has been constructed. I assume that the seat has been made from a piece of scrap plywood sourced from my shop (the wife has flawless judgment, I keep reminding myself...) I express my joy and surprise to my daughter at her ingenuity. As I lift the seat, I notice that one side is rough and unmilled..... My daughter has just constructed a tree swing from my last billet of Sitka bracewood!! I am proud of myself that I did not allow myself the luxury of a negative reaction. So here it is... the highest stiffness to weight tree swing in Texas. It rings like a bell...



As a side note, they used my $50 bird dog check cord for the rope... Merry Christmas, all!!!

That is priceless!!!!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Maybe you'll get it back after she grows out of it. It'll be well seasoned by then! Great story!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

That is perfect! Being a good dad is the best feeling in the world. Well done!

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George :-)

Yes, your wife has flawless judgement and your daughter has excellent taste in construction materials. It really is funny and it reminds of the time when I was about six years old and started to paint a board in my dad's stack of black walnut. He didn't flip out. He just got me a scrap of plywood or whatever and said: "This'll be a lot easier to paint. The paint sticks to this better." And then he patiently taught me how to paint without dripping. What a great father! And so are you.
Patrick

Beautiful swing! How does it sound?

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

LOL ... I have to agree , how can you be upset with a girl who chooses that type of quality in her building materials ..

The wife on the other hand .... well see ... if you play your cards right you can get some ...... ooops sorry .... special treatment .....


Have a great day .

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Bryan,

It emits this wonderful, ringing, high-pitched tone with tons of sustain when in use....

Wonderful story - thanks for sharing

That's awesome. It was probably that split face that gave it away as a piece of junk
At least bracewood is pretty cheap anyway. And it is a lovely swing

That's awesome! But don't feel too bad, the grain on that wasn't all that hot anyway, and probably would not have made good braces.

Just tell yourself that.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

A great story that sounds a bit familiar! My oldest daughter helped herself to a piece of scrap from my shop years ago to make a sign-pink background with black lettering on a nice sized chunk of Peruvian Walnut! The sign might still be in the garage, somewhere.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

she'd be able to swing higher if she'd used Brazilian!
That's great.

Merry christmas!

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

People say you can find bracewood almost anywhere.......

Jay - that's a great story. My wife and I just got a good laugh from it. Thanks for sharing that.

I think having that story to share was absolutely worth the price of admission!!! Enjoy the swing!!!

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Brad

I've told this before on the forum, but my best story is when my wife was trying to tighten the screws on the back door hinge. After trying, she came into my shop, held up my best 1/4" chisel, and said: "Don't you have a better screwdriver than this?"

Great story Jay,
It's the little unexpected things kids do that bring the most joy.
Enjoy the nice weather today!
I'm up in Round Rock, wearing shorts and a tee shirt.
Ye-Haw!
Dan

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

I can add nothing here.

Great story. Good thing she did not know where your ebony billets were!

i had a male (sorry ladies, for the implied sexism, if any are reading) room mate who actually pulled a similar stunt....he used one of my 5/8" wood chisels as a nail puller or pry bar.
the thing is, the kid was a genius mechanic/tinkerer....he just had no clue what the right tool for the right job was for some reason, no common sense or something.
i locked up all my tools after that

I wonder if the term "knarling a chisel" is in the official "Luthier's Guide to Tools"?

Maybe Robbie could include it in his Tips du jour videos, under the category, top 10 bad things to happen to your tools.

What a great story! Thanks for posting it. Definitely the character of a good dad!

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

Billet, smillet! Your child worked a piece of wood. The possibilities are endless, now.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.