As I stated yesterday, we celebrate Thanksgiving this week here in the the United States. And, after that, we move into the other holidays of the season that lead to feasting. And, you bet, I’m planning on spending some time in my kitchen this coming month.

Which means, it’s time to start getting some items in the kitchen back into shape. First up, this cutting board I had made a few years ago. It was a proof-of-concept build I had made before batching out a few boards for the holidays, and I haven’t had the heart to do away with it…

But, as you can see, it’s all knife scarred, dried out and ready for a little bit of love. So, out to the shop it went. Since the boys have been talking about all of the delicious food they plan on eating, I had to put them to work in the shop doing the hard work.  Steven had the job doing the sanding on the cutting board and oiling it up.

With a 100-grit pad on the random orbit sander, the young fella proceeded to sand out all of the knife scars on the board. It wasn’t too tough, but he enjoyed using the sander, bringing the board from its rough state down to as smooth as the day it rolled out of the shop.

The next step was to wipe on a heavy coat of mineral oil. Steven spent a good time wiping the oil into the board, ensuring it soaked evenly into the wood, making it look like a million bucks.

Dominic, well, he had another important job. With all of the chopping, slicing and mincing that has to happen with the holiday feasts, it was critical to sharpen the knives. Fortunately, it was an easy task with the Tormek sharpener.

Dom first graded the stone to the rough setting before he put the knives into the jig to do the sharpening. This ensured that the stone was set for coarse sharpening, stripping the old metal shavings out of the surface of the water stone.  A quick clamp into the jig, and the boy was busy regrinding the bevel on the knives. It was a piece of cake for the young fella…

After coarse, then fine, grinding, Dom loaded up the strop wheel with some honing compound, then ran both sides of each edge over the strop wheel.

You know when you have a really sweet edge on your knife when you can just cleanly slice it through a sheet of paper with just the slightest bit of pressure. You should have seen Dominic’s eyes when he did this little trick… he was amazed.

Now, with everything tuned up, the boys have gotten everything into shape for the big holiday feasts to come.

I guess this means that I’m on the hook now, doesn’t it?

OK, so you start working on a project. You either buy, find or draw up your plans. You source your wood. You think carefully about how you are going to make your cuts. You think about what tools you are going to need, and if they need to be sharpened.

Yup, you are ready to build. Then, you get to that one point in your project where you reach for something small and seemingly insignificant – the glue bottle, a screw, a sheet of a particular grit of sandpaper – and BAM, it hits you like a 2 x 4 to the head – you are out!

Doesn’t that just drive you nuts?

Oh, it’s happened to me more times than I care to admit. And, every time it happens, I have to stop everything and shoot off to the store to grab what I need. For me, it’s pretty convenient, because I have one each of the competing home improvement centers less than a mile from my home and a few woodworking specialty stores about a 20-minute drive from the shop. But, for some of you guys and gals who live further away from the nearest retail outlet, I’m sure it has to be a momentum killer.

Even after all these years of woodworking, I still have yet to find a solution to this problem that works 100% of the time. For instance, to help keep me more organized, I have a special cubby where I store my sanders and the sandpaper that makes them effective. Years ago, I bought one of those accordion office paper organizers to hold the different grits of paper to keep them sorted out. The only problem is that I blindly take the sheets of sandpaper out of the organizer, then discover when I reach for the next one that – woah – I used the last sheet on the last project! Dagnabit…

I keep my fasteners stacked in their original boxes on a shelf over my front bench. Now, over the years, I have had to buy my share of special fasteners for some specific tasks. (Roofing nails? Seriously?)  Rather than throw them out, I just keep them tucked away on the shelf, just in case I ever need one. As you can imagine, this clutter prevents me from seeing – say – how may 1 1/4 inch specialty wood screws I have on hand for when I build a cabinetry project. Needless to say, I have found myself dashing out to the home center, project glued and in clamps, racing to get those screws home in time to reinforce the joints.

Finishing supplies? Glue? Faggetaboutit. The song remains the same.

I’m not sure what the answer is. I might need to reorganize the storage areas in my shop, disposing of what I don’t need and getting some more clear see-through containers to keep track of what I do.  I could also go in on large lots of products that I use more frequently, but that would involve some foresight on my part.

Besides, it’s a lot more fun to buy wood for projects and new tools, isn’t it?