Whittling down my load...

My studio that I've been carrying around with me on our bicycle journey is ridiculously heavy. And I've decided that it's time to lighten the amount of weight I'm carrying. I opened up my tool roll and took stock of everything I have with with, pulling out tools that I really am not using (like my hand shears, which are really heavy, extra needle files, pumice and brush). And then, I went further.


For riveting, I use two hammer ends... a cross peen and a ball peen. Of course, they happen to be on two different hammers. When I was working in my old studio, it wasn't a problem to use the two hammers I had (so it never made sense to buy one hammer that does both). When we left, I tossed both hammers in the bag. And I've used both on this trip. But, really, does it make any sense to carry two hammers? Especially when one of them is really heavy? No.

And, so, in a stroke of genius, I realized that I could file down the planishing end of the cross peen hammer to replicate a ball peen and then send back the ball peen hammer. I borrowed some heavy duty machining files from a friend in town and took down the end of the hammer. Then, I sanded like crazy and took a polishing cloth to it. And, voila, a work of art! It looks like that end is supposed to look like that. And it works great. And I get to rid myself of the 10 or so ounces that make up the ball peen hammer. Happiness all around.