On Sharpening Tools

...a piece of leather mounted to a board) is the last step for polishing your tools. Strop and abrasive. The strop comes with a stick of abrasive that you rub on the leather. Uneconomical Sharpening At the sharpening workshop we also had a hands on session with the Saab of sharpening tools, the Swedish-made Tormek T-7. The Tormek will set you back $800 plus at least $200 more for a set of guides. At that hefty price tag it’s a tool for zealots or fut...

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Busting Open an iPod Touch

...to gain control over these things? To make them tools rather than becoming tools of the tools? In the coming years we must crack, hack, split open and reprogram our tools so that they serve us. Special thanks to friend of the blog Michael W. who offered to help me with Linux and got me thinking about spending more time making these electronic tools work for me rather than me working for them. Micheal also tipped me off to a great post from Low Tec...

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Making It Available in Overdrive App

...ition to apps like Overdrive, many libraries have powerful online research tools. Your librarian can also step you through how to download and use apps like Overdrive. As I’ve been blathering about cleaning and de-clutering on the blog lately, I hope it’s obvious to see how getting books at the library can free up shelf space and save money. Downloading digital books can be part of that de-clutered, minimalist lifestyle. While, personally, I prefe...

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A Homemade Mattress?

...the wool. It took her about 6 hours to fill the mattress. 3) Here is a webpage, in French, showing the mattress making process. Lots of useful pictures. I have to run it through Google Translate for more clues. 4) Do not fall for the eHow result if you search for how to make a wool mattress. It gets off to a great start by recommending you use glue, rather than stitching, to construct your mattress tick . (They call the tick a “fabric sheet pouch...

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