Other hobbies

[Craigerrr]

That is way cool! I have a spinning wheel, but its not that nice! I love how the lamp is attached. Gorgeous workmanship! Did they have a "brand" name?

They were just know as "Rognvaldson Wheels", pronounced rugglson, it is an Icelandic name. My great grandfather was the son of Rognvalder, when he became Jon Rognvalderson, the "er" was removed. Interesting note, the Icelanders followed the same pattern on the maternal side. Girls would have their given name, and their surname would be their mothers name plus dottir at the end.
Jon (referred to as John in the following 1989 news article) started making wheels around 1930.
They were sold across Canada in the Eaton's catalog.
The three men in the following article, my Mom's Uncles, are from left to right Clarence (Uncle Sonny), Gordon (Uncle Gord), and Ellis (Uncle Ellie). They are 3 of the 8 children Jon had, my Grandfather was the oldest.
I actually had my Uncle Sonny as my grade 9 shop teacher!
The lamp was an option by the way, a non lamp model pictured below was just one I found in a google images search

 

[Craigerrr]

Recently I performed a bit of surgery on my oldest guitar. This guitar is close to 40 years old, and the neck has bent over the years to the point that it can't be adjusted any more. This causes what we call the "action" to be high, meaning that the distance between the strings and the fret board is more than ideal,makes it hard to play up the neck. I used a wood block and sand paper and essentially milled the bridge down close to 2mm. I also made a new bridge saddle from a blank. The original saddle was plastic, I made the new saddle from bone. All said and done,the action is still a little high, but it is much more playable now. The sound is much brighter with the bone saddle as well!