Getting shown a few tricks from an old carpenter at the lumber yard the other day

I was grabbing some 2x4s for a shed foundation when this guy in his 70s starts chatting me up. He showed me how he marks studs with a simple notch instead of a pencil line, says it never fades or gets smudged. Then he told me he still uses 16d nails by hand, no nail gun, because he says the force of swinging sets them better in old lumber. It hit me different because I spend like 30 minutes a day sharpening pencils or fixing smudged marks. Makes me wonder if I've been overcomplicating stuff for no reason. Has anyone else had an old timer drop some trick that made you feel dumb?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_mary14d ago

Oh man, your story reminded me of something that happened to a buddy of mine. He's a pretty handy guy, builds furniture on weekends, and he was out at a job site helping an older contractor fix up a deck. This old timer, probably 80 years old, walks over and sees him trying to get a chalk line to snap straight on some wet wood. The old guy just laughed, pulled out a random piece of string from his pocket, and showed him how to wet it with his tongue and snap it like that for a cleaner line. My friend said he felt like a total rookie after that, like all his laser levels and tools were just extra weight. He still uses the string trick to this day for rough framing because it takes two seconds and doesn't need batteries. Makes you wonder how much we're overpaying for stuff that's not even better than the simple way.

ray61314d agoMost Upvoted

The old timer's trick with the string is honestly genius. @the_mary, I see it all the time on job sites where guys spend hundreds on laser levels but a damp piece of twine does the same job faster.

william_craig714d ago

The string trick works PERFECT every time I try it.