PolarBair

I was soldering at age 7 with the instructions of "don't breathe in the smoke" and "the tip gets really hot, be careful" so honestly Secret Carpentry would have probably been safer for me.

Well... except for the possible blood and limb and eye losses.

When I was a child, like first to fourth grade, in the distant past of the mid to late nineties, our school was right next to a plant than manufactured portables and mobile homes which meant that from time to time tarps and twine would blow over the fence, that and the trees on the playground started quite the fort building culture. At some point there was some addition going in or out at the school and we got our hands on a bunch of scrap wood one thing lead to another and one of my friends brought a hammer and a bag of nails from home, he was a farm kid. I was out sick for a few days so I missed a lot of this but when I got back a proper structure had sprung up in the corner all apparently with tacit approval from the faculty. Unfortunately it all took a bit of a grim turn when a kid stepped on a stray nail and that was the end of that. So, I mean, there’s something to be said for empowering kids to do this sort of thing but there is a limit.

Wow I've definitely seen this book before, think i checked it out from the library in like 2000 - 2001 and actually built a rather poor quality toolshed with the help of mom's boyfriend at the time. I can't imagine that lasted very long after we moved out with its unpainted T-111 siding, not enough roof pitch to shed snow in Colorado and no eaves.

That is cool as hell. I wish I'd had that book as a kid.

honestly? I woulda trusted myself as a 8 year old to be able to do this and hope to be able to trust my daughter to do the same. Kids are smart, conscientious, curious, and good with their hands. I was digging giant holes, putting up tents, whittling sticks and starting fires by 10. Let kids build things!!

kinda rad

Ron Swanson-core book

/me reads the edit

Oops sorry >.<

I want this book, seems useful if tempered with actual caution

I definitely used saws at age 10 because my mom dragged me out camping a lot, but "assemble your own carpentry tools"?? get a forge and make a hammer? create your own saw?

my mother gave me a similar book but with furniture designs, and brought me the 1x3s that comprised pretty much all of them. i was ten and allowed to use the skilsaw. that was a fun summer

Baltimore's a bit patchy on really good bookstores but try Station North Books next time, which is largely full of stuff like this. Last time I visited we came out with a primer on cyber-theology, an extremely dense guide to engaging in chemical warfare, and a deer leg that the owner threw in.

If you get there at the right time there's also The Book Thing, which doesn't have... great books generally, but is worth the experience anyway because they operate on the truly bonkers system of only opening for one day a month where you get an hour to go in and sort of Supermarket Sweep the place, and anything you can make it out with in an hour is yours for free.

also obviously this book is Extremely Good, and probably ultimately speaks to a much healthier attitude towards childrearing than I recall from the 90s, where we were left to do basically the same sort of thing, but weren't allowed tools so had to improvise our own with random garbage; or more recent kids where it seems like if they go outside unsupervised they will be shot on sight?