MORE FATHER’S DAY WOODWORKING GIFT IDEAS

Kidegory II ($50 to $250) If you are between high school and the end of graduate school, you fit in Kidegory II. Dad’s either paying college costs or saving for college hoping your grades will get you in somewhere. He may have bought you a clunker to drive and he pays the insurance and gas bill. Maybe you are living in an apartment where Dad pays the rent and you don’t even invite him to dinner. It’s time to get with Mom and rustle up a little money and get something for Dad that he will appreciate. Time to grow up a little bit here. Here are the suggestions for this kidegory:

Shop Sign with Saw Hanger — What a great idea! If Dad already has a shop, then think up a name (Dad’s Shop?) and order one of these shop signs. He can hang it on the wall in the basement (Sawsations?), or over the garage door (Sawdust Village?). If he doesn’t have a shop already, then maybe this is the incentive he needs to start building one. Plant a post at the spot where the shop will be built (The Woodwright’s Shop? Oh, wait, that may be taken already) and then let him build the shop around the sign. This is a great gift.

Lie-Nielsen Plane — These guys make wonderful woodworking planes and anything with a hyphen in the name is pretty certain to be first class. Now when you look in the catalog, there will be so many different planes you will not know which one to buy for him. There are block planes, shoulder planes, jack planes, rabbet planes, and on and on. But here’s the solution. Buy the standard block plane. This little plane is perfect for every small task around the shop. You can use it to put a rounded edge on the corner of that broken pediment tiger maple highboy that took sixteen months to build, or you can plane a little bit off a piece of raw wood at the mill to check for grain. Dad can carry it with him to the hardware store and other woodworkers will point it out to their kids and say, “Look, that guy is Kidegory II.” You might have it engraved with his initials, or maybe your name and the date. (Just be sure to put the engraving on the side, not on the bottom.) He will keep this forever and when you are old and gray, you can put it on a shelf in your living room and let people ask questions and you can tell them it was a gift to Dad from when you were Kidegory II.

Sharpening Waterstones — Go for the set of five waterstones running from 200 grit up to 8000 grit. He will know what those numbers mean. Rest assured these stones will cover the complete range of sharpening needs. He can sharpen anything from his straight razor up through the Lie-Nielsen plane blade above. Stones like these will last for a lifetime if properly cared for. You can use them in your shop when you inherit them. Waterstones are lubricated with water (hence the name) instead of oil, as in would you believe — oil stones. Even comes with a nagura stone which is used for flattening the higher grit stones and creating a slurry for polishing. Every shop needs a good set of sharpening stones.

We will continue next time with the ultimate Kidegory III. Some of the gifts in there are just extraordinary and if you are a III, you can be very proud.

Don’t forget the Highland Woodworking Gift Certificate if you are still in doubt.

Print this out and leave it lying around the house. Maybe somebody will circle something on here.