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Long-time carpenter and Popular Woodworking Magazine contributor Carl Bilderback sent me this image a few days back, and said I should come up with a clever caption about it being a baby picture of housewright Ron Herman. But I seem to be fresh out of clever – so I’m leaving it in your hands. Submit your caption of 50 or fewer words in the comments section by midnight on Sunday (Oct. 23). The writer of whichever caption I find to be the most amusing will win one copy each of Ron’s “Sharpen Your Handsaws” and “The Joinery Challenge” videos.

Yes, it’s awfully subjective – but this might help: Monty Python? Hilarious. Anything with Will Ferrell? Couldn’t tell you, because I refuse to watch it. “Strindberg & Helium?” Funniest. Cartoon. Ever. (And Ser Schwarz is pretty funny too…at least when he’s channeling Monty Python.)

— Megan Fitzpatrick

 


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Showing 58 comments
  • ilikwoodtrucks@yahoo.com

    OK GRANDPA,I AM GOING TO SHOW YOU ONE MORE TIME HOW YOU SHARPEN YOUR SAWS, YOU NEED TO GET A HANDLE ON THIS

  • arduk

    I know my eyes don’t work Dad, but are you sure this is my normal piano??

  • carheir

    Is this the best you can do? Where are all those Disstons and such you are always bragging about to your wood buddies?

  • pchessick

    Very funny, Pa. Why don’t YOU get a handle on THIS?!

  • bryce

    Oh drat, I’ll never grow up to be a WIA rock star if I don’t quit breaking the handles when sharpening these saws.

  • tman02

    What? Oh, when you said “now for something completely different” I was thinking “Okay! You know, if that handle were angled more…”
    But you meant different as in sharpening a rip saw today. Sorry!

  • frpaulas

    I just can’t get a handle on sharpening!

  • pathdoc60

    Get a handle on it Grandpa Ron, I thought you said you were going to tote me to the see-saw to sharpen my skills, not teach me skills at sharpening a saw and fixing a tote.

  • rica

    “Well a guess there is always journalism”, thought young Christopher…

  • levis

    I mean really…it’s a SAW, not a hammer!

  • levis

    One more and it’s the WEEK END!!!

  • rpeowen

    A young Roy Underhill borrows Chris Schwarz’s saw.

  • Steve D

    Think how young he is, think how he might not know love of Roubo….

  • spwiz5578

    Here we see a young Ron Herman cutting some teeth before he could even cut his own.

  • Wood Man Dan

    I’m learning to play the saw,
    But there seems to be a flaw,
    My fingers are getting raw.

    I’d like to play some Handel,
    but I think I broke my handle.

    So upon reflection,
    I’m taking another direction,

    Maybe I’ll learn to draw.

  • K Anderson

    Welcome to the Woodwrights Shop.

  • rmason

    Don’t laugh, someday I’ll be making videos about this.

  • ffog43

    I said I wanted a seesaw, not a ripsaw.

  • rwyoung

    Little Olaf Koorkijldminarluuf would exact his revenge on the moose that bit his sister.

  • rwyoung

    They told me I could become anyone.

    So I became Tom Law.

  • George West

    A little known, and very sad fact is that young Ron was sold into slavery at age 2 by his parents so they could afford cable TV. His masters were a band of traveling minstrel saw sharpeners who immediately pressed Ron into service sharpening hundreds of saws a day.

  • Tom8021

    At an early age Ron could divine which tooth was off.

  • Dusty

    This kind of work is going to make an old man out of me.

  • griffithpark

    Once I can change my own diaper, I’m NEVER touching another hand tool.

  • esincox

    “I’ve sharpened tens of saws in my lifetime…”

  • OldSchool72

    (Cue banjo music) “Welcome to Season 1-Episode 1 of “This Old Saw”

  • Fred West

    Dad, is this a Gramercy vise, where’s my Acme?

  • John Verreault

    “Hmm, very nice. Filed rip and sticky sharp too. Oops, that was the jelly on my fingers.”

  • Tom H

    Dad says I can cut my teeth on this! Chris Schwarz

  • McDara

    I forgot, Monty Python…

    WHO USED THIS TO CUT SPAM?

  • McDara

    I’ve sharpend thousands of these and this is the first time the handle did that! Not my fault!

  • CCH

    Saws! there a dime a dozen, but VICES will come and go as I grow!

  • Brett

    “When you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

  • Stl_6string

    “Oh, I see, solitary. Just a man and his thoughts. And his file. And a his vise. Nobody knows…”

  • rcishman

    You think Dad is going to be mad when he sees his saw,
    wait till he sees what is in my pants!!

  • Kenny

    You want it when????

  • Kenny

    I wish Chris would stop sending me his saws to restore.

  • Don Ledbetter

    Looks about wright to me

    or

    Looks perfect to me

  • gdblake

    Let him cut his baby teeth on this. When he’s ready for his permanent teeth I’ll upgrade him to a set of Seaton tool chest saws.

  • tsstahl

    Right. I know I only have two years ‘prenticeship under me belt, but I built my own high chair. Mum says I can work for sixpence an hour plus lollipops.

  • rdeviney

    To the boy with a hammer, the world is a nail. That goes double for handles.

  • tails1st

    Mom, You do have those Band-aids handy, Right?

  • robert

    Dull, spineless and broke is no way to go through life – But it is a hell of a way to fit in with the rest of society.

  • jesse.toland

    Look Dad! I sharpen your saw for you! Handle? No, don’t look at the handle Dad. Here! I sharpen your saw!

  • DrMikesFan

    If Dad gives me one more lousy saw to sharpen,I’m using my hammer on something besides my plane iron!

  • tsangell

    Too much fleam. Do it again.

  • jkuszewski

    Careful, kid, you’ll shoot your eye out. Errum, I mean, saw your leg off. Or at least prick your finger. Those teeth are pointy!

  • sherlock04

    a still of Roy Underhill from the long lost pilot episode of The Woodwright’s Shop.

  • Gene

    But I’m FIXIN’ it!

  • pjpryor02

    too much set?

  • LongLeaf

    Rip or crosscut?

  • mike hamilton

    Don’t ask me about nibs again!

  • wasabear

    ‘They sure don’t make ’em like they used to’

  • mpn77

    Third tooth in and i already pooped myself. This is really embarrassing.

  • almartin

    This saw handle ‘as kicked the bucket, it’s shuffled off it’s mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!!

    THIS IS AN EX-SAW HANDLE!!

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