Hobby Thread - January 24, 2026 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies (TM) a spin it landed on wood carving and tools.

[Top photo courtesy Bird Rock Doc]

What are you hobbying?

As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. All (legal) hobbying is welcome. Discussion of current events, religion and politics can elsewhere. Pants are optional. As always, puns are welcome and encouraged.

Play nice. Don't be a troll and do not feed the trolls.

Best wishes to all with the winter weather. Comments, updates, questions and requests for help are welcome and on-topic.

Lurker Bird Rock Doc sent a few photos of his wood carving projects. I was going to do an elaborate post with behind the scenes work in progress detail, but I have a small dinosaur brain and short arms so here we are. Maybe he'll jump in and provide more background...

Outstanding! Thank you!

This is a great tool topic - what tools should a new homeowner have?

What suggestions do you have?

Woodworking tools that you don't need or don't use?

Unexpected tools that you use? Intrigued to see a power hand planer at the top of this list.

How did woodworking become a hobby? Interesting history:

Nothing to do with wood, but rust removal is a thing for hobbyists and these involve tools.

I only recently discovered a needle scaler. Anyone use one? Did it cause hearing damage?

Electrolysis versus Evapo-Rust?

I will freely admit that this video speaks to me. It makes me want to haunt garage and estate sales and rescue old tools and toolboxes. Long video with many individual tool restorations.

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did an sea glass theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable content continued from last week:

Last week Reforger mentioned visiting the Nevada State Museum which includes the Carson City Mint. He described seeing Coin Press No. 1, a steam powered coin press that made silver dollars from 1870 to 1893.

As the original coin press of the Carson City Mint, Coin Press No. 1 was built in 1869 by Morgan and Orr in Philadelphia. The press was steam powered and could produce 100 coins per minute. The press was ordered brand new for the Carson City Mint, which was scheduled to open in 1870 and would address the coinage needs spurred by the Comstock Lode. When the press arrived in Carson City, it was the only press at the Mint, and would remain the only one for another five years.

But from 1878 until the end of the Mint's operation in 1893, the press only produced Morgan Silver Dollars.

Coin Press No. 1 ceased operations in 1893 and the Carson City Mint officially closed in 1899 as the result of a severe decline in mining on the Comstock Lode.

Other history happened and then...

[The] press was sent to Colorado to be further modernized and used at the Denver Mint. The press spent four years at the Denver Mint, and in that time, it minted 118 million coins, including 50 million pennies.

Read the full story here. Amazing.

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, contribute your own. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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