Limited Edition North Bennet St. School Try Squares are Done!

January, 27th, 2015

Drivel Starved Nation!

Next week I begin my annual work retreat, and I can’t wait to see what the muse will deliver this trip. This will be my 14th year of holing up somewhere and do nothing but think about tools for two weeks. And as long as Megan Fox leaves me alone, it is incredibly productive…

The real purpose of this post is to encourage you to consider adding a rare tool to your collection, and get a nice tax deduction as well. As you may know, a retrospective of my work from the past 37 years is currently on display at the Bellevue Arts Museum and it closes on February 1. It will be packed up and is moving to a new exhibition space in downtown Boston owned by the North Bennet Street School.

Exhibitions are expensive and when Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez, President of NBSS expressed interest to the Museum of Contemporary Craft (the sponsoring museum for “Quality is Contagious”) the costs involved were concerning. (Caveat: I have nothing to do with this exhibition, where it goes, or anything to do with finances.) When I met Miguel, we brainstormed a fund raising idea — I designed a tool for NBSS that we sold at cost to NBSS to be used as fund raiser to help offset the costs of the exhibition which is close to $20,000. There are 95 of these squares and you can learn more about the exhibition and how you can help here.

Here are a couple of cell phone pics, these Try Squares came out great!


Bridge City Tool Works - Try Squares

I really like the split personality of this Try Squares design…
Bridge City Tool Works - Try Squares

Bridge City Tool Works - Try Squares

Thanks for considering this rare Try Squares tool as a possible addition to your Bridge City collection. Now, one last thing…

Two weeks ago, William John Mosso entered this world. 9 lbs, 22 inches. I am officially a Grandpa!

Best-

John

21 comments on this post:

  1. And of course, the last announcement is the most important! Congratulations to Ashley and the family. That’s a LOT of Economaki to push through a small opening. Ouch! I hope that everyone is doing well, and congratulations on getting a male grandchild for potential spoilitude.

    I hope that your work retreat is wonderfully relaxing and fruitful! I know I’m not the only one waiting in breathless anticipation of your next invention! Perhaps we should start a pool to guess what you’ll come up with…

    — Peter

  3. Congratulations, John!

    I look forward to seeing the show this spring in Boston. By any chance will you be visiting and speaking at NBSS?

    Best, Dave

  5. Congratulations, Grandpa! As Peter said, that is a big boy! Hopefully his mother is doing fine. William is a good name to have; it’s my middle name. I’m sure you’ll agree that John is a good name to have, also.
    As for the square, that green color is a funky one. You don’t see that color on hand tools very often, just on some power tools. Looks like one in a million.

  9. congrats on the new member of the dsn. indoctrination can begin early. as of the 23rd of january, i was told that over $18k had been separated from a number of unsuspecting supporters of this cross country boondoggle so if only 95 are available they may be close to gone (hopefully).

  11. Hi John,

    Congratulations on the grandson, probably should buy him an RC helicopter sooner rather than later. Is your daughter local so you can see the little guy often?

    I placed my order for one of those beautiful squares when they were first announced, and I also didn’t realize that it is the 1.5 size, so in between the two squares you just finished making, correct? Please let us know when the opening event will be, I’ve never been to the East Coast and will try and make the journey.

    Best,
    Rutager

  12. Congratulations to you on the new grandson, John. I can feel a stainless baby mobile coming out of that annual retreat! Hope William is sleeping in the cradle you made so many years ago very soon!

    neil

  13. Thanks Neil.

    I don’t know about the stainless mobile, but I fetched the cradle from the Bellevue Arts Museum just in time… I encourage all woodworkers to make a cradle if little ones are on the way. To see my daughters name and her birthdate on that cradle and knowing in the near future her son’s name will also be there… Well that is really neat.
    Needless to say, the cradle is not headed to Boston!

    Man do I feel old….

    Appreciate your comments!

    John

  14. no john. old is when you live to see you grandchildren have kids. hang in there and enjoy your retreat. megan tweeted she is also going to be gone during that time period. ???????

  15. So, with the announcement of your work retreat, can I assume that you won’t be at the Lie-Nielsen Event in Portland? I was hoping to make a quick trip and see if my JMP is like your JMP.

    BTW, congrats Grandpa. Now the fun just begins.

  16. We are completely done with trade shows. FYI.

    Come up in April and we can supercharge your JMP!

    Yes the fun begins – got blasted in the face changing a diaper. I am retiring from that task too!

    John

  17. As a local resident, I hope to be present in Boston when you make the trip to the NBSS sometime in 2015. With my DSN-branded clothing and pointy ears, it will surely feel a bit like a Star Trek convention! Phasers on stun!

    Steve

  19. That green looks like a shade of Festool…

    Supercharging the JMP sounds interesting! New accessories coming?

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