Vent & Share...

[Spinner]

On most week nights, between chores, dinner and my fiance's earlier-than-mine-bedtime I haven't been able to carve much lately.

So I tend to watch movies and draw/doodle designs for future projects. I do try to get some carving practice time in though,

I just feel like I'm going nuts lately having 2-3 hours of absolute alone time each night but unable to pound away due to it being too loud (and having no garage).

So a little vent & share...I've vented so here's the sharing...a couple of things I worked up the last two nights:

[BAD HIDE]

I know how you feel. Small item leatherworking is a great hobby that doesn't require large machinery or even make much of a mess - perfect for apartment dwellers like me. It is, however, quite loud. Pounding late at night doesn't bother my co-habitant, but it's not very neighborly to be shaking other people's ceilings. So for the most part, I just do things that are quiet after sunset: sewing, dying, cutting out pieces, working on patterns and designs, even swivel knife work. You can case leather, cut your design, then wrap it up loosely in a plastic bag and it'l be fine for a few days, I've even put wet leather parts in the fridge for over a week without any mildew problems. It's more of a problem if you're only working on one project at a time, but I've always got plenty of irons in the fire. Say a small bag has 5-6 hours of quiet work and about an hour of loud, if I do 5 bags at once, that's a better part of a week of pure quiet. Not to mention I have several sets of projects like this going on at once.

The second thing is to just pound quieter. Rawhide or deadblow hammers instead of wood and steel, and heavier hammers when doing large stamps or punches and the like, so you'll need fewer strikes. There's also what you're pounding on in consideration, the less vibration you transfer to the floor, the better, so you want as much mass and shock absorption you can get. Stone slabs are good, but I took it further. Instead of a table which is light and would transfer the shock directly down the leg, I have a stack of 8 cinder blocks, 4 layers high and 2-4 pieces of scrap carpet between each layer. This puts about 200 lbs of concrete and 5" of carpet between my granite and the floor. I could set stamps with a sledgehammer and wouldn't shake a chandelier.

[TwinOaks]

Truth be told, there's a lot you can do to carve that doesn't involve a mallet. Sounds like you have a superb opportunity to perfect your modeling tool skills.

[Johanna]

I remember those days. Tap tap tap BANG tap tapThudBANG tap tap. At least Jon more or less timed it to the music. But yeah, it's hard to get used to, and you don't want your neighbors to hate you. Braiding and beading are quiet. Good idea about soundproofing, but not always practical in an apartment, I know.

I can be cooking in the kitchen, and one of the kids wikk be pounding in my shop, and I cringe. Then I'm at the top of the stairs, "Your leather isn't wet enough!" or "Do NOT drop my tools on the floor!" you know the clang on the concrete sound. "Are you sure there is a poundo board under that?" (punching holes).

I once lived in an apartment that had a tenant above me we nicknamed "thunderfoot". When I finally met her, I was shocked. I had expected a 400 lb. man, and here was this tiny lady who sounded like an elephant when she walked through her place.In another apartment the neighbors blasted their stereo even when they weren't home. We had the landlord enter their apartment to turn it off over Christmas one year when they were gone for a week. They said it made their dog happy, but it made the pictures on our walls rattle, not to mention our nerves.

I live in an old house these days. It has lots of rooms with heavy pocket doors that are very effective at containing temperature and noise. My husband and I have 5 kids between us, and we can use the doors to strategically heat/cool or quiet an area, also to separate fueding siblings and allow people some privacy. My late husband selected what is my bedroom in this house, and at the time, I thought he had given a better room to the kids. If I am in my bed and the door is shut, I can barely hear the dog bark. Complete chaos can happen downstairs and it's just a muffled noise. The room is on the west side of the house, so no bright lights assault you if you can sleep in. If someone gets sick, they are allowed to go to my bed because it truly is a refuge from the rest of the house. The old man picked the right room!

When people share a house and have to respect different schedules, it makes it very important to communicate what gets on your nerves. If your wife can't stand the tapping and banging of ordinary carving while she's trying to sleep, I guess you have to do it when she's awake or at work. Could you go to bed early and get up with her and take your three hours in the morning when she's up or at work rather than in the evening? Me, well, I miss the old man tapping, and I'd give anything to hear it again, even though it's been a long time ago and I've happily remarried. I got used to the noise, and knew he was making money, not goofing off, whenever I heard it. I learned to dye and lace so I could hear more tapping...and that's what got me into this mess to begin with.

Johanna

[Spinner]

Yeah, it's one of those things I'm just going to learn to work around. We actually live in a house but the original garage was converted to another room that used to be the craft room. Cement floor + opposite side of the house was perfect for pounding away. However Jen's younger sister just finished college and needed a place to make camp while she sorts out her newly acquired adulthood responsibilities (job, car, place to live) so the craft room is now a bedroom and my gear is now in the rarely used dining room which has hardwood floors over the typical California crawl space so even just walking in tennis shoes echos. We actually get up at the same time (about 6am) but I generally go to bed around midnight, 3 hours after her which is where the time is. Guess I'll have to start slipping some bourbon into her drink at dinner so she sleeps a bit more soundly. Hopefully this is all just temporary but I have a suspicion I'm looking at a year or so of being the gender minority...hehe Most of this was just a rant out of frustration of the new 'living' arrangements. I want my work room back!

Truth be told, there's a lot you can do to carve that doesn't involve a mallet. Sounds like you have a superb opportunity to perfect your modeling tool skills

You all are right though, there is more I can do...I'm still new so right now carving is at the forefront of my studies. I am studying up on the European 'pauting' technique though, which is 100% modeling tools so the time may come in handy soon when my supplies get here from Finland.