Boom Hutch

     I don’t know if I ever showed you how to sharpen a carpenter’s pencil, and I don’t know that I’ll ever get to demonstrate it in person, so I guess this is as good a place as any. So you’ve got the two wide flats, right? I carve those to a point first, then the two thinner sides. Some guys will stop there, but I like to bevel the four corners, mostly for looks, I guess. I used to rotate it while I carved, like one of those old wall mounted pencil sharpeners you hid in elementary school, but because the grain is funny on these pencils, plus the blade in my utility knife is always dull as hell, it would always come out crooked as a witches finger.     Maybe one day I’ll get the chance to take you to Staunton and show you the big porch job I was on for most of the summer of 2019. I can’t remember if you and your sister were still talking to me then or not. I was gone off and on for about three months. I’m not sure why they settled there, but those houses are bu...