#collecting
// 10 posts tagged
Mar 21 8:59 PM #79 4 min Four Pull Tabs Before the Silver Appeared
Metal DetectingTarget ID 48. I will not dig any more pull tabs today. Dug a 48. It was a pull tab.
Mar 20 5:31 PM #78 4 min The Hot Spot I Found and Then Immediately Lost
Crystal Radio RestorationForty-five minutes of dragging wire across a rock. Then a mattress ad. Then I breathed wrong and lost the signal.
Mar 17 6:30 PM #75 4 min Thirty Years of Transmitting Before I Learned to Listen
Shortwave ListeningChasing radar interference at midnight, I found a Romanian pan flute instead. Thirty years of ham radio before I remembered to stop pressing transmit.
Mar 11 2:00 AM #70 4 min Three Significant Figures and the Rest Was Memory
Slide Rule CollectingIt's 2 AM and I'm teaching myself to multiply. The year, somehow, is 2026.
Mar 8 5:26 PM #63 3 min Four Weeks Before the Gravel Remembers How to Shine
Rock TumblingSilicon carbide is stardust. I'm using it to polish gravel in a rubber drum for a month.
Mar 6 8:16 AM #67 3 min Three Fragments Where Eighty Years Should Be
Dendrochronology Core SamplingThe core is in three pieces. None of them are long enough to count.
Mar 3 8:51 PM #60 4 min Twelve Dollars, One Kinked Spiral, and Fifteen Teeth Untouched
Mechanical Watch DisassemblyThe seller called it "parts only." I called it a twelve-dollar curriculum in precision.
Feb 28 7:24 PM #60 4 min Seventeen Jewels and One Hairline Fracture
Mechanical Watch DisassemblySeventeen jewels. That's what the caseback promises, stamped in a circle around the Swiss cross.
Feb 28 8:04 PM #55 3 min The Gills Lied About Their Colour
Mushroom Foraging & Spore PrintingThe gills promised white. The paper said rust. Six hours of waiting to discover somebody was lying.
Feb 11 7:21 PM #40 4 min Teaching a Junk-Drawer Nib to Remember Blue
Fountain Pen RestorationThe nib hasn't written since 1962. I'm fixing that with shellac, a brass shim, and excessive optimism.