Testing, testing, is this thing on?

Crap, do I really have enough stuff to yammer on about that I think it's Blog time?

Yeah I suppose I do. Hello to everyone, and welcome to the first installment of Shop Vise.

Might as well just jump in.

I like cool shit. Not MTV cool shit, but back alley crafty cool shit. Stuff that old guys pass on to young pups cool shit. There are men and women out there that "pop" their blue collar and are proud to scrub the grease from under their fingernails at the end of the day. These folks have callouses and cuts. They huff brake, carb, and primer spray not for the buzz but because it's the next step in something built, by hand,....in a "shop". I grew up in a shop. My old man fixed cars. Imports (and domestics occasionally). Datsuns, Toyotas, Hondas, BMW's, Fiat, Citroen, Mercedes, VW, Triumph, MG, Subaru (lots of them), and just about anything else that rolled in. My pops grew up in South America and brought with him a German practicality mixed with an American dream. I spent countless hours at my dads shop and the other shops that operated nearby. I have earned my blue collar and I wear it, not as some cliche comedy tour, but with pride. A badge. Symbolizing years of busted knuckles, tiny springs that slip through the cracks, stripped bolts, stickered tool boxes, sparkling tool boxes, bench work, back work, floor jacks, standard and metric, and all the other things that get covered in a greasy film inside a shop. I picked the title shop vise for the obvious reason.

Between the jaws of the vise all things get broken down, feel the pressure, and eventually make their way, either to the trash, or back onto whatever they came off of. Built or re-built, made or refurbished to begin or continue a life of functionality.

I would like to use this medium to showcase the "shop" the people who work and live in the shop and the creations that come out of the shop.

In the future entries I will do my best to seek out and showcase the places where things are getting built. I will of course go in some directions and locals that I have been before but I will also try and learn about new places and people.

If you have something that you feel would be a positive contribution to this blog, please say or show me and everyone else what has you revved up. But please, lets keep it politics and religion free (there are plenty of blogs to cater to that stuff). I'm interested in all shops. Not just motor driven stuff. If you make canoes lets see your set up. Ski shops? Hell yeah. Cabinet shop? I love a good biscuit joint as much as the next guy. Basically, if it's a shop with a vise in it I want to check it out.

So with all that said I suppose It's time to show off my shop (well the one at my house anyway). Here's a couple pics. It's not much but it gets the job done.