For anybody who wants to put a face with Alberic’s name
Hi guys,
Since Lee already blew my cover, I figured I’d go ahead and mention
it.
For those who don’t follow the minutiae of Orchid, “Alberic” is
actually Brian Meek. I just use the Alberic account—well, I’ve
been using it since forever, so I keep it. I use it when I’m being
me. I also occasionally post under “Brian@knewconcepts” when I’m
saying something with my Knew Concepts hat on, in regards to the
saws.
So, just by way of background, I drove up to SF city a couple of
weeks ago to meet up with Adam Savage, one of the guys from
Mythbusters. They have a more-or-less unrelated website called
tested.com. A while back, Adam had used one of the KC saws to work
on dovetails for a woodworking project. Unfortunately, he’d gotten
bad advice, and had picked just exactly the last saw in our line
that you’d actually want to use, to do what he was trying to do. We
saw all sorts of screwy sales numbers, and eventually tracked it
down and found his first video. So I sent him an email offering to
swing by and drop off one of the right saws, on the theory that
eventually it’d turn up in another video, and people would start
ordering the saw they actually needed. (Just for reference, fret
saws and jeweler’s saws are the same beast, it’s just a question of
the coarseness of the blade you load them with.)
That turned out to be “right now”. He had the video crew from the
website over at his shop doing something else, so he asked me if I
could wing a quick interview on the development of the saws. Not
being a complete fool, I said “hell yes!”. The video available here:
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep80ej
is the result.
Please remember I was winging this on zero notice.
All things being equal, I figure I didn’t do too bad, even if I
thought of about 1500 things I should have said as soon as it was
all over. There were only two things they cut out that I wish they’d
left: the bit where I explained that it hadn’t been a complete
setup, I really had just dropped by to get him hooked up with the
right saw (and meet a Mythbuster). And the part where I explain the
difference between a coping saw and a fret/jeweler’s saw. (His shop
is about an hour from my house, so dropping by isn’t as much of a
production as you’d think, barring the traffic on the highway.)
Speaking of Adam’s shop: dear god, what a man cave! I knew I was in
the right place when I walked in and had to walk around a pool table
covered in parts for a disassembled T-1000 Terminator. With an R2D2
and C3PO over in the corner. Yup, definitely the right place. Had an
absolute blast! I’m intensely envious of the space. I think I have
better tools, but he’s got a much better space. Between me and Lee,
we definitely have better tools, but I still want the space.
Anyway, enjoy. I did.
Regards,
Brian