Had an old timer tell me I was using my chisels wrong and it stung

Met this retired guy named Frank at a lumber yard in Portland last Saturday. He watched me pick out a mortise chisel and just goes "you're gonna ruin that in a year the way you're holding it." Told me I was leveraging off my shoulder instead of my core and that's why my cuts were wandering. I've been doing this for 7 years and nobody ever called me out on that before. Has anyone else had some random dude just hit you with a truth bomb like that out of nowhere?

2 comments

2 Comments

bettykim1mo ago

Yeah that "leveraging off your shoulder" thing is real, I've seen it with so many people doing stuff without realizing they're making it harder.

reese_singh871mo ago

Watched a buddy at the gym last week do exactly that. He was trying to lift and just kept leaning into my side like I was a wall or something. I finally had to tell him to stop because his shoulder was basically pushing me off balance. He looked confused and swore he wasn't doing it. It's like people have no clue their bodies are drifting all over the place when they're focused on the weight. Makes me wonder how many times I've done the same thing without noticing.