Write 31 Days- Day 11 Is my Creativity Moist?

I know already I've lost a few readers just because I used the word MOIST and well, that's OK. If that word creeps you out then it'd be tough to hang around the shop with me for any length of time. But it actually pertains to today's post.

The morning was a total loss as I had a visit to the local stomper-on-of-nerves known as the dentist. Ugh.

The rest of the day was spent working on a contraption to help re-hydrate the Supertone Lone Ranger guitar I'm working on. Since its inception in 1937-38 it has had ample chance to dry out beyond a useful level allowing the wood to be ready to split given half a chance. And I gave it that chance by removing the bridge plate which was holding it together. CRACK.

split along the grain line on a 1937-38 Lone Ranger guitar

Insert grumbling and gnashing of teeth <HERE>.

So here comes the reason for the title: I needed to get an acceptable level of moisture back into that wood which would cause it to "plump up" and shrink the crack enough that I could reinforce it with what's called a cleat (a small piece of wood glued across the crack to hold the two in close proximity. And I had to do it on the typical Rattlecan budget allowance; nothing.

I found an old-school humidifier I had purchased for $2-3 bucks somewhere and set it close (but not blowing directly onto) to the guitar hoping to get some moisture around the outside. For the inside I used two small plastic cups with rolled up socks in them soaked in water to sit inside it and covered the top of the guitar with plastic to hold the moisture in. I've been moistening it up for a couple of days and the crack has closed up quite a bit. Hopefully a couple more days of this and we'll be ready to glue it back together.

Rattlecan humidification setup

I keep telling you, it isn't exciting but it is an endeavor where you can exercise your creativity much more often than you'd have thought.

Be creative kids.