Master classes

I was watching Arnold and Mr. B working on the upstairs doors today and at one point, preparing to take a Skilsaw to the bottom of one of them, he looked up and smiled:

"Eighty percent of carpenters would take the door off the frame before doing this," he said, "and only 10 percent would use one of these," pointing at the saw.

He then proceeded to demonstrate why he earned the 10.

Hanging doors is more complicated than I thought, but simpler, too: Get the frame plumb and square, and you're home free. At one point, to tug an already-nailed frame just a bit forward, he drilled a screw in and one tug with a hammer's claw did the trick.

Mr. B looked over at me and laughed. "It's a classroom up here," he said.

Later in the day, shooting the breeze with Scott, who keeps up the Duval House down our street, Arnold came up with great reverence.

"Guys like him have 10,000 pages of carpentry lessons in their head," Scott said. Personally, I think that's an understatement.