Eckels
06-21-2004, 05:49 PM
Ok first the story.
Yesterday at work, a woman came into my store with half of a bedpost. It was a VERY intricately carved bedpost, about 4' tall. It was an ivy design, all hand carved, absolutely beautiful. I had never met the woman before, but she was very nice, and needed help repairing the post.
Her problem was, that she owns an antique store, and she had a customer come in, who was interested in buying this bed. (Seeing what half of this bed post looked like, I can only imagine how beautiful the rest of the bed was, and probably very expensive) The Antique Owner's customer said that they would purchase the bed if she could have it fixed by noon yesterday.
So she came in with the bed post, and the problem was, that this post screws together in pieces, but where it screwed together, the connecting rod had snapped in half.
So she needed the rod removed, and a new one made. Now, since this bed was an antique and probably from europe somewhere, the damned thing was metric, with fine threads. Luckily I had a bolt that would fit it, but it was a grade 8 (VERY HARD) bolt, with a head, so it took a bit of cutting with the grinder, and cleaning up on the wheel to get it to work right. I finished it all in about 20 minutes and she was ever so greatful. I was happy to help her.
Unlike most of our snobbish asshole rich yuppie customers she was very nice, and very thankful. So I charged her for the tools that I needed to use to get the bolt out, and the bolt, but I didn't bother charging her for the labor, since she was so nice about it. She told me she would come back tomorrow (today, monday) and bring me a gift from her store. I said ok thanks, kinda shrugged it off, and she left, very happy.
Today at work, she came in to give me the gift. I'll let you see it before I describe it. (The pictures are a little large to show the detail)
Picture 1 (http://eckels.afterblur.com/dragon/head.jpg)
Picture 2 (http://eckels.afterblur.com/dragon/front.jpg)
Picture 3 (http://eckels.afterblur.com/dragon/front2.jpg)
Picture 4 (http://eckels.afterblur.com/dragon/back.jpg)
Picture 5 (http://eckels.afterblur.com/dragon/back2.jpg)
It's hand carved out of mahogany, and stands about 10" tall. It's in perfect condition, and is abosolutely beautiful. I looked around on the internet, and found similar looking ones, but smaller, for sale for 100$+
These pictures don't really do it justice, it's an absolutely beautiful piece, and I was speechless when she gave it to me. How she knew i like dragons, I'll never know. I guess everyone likes dragons. But she gave it to me in a very nice way, telling me how it's meant to be a symbol of good fortune and should bring me luck. :)
Anyways, she sold the bed, and everything worked perfectly. She's happy, her customer is happy, and now, I'm happy. What a great day :)
Yesterday at work, a woman came into my store with half of a bedpost. It was a VERY intricately carved bedpost, about 4' tall. It was an ivy design, all hand carved, absolutely beautiful. I had never met the woman before, but she was very nice, and needed help repairing the post.
Her problem was, that she owns an antique store, and she had a customer come in, who was interested in buying this bed. (Seeing what half of this bed post looked like, I can only imagine how beautiful the rest of the bed was, and probably very expensive) The Antique Owner's customer said that they would purchase the bed if she could have it fixed by noon yesterday.
So she came in with the bed post, and the problem was, that this post screws together in pieces, but where it screwed together, the connecting rod had snapped in half.
So she needed the rod removed, and a new one made. Now, since this bed was an antique and probably from europe somewhere, the damned thing was metric, with fine threads. Luckily I had a bolt that would fit it, but it was a grade 8 (VERY HARD) bolt, with a head, so it took a bit of cutting with the grinder, and cleaning up on the wheel to get it to work right. I finished it all in about 20 minutes and she was ever so greatful. I was happy to help her.
Unlike most of our snobbish asshole rich yuppie customers she was very nice, and very thankful. So I charged her for the tools that I needed to use to get the bolt out, and the bolt, but I didn't bother charging her for the labor, since she was so nice about it. She told me she would come back tomorrow (today, monday) and bring me a gift from her store. I said ok thanks, kinda shrugged it off, and she left, very happy.
Today at work, she came in to give me the gift. I'll let you see it before I describe it. (The pictures are a little large to show the detail)
Picture 1 (http://eckels.afterblur.com/dragon/head.jpg)
Picture 2 (http://eckels.afterblur.com/dragon/front.jpg)
Picture 3 (http://eckels.afterblur.com/dragon/front2.jpg)
Picture 4 (http://eckels.afterblur.com/dragon/back.jpg)
Picture 5 (http://eckels.afterblur.com/dragon/back2.jpg)
It's hand carved out of mahogany, and stands about 10" tall. It's in perfect condition, and is abosolutely beautiful. I looked around on the internet, and found similar looking ones, but smaller, for sale for 100$+
These pictures don't really do it justice, it's an absolutely beautiful piece, and I was speechless when she gave it to me. How she knew i like dragons, I'll never know. I guess everyone likes dragons. But she gave it to me in a very nice way, telling me how it's meant to be a symbol of good fortune and should bring me luck. :)
Anyways, she sold the bed, and everything worked perfectly. She's happy, her customer is happy, and now, I'm happy. What a great day :)