We use this gadget to cut stencils to label our leaf springs

This. This. This is why you haven’t hear a peek from me for a long while.

I did a two-week intensive in St. Louis, working at the family business: St. Louis Spring Co.

After years of the place almost running itself, it now requires our attention, and a lot of it. The market has changed considerably and the prices of doing business have risen drastically, so we just have to be evermore on top of things–making sure we’re not throwing money out the door needlessly and that we glean as much of the market as we can (in this dying industry).

It’s things such as this old stencil machine that make me love the business, even though it is dirty and loud and anything but glamourous. We do what we do with basic machines, plain old simple steel, fire, and human sweat and ingenuity. And I find that beautiful.