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Authors: Robert Paul Smith
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on the other side of the ridge. Then another cut from the side
of the peach pit to the first cut, same on the other side, so that your peach pit looks like this from the narrow side.
HTDN_102a
Turn the peach pit to one wide side, and then the other, and look at it. On one side or the other, and sometimes both, youâll see just the tip of what looks like an almond. If you poke it with the tip of the smallest blade in your knife, youâll find itâs soft, even softer than an almond, and you can pick it out, a little crumb at a time, or if the peach pits happen to be accommodating, out to help you, sometimes you can get the whole almond thing out in one piece.
It is not an almond, by the way, and we used to think it was poison, and for all I know, maybe it is. I do know it isnât good for you to eat. It tastes pretty bad, even worse than acorns, and they were terrible.
Anyhow, you can see now the beginning of the basket. The part up on top is the little handle, the bottom is the basket part.
HTDN_102b
Youâll find that the reason some people call a peach pit a peach stone is because itâs darn near as hard as a stone, and to open up the hole to make a real good handle means chipping off the inside of the loop, one tiny little sliver at a time. I might as well tell you now, youâll probably break two for every one you make, especially as you get better and try to make the handle thinner and thinner, more like a real basket. You can smooth off the outside, too, with sandpaper, or by rubbing it on cement like the clamshell bracelets. It takes a long long time. I guess I better tell you, if youâre not the kind of kid whoâs got an awful lot of patience, donât try peach-pit baskets.
The way you make turtles is all with a knife, just cutting from the outside, like this. The reason for making the
turtle at all is that the markings on the peach pit, when you start to grind it down, look something like a turtle shell.
HTDN_103a
The fish the same way.
HTDN_103b
A little ways back, I was talking about wooden cigar boxes, and what I always made out of the long thin strip that had been the front of the box was a paddle-wheel boat. Just cut out a boat shape on the front, and cut out a piece with your coping saw in back. Cut two little notches on the end pieces, smooth up the edges of the piece you cut out. Put a rubber band from notch to notch, put the piece you cut out halfway through the rubber band.
HTDN_104
Wind it, hold it tight, put it in the water. It goes. You can fancy this up any way you like, putting a little cabin on the deck, or a mast, and if you can cut two little pieces of wood, you can fit the notch of one into the notch of the other, and put that in the rubber band, and have a four-blade paddle wheel.
HTDN_105a
HTDN_105b
HTDN_106
It would be my guess that all of you know how to make airplanes (some people call them darts) out of a piece of paper. In case you donât, you fold the paper lengthwise, open it out, then fold the two ends in like this, so what used to be the top of the paper now lies along the center fold. Now fold the two sides together to make sure that everythingâs even, open it out again and fold again,
so that the two new folded sides lie along the center fold.
HTDN_107
HTDN_108
Fold these two halves together and then fold back the two thick pieces the other way so that the folded part lies even with the bottom.
We used to take the bottom and tear back through the thick part, to make two little tabs, one going one way, the other the other, to sort of hold the whole thing together.
HTDN_109
Teachers used to take these away from us, too.
HTDN_110
Then I used to make a different kind; itâs my recollection that I invented this kind, but chances are thatâs just my memory, and I probably saw it in a book or learned it from another kid. Anyhow, the idea was to make a paper airplane that looked more like an airplane. You
of the peach pit to the first cut, same on the other side, so that your peach pit looks like this from the narrow side.
HTDN_102a
Turn the peach pit to one wide side, and then the other, and look at it. On one side or the other, and sometimes both, youâll see just the tip of what looks like an almond. If you poke it with the tip of the smallest blade in your knife, youâll find itâs soft, even softer than an almond, and you can pick it out, a little crumb at a time, or if the peach pits happen to be accommodating, out to help you, sometimes you can get the whole almond thing out in one piece.
It is not an almond, by the way, and we used to think it was poison, and for all I know, maybe it is. I do know it isnât good for you to eat. It tastes pretty bad, even worse than acorns, and they were terrible.
Anyhow, you can see now the beginning of the basket. The part up on top is the little handle, the bottom is the basket part.
HTDN_102b
Youâll find that the reason some people call a peach pit a peach stone is because itâs darn near as hard as a stone, and to open up the hole to make a real good handle means chipping off the inside of the loop, one tiny little sliver at a time. I might as well tell you now, youâll probably break two for every one you make, especially as you get better and try to make the handle thinner and thinner, more like a real basket. You can smooth off the outside, too, with sandpaper, or by rubbing it on cement like the clamshell bracelets. It takes a long long time. I guess I better tell you, if youâre not the kind of kid whoâs got an awful lot of patience, donât try peach-pit baskets.
The way you make turtles is all with a knife, just cutting from the outside, like this. The reason for making the
turtle at all is that the markings on the peach pit, when you start to grind it down, look something like a turtle shell.
HTDN_103a
The fish the same way.
HTDN_103b
A little ways back, I was talking about wooden cigar boxes, and what I always made out of the long thin strip that had been the front of the box was a paddle-wheel boat. Just cut out a boat shape on the front, and cut out a piece with your coping saw in back. Cut two little notches on the end pieces, smooth up the edges of the piece you cut out. Put a rubber band from notch to notch, put the piece you cut out halfway through the rubber band.
HTDN_104
Wind it, hold it tight, put it in the water. It goes. You can fancy this up any way you like, putting a little cabin on the deck, or a mast, and if you can cut two little pieces of wood, you can fit the notch of one into the notch of the other, and put that in the rubber band, and have a four-blade paddle wheel.
HTDN_105a
HTDN_105b
HTDN_106
It would be my guess that all of you know how to make airplanes (some people call them darts) out of a piece of paper. In case you donât, you fold the paper lengthwise, open it out, then fold the two ends in like this, so what used to be the top of the paper now lies along the center fold. Now fold the two sides together to make sure that everythingâs even, open it out again and fold again,
so that the two new folded sides lie along the center fold.
HTDN_107
HTDN_108
Fold these two halves together and then fold back the two thick pieces the other way so that the folded part lies even with the bottom.
We used to take the bottom and tear back through the thick part, to make two little tabs, one going one way, the other the other, to sort of hold the whole thing together.
HTDN_109
Teachers used to take these away from us, too.
HTDN_110
Then I used to make a different kind; itâs my recollection that I invented this kind, but chances are thatâs just my memory, and I probably saw it in a book or learned it from another kid. Anyhow, the idea was to make a paper airplane that looked more like an airplane. You
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