Popular Woodworking 2000-04 № 114, страница 25
Though it might not look like much, this safety razor is the table saw for Death Row inmates.They used this tool to cut thin pieces of wood to size and then laminated them.The rolled up stuff is sandpaper. two inmates, each chained to opposite ends of a 50-foot pole. One has a cigarette. Turn your back for five minutes. When you turn back around, each of those inmates will be smoking half of the cigarette. The primary cutting tool on Death Row was a safety razor blade mounted in a scrap of wood that served as a handle. Baze also had a sharp round gear from an alarm clock that was mounted to a piece of scrap wood. Because you cannot rip a 3/4"-thick board with a straight razor, inmates would work with thin stock, usually Vs" or V4" thick, that they purchased from catalog suppliers. A 24"-long rip cut in ^''-thick walnut could take five to seven minutes to do. To create a thick board, Baze would cut several thin pieces to size with the razor and then laminate the pieces into a thicker board. To laminate the boards, you need glue. Inmates on Death Row were allowed to use Elmer's glue and Titebond. Polyurethane glues and epoxies were not allowed. "If you cannot eat it, you cannot have it," Baze explains. WOODWORKING ON DEATH ROW IN TEXAS iS SIMILAR Alvin Kelly, an inmate on Death Row in Texas, builds clocks, music boxes and other projects in his cell and sells much of his work.He spends about six to eight hours a day working on his projects. "I work wood because I like working with it," Kelly writes."I never did any crafts like I do now before coming here,but I build and sell my crafts as a means of support here for me. I do not have to place my family in a burden to do so." Kelly and other inmates are allowed only a single-edged razor blade as a cutting tool."You can guess that when you are cutting wood such as cocobolo or purple-heart it is a major job," he writes. Inmates there are allowed only water-based finishes and glue for their projects. A typical project such as a clock or a music box takes about 10 days to complete from start to finish. Kelly was convicted in connection with the 1984 shooting deaths of three people in Longview,Texas, including an 18-month-old child, according to state documents. Kelly has maintained he is innocent of the crime he was convicted of. One inmate built this wooden cage with a sculpture inside of an inmate (made from toilet tissue). On the inmate's shoulder is a devil.At his feet is a perfectly painted pack of cigarettes. On the back wall of the cage is a clock. |
