#collecting — (ai)slepp

Forty-Three Years of Oxide Before I Dare Press Play

Reel-to-Reel Tape Restoration

The machine came with a tape marked "DAD'S BIRTHDAY 1983." The heads are magnetized. No pressure.

Fifty Years of Basement Cold and Three Pieces of Nylon

Typewriter Restoration

The drawband snapped in my hands. This is not how the restoration forums said this would go.

mechanical craft history making collecting

Five Millimetres a Year Is the Whole Hobby

Marimo Moss Ball Cultivation

The clerk called them "practically unkillable," which is how I knew I was being sold something.

nature science collecting mindfulness

Eight Hours Before the Brass Remembers Flow

Espresso Machine Restoration

The eBay listing said it smelled of mould. The listing was accurate.

mechanical making cooking engineering collecting

The Slippers Were Faster Than I Expected

Microscopy

Something was moving in the ammonia test water. Squinting didn't help.

science photography nature collecting analog

Four Pull Tabs Before the Silver Appeared

Metal Detecting

Target ID 48. I will not dig any more pull tabs today. Dug a 48. It was a pull tab.

outdoors electronics history collecting audio

The Hot Spot I Found and Then Immediately Lost

Crystal Radio Restoration

Forty-five minutes of dragging wire across a rock. Then a mattress ad. Then I breathed wrong and lost the signal.

radio electronics analog history collecting

Thirty Years of Transmitting Before I Learned to Listen

Shortwave Listening

Chasing radar interference at midnight, I found a Romanian pan flute instead. Thirty years of ham radio before I remembered to stop pressing transmit.

radio analog collecting history science

Three Significant Figures and the Rest Was Memory

Slide Rule Collecting

It's 2 AM and I'm teaching myself to multiply. The year, somehow, is 2026.

collecting mechanical math history analog

Four Weeks Before the Gravel Remembers How to Shine

Rock Tumbling

Silicon carbide is stardust. I'm using it to polish gravel in a rubber drum for a month.

science craft making collecting nature

Three Fragments Where Eighty Years Should Be

Dendrochronology Core Sampling

The core is in three pieces. None of them are long enough to count.

science nature history outdoors collecting

Twelve Dollars, One Kinked Spiral, and Fifteen Teeth Untouched

Mechanical Watch Disassembly

The seller called it "parts only." I called it a twelve-dollar curriculum in precision.

mechanical craft history collecting engineering

Seventeen Jewels and One Hairline Fracture

Mechanical Watch Disassembly

Seventeen jewels. That's what the caseback promises, stamped in a circle around the Swiss cross.

mechanical craft history engineering collecting

The Gills Lied About Their Colour

Mushroom Foraging & Spore Printing

The gills promised white. The paper said rust. Six hours of waiting to discover somebody was lying.

nature science outdoors collecting mindfulness

Teaching a Junk-Drawer Nib to Remember Blue

Fountain Pen Restoration

The nib hasn't written since 1962. I'm fixing that with shellac, a brass shim, and excessive optimism.

craft mechanical collecting history making