John Cox, Founder, The American School of Paperhanging Arts
John Cox is the Headmaster of The American School of
Paperhanging Arts and a frequent contributor to national magazines. An educator
wrote this about John in a national trade magazine:
"John Cox is one of the gifted few who
have a natural born talent for teaching. When you combine his talent for teaching with his
talent for wallcovering installations you have a once in a lifetime combination."
A Good Tool Belt Makes Every Job Easier!
The paperhanger who taught me kept his smoothing brush in his right hip pocket. His broad knife went in the left hip pocket and all the rest of his hand tools in a carpenters nail apron. The first day I hired on he sent me to his work truck for band aids. He couldn't see where his razor knife was so he had to "feel" for it until either he got it or it got him! Band-Aids were a matter of course.
This all began changing for me one day when we met at our usual place for coffee before work. With us at our table was Jake (another fine craftsman) who ran the shoe shop next door. One morning Jake made the
comment that he could make almost anything out of leather. That comment started me thinking about a tool belt and to doing what I like doing better than almost anything else -- inventing.
A few days later I came up with a drawing of what I thought I wanted in a tool belt and true to his promise Jake made it up for me. The tool belt had a pocket for a large sponge, one for the razor knife and a loop for
the seam roller handle to go in. This naturally turned the razor knife handle up and the seam roller handle down so by feel I could tell one from the other. No more grabbing the sharp end of that razor knife! Jake crafted another pouch that held my smoothing brush and I thought I had everything I needed right under my thumb.
Well, you know it is -- there is nothing like experience to tell you how well a thing is going to work. When I started using my new invention I realized I needed a place for a screw driver for removing switch plates.
Out on the job the only thing I could find was some scraps of electrical wire so I punched a few holes and ran a couple of pieces of wire through them to hold my screw driver on the side of the pouch. That was in 1964
-- those wires are still there today on my old belt! Time went on and after a while the leather pocket holding the razor knife started to get a big hole in it from the razor blade cutting away at it so I lined this with a scrap of roof flashing.
What I didn't realize until much later was how well this organized tool system improved my ability to learn not to mention my production. Not until 1978 with the opening of the American School of Paperhanging Arts did I realize how quickly one can learn how to roll a seam when their time is not consumed constantly looking for that *%$#@ seam roller!
Paperhanging has always been to me an enormously satisfying profession but on the other end of that seesaw is frustration. That frustration in our trade can be caused by something as simple as what side of the bed you got up on and your mood at the start of the day to poor industry quality control and wallcoverings that just don't seem to want to be hung! Understand this about human physiology: frustration uses energy twice as fast a hard physical labor. Any small bit of frustration you can remove from your everyday operation is over time worth a thousand times the amount of effort it took to remove it. A well organized tool belt not only removes frustration but also improves your speed.
If you are going to design your own belt you should include the same tools (and a place for them) in your belt. Those tools are smoothing brush seam roller, ruler shears, broad knife and a razor knife. I also include the misc. small but necessary tools: a pencil, screwdriver, and a sponge. The small zippered pouch holds extra razor blades conveniently located at the front of the belt. Each tool is given it's own compartment making it easy for your hand to locate.
It's amazing how fast a new installer gets accustomed to this belt. It has always proved to be immensely satisfying to watch an installer outfitted with this tool belt at work and notice that they never have to take their eyes off their work when they reach for any of their hand tools. Each slips in and out of the belt and almost automatically into heir hand.
I want to say a couple of things to those of you who still hold the razor blade in your mouth. First ask your dentist what holding that metal blade with your teeth does to the nerves in those teeth...and heed the dentist's warning. Second ask your doctor what the mold and mildew inhibitors in wallcovering adhesive ingested in small amounts over twenty or thirty years will to to your digestive system. They are poison.
Clip-on magnets will hold your blade if you don't like using a razor knife. Whatever you do -- get those blades out of your mouth.
I hope you realize that either by designing your own, or using a ready-made one, a well organized tool belt is not an optional luxury but an absolute necessity in making certain that you use each minute of each day to it's best advantage. Every minute you waste searching for tool is a minute you didn't use to make money! Every minutes worth of energy you waste on frustration robs you of two minutes worth of energy for learning, working or playing. A paperhangers tool belt is the one tool no installer can do without!
