Sunday, October 27, 2019
Hi. Karl was my first ever sheet metal mentor. My first day at ASM back in April 1994 led me to pain. Karl was instructing me on how to use the 4' stomp shear. I was standing to his right (should have been left so I could see the fence gauge) and my right foot was underneath the lever arm of the stomp pedal. In thick German/English he muttered " you better move your foot" but I couldn't comprehend his bad English....did not move my foot....and he looked at me for a brief moment before literally STOMPING on the shear pedal with all his weight. I just stared into blank space as the nerves on my metatarsal were lit up like lightning and he only looked at me through his perspective, paused, then asked "are you ok?"
To which I politely squeeked "yes sir, bit I wish I could have understood you better" while I spent the next five minutes quietly sobbing inside while my foot throbbed.
Karl got pissed off at me because I pointed out his terrible "Germ-Lish" and he stormed off, unable to delegate the rest of the task he had set me on. But - to this day and many more to come, the friggin guy is always in the back of my brain, carving sliver removers out of 16ga stainless with his bull snips (or toothpicks, your choice) to help you out. He was hard on green guys, but I'm sure anyone under his tenure pulled through to become the next three mentors' (be it field journeymen or shop foremen) apt pupils.
Thank you Karl and Brett
