They say one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. But turning junk into something beautiful is an art in itself.
For that, you need an artist. But not the kind who works in oils or clay.
In this case, the artist is Joe Nemes, an 88-year-old machinist who sees beauty in stuff you’d probably throw out. While his day job for years has been turning out functional parts for various machines, these days his creations are smokin’ hot.
Why? Because they’re smoking stands—pedestal ashtrays that harken back to between 1920 and 1960. You might find one in a thrift store, dusty and worn after a century of use. By the time that Nemes gets done restoring them, you might want one in your home, even if you don’t smoke.
Each restoration is different.
“I don’t have any two that are alike. I’ve got some that are similar, but none that are alike,” Nemes said. He picks them up in antique malls or thrift stores for anywhere from $50 to $500.
He has restored more than 50 smoking stands. If you think that he’d have a thriving business selling these, well, he just can’t let them go. His daughter Denise has suggested that he put them up for sale.
She told The Epoch Times: “I said, ‘Dad, there are people worldwide who would love to have these.’ But he said, ‘No, I don’t think I want to get rid of them.’”
Nemes doesn’t do this for the money.
“I could sell them, but it’s not something that I create just to sell,” he said. “Most of the time, I pick them up, and they’re not in pristine condition, so I polish them up and do some detail work.”
He uses his years of experience in his machine shop to make any missing parts, such as the rim for the ashtray.
“I buy the stainless steel sheets, then I get it laser cut, and I make a die so that I can put a curve into it. Then I snap them into position,“ Nemes said. ”It’s just something that I do.”
A Path in the Trades
Nemes has always felt comfortable around what most people consider junk, as his father had a wrecking business. It was the largest auto wrecking yard in Ohio in 1929, and it served as a great hangout for Nemes once he reached 10 years old.“That was my playground when I was a child,” he said. “I’d go down to the junkyard with all kinds of different cars there. I figured out how to get one started. And then I just drove cars around there, to my dad’s chagrin.”
When his father asked him what he was doing, he simply told him he was learning how to drive.
His love of working with his hands goes back to 1950, when, as a 14-year-old, he met the principal of a vocational school. Nemes still remembers the conversation. “He said: ‘If you want to learn a trade and be able to build a job when you get out of high school, come to Howard Vocational. If you want to go on and do something different, don’t come to our school,’” he recalled.
He chose the machine shop as his classroom.
Upon graduation, he worked for various industries until 1985, when he bought his own machine shop. He still owns it today, with one of his four daughters and his granddaughter running the business. He drops by a few days a week to spend time with his 10 employees in the place where he feels most at home.
There’s currently a push in the United States to get young people interested in trade careers. Nemes said being a tradesman is a great gig.
“Well, look at it this way,” he said. “The very basic, simple things that a plumber needs are a pair of channel locks, two kinds of screwdrivers, and a pipe wrench, and he can charge you $100.
“The machine shop is a steady business. And with the modern machines, it’s a clean environment; it’s safe.”
While these are good-paying jobs, Nemes said there’s something special about working with your hands that goes beyond a paycheck.
“There’s a lot of creativity. It'll keep your attention,” he said.
The old stigma of learning a trade is also gone.
“Back in the day, it was, OK, you’re going to a vocational school. Oh, you must be a dummy,” Nemes said. “Well, I’ve had a pretty successful life.”
His daughter Denise said that one can learn a lot from people like her father.
“These older people in their 80s have a lot to offer,” she said. “They have brilliant information.”
An employer once gave Nemes what he considers to be a great compliment. “He said, ‘If you drop Joe on an island somewhere, the first thing he'd do is walk around and try to figure out how he could make some money on whatever was laying around,’” Nemes said.
With his 90th birthday a year and a half away, Nemes will continue looking for those diamonds in the rough.
