Tolkien does quite a good line in Sheddies, actually. I wonder was he writing from experience? He was known to be pretty good at DIY after all (and I can vouch for the fact that the trellis he put up on the fence at Northmoor Road sometime in the 1930s is a sturdy construction because I poked at it), and all those late nights in his study...these characterisations of masculinity could be based on experience.
