Greetings esteemed and gentle Galoots,

I've procrastinated posting my bio long enough so here it is.  Since
talking about me is one of my favorite topics, I suspect this post will be
ridiculously long and a potent cure for insomnia before it's finished.

My desire to make things from wood started a long time before I ever even
considered the term woodworker.  Growing up on a small farm, my brother
and I spent many hours in the local woods building forts and tree houses
from whatever pieces of wood we could gather from the forest floor or chop
down with a hatchet.  The first project I set out to build from real
lumber was a simple set of stairs for the side door of my Mom's garage. 
Nothing complicated, just three steps to replace the cinderblock we used
to get in and out of the garage.  I soon learned that building things
takes patience and planning and, although I didn't realize it at the time,
I now appreciate the utility of the geometry and trigonometry classes that
I gave about 10% effort in when I took them in high school.  The stairs
ended up being kind of ugly and required some shimming under the base to
make them level but, all-in-all, it proved to be a huge improvement from
the cinderblock step it replaced and gave me some sense of accomplishment.

For the next 20 or so years, every project I took on was sort of based on
this utilitarian aspect; mostly shelves for this or that.  During that
time, I slowly developed an appreciation for fine craftsmanship and
somewhere in the back of my mind I always new that someday I'd set up a
shop for all kinds of projects.  My original vision of a dream shop came
from Roy Underhill's Woodwrights Shop program on PBS.  I absolutely loved
that show from the first time I saw it, especially the beginning of the
show when he walked out to his rustic shop and slid that big door open.  A
lot of time has passed since those initial ideas for a shop and there's a
world of difference between the rural area of Ohio where I first started
dreaming and the Southern California planned community I find myself in
now.  So, my dream shop has been modified slightly but the goal is still
the same; to have an area suitable for projects but also a place where I
can simply escape and ponder life's mysteries while accomplishing nothing
of measure.

My start down the slope started like many others'.  At first I wanted a
shop full of the biggest and bestest wood-shredding machines available,
but I had neither the space nor the funds for that.  I don't remember what
the impetus was, but for some reason I decided to hit some garage sales
one Saturday to look for used tools.  I guess you could call it beginner's
luck as I did pretty well that day bringing home an 8" sweep Millers Falls
bit brace and a Type 15 Bailey #4 (iron smooth plane, Jeff)).  That
afternoon, I sat in my gar..err...shop admiring the tools and
contemplating where they'd been and what they'd built.  There was no doubt
about it; I was hooked.  That was a little over a year ago and, thanks to
TSGFH, ;^> I've managed to accumulate a nice assortment of tools of all
manner and even use some of them.  I've made a lot of progress builing a
reasonble facsimile of a real woodworking bench and hope to be dazzling
LOML in the not-to-distant future with fine, hand-crafted trinkets.

I spend my weekdays as a biochemist working on esoteric problems that
don't have a whole lot to do with biochemistry, per se.  In my spare time
(what spare time?), I accumulate old tools (surprise!), spend lots of time
doing yard work/landscaping, occasionally dabble in old tool usage, and
surf as much as possible (preferably in the ocean rather than on the net).
 I love to hike and camp and climb rocks and trees and all of that Huck
Finn kinda stuff but don't seem to get 'round to it anymore.  But my shop
is coming along and there is a peace found there that is a rare treasure
nowadays.

Finally, I am grateful that I stumbled onto the Porch that fateful day
about a year or so ago.  I didn't know diddly about old tools, or
woodworking for that matter, but was welcomed nonetheless.  I don't
suppose I need to go on about this since you all know what I'm talking
about but I want to say "thank you all" for providing such a warm and
thought-provoking place to put down my rocking chair and sit a spell. 
It's been a pleasure.

Best regards,
Mike Lietzow, Carlsbad, CA

--- Jonathan Peck  wrote:
> can't wait to see your first project completed
> with....your own homemade beeswax 
> polish
> 
> Regards
> Jonathan
> 

I second this. I just finished putting on the last
coat of my own home-made beeswax polish and I love it.
Granted, it would have been more special if the bees
had been mine as well. I did start out with raw
beeswax with lots of bee bits it in and filtered it to
begin with. 

For those who're recent to the list, our own Tony Seo
has a page out there somewhere, hopefully someone will
poste it, with The Magic Recipe. Basically, it's
pretty much equal parts beeswax, linseed oil (BLO) and
either turpentine or mineral spirits. I use a big
steel mixing bowl over a large pot of simmering water
for a cheap and easily controlled double boiler. I put
a large pyrex measuring cup with water in the bowl as
a double precaution. It melts the wax gently and won't
even set the mineral spirits on fire. (my first
attempt left the wax clumpy and unmelted. I put it in
the water in the bowl over the pan making sure no
water in the pan touched the bottom of the bowl. It
melted like a charm and all came together.) Just make
sure you have a dedicated bowl and measuring cup and
you're not borrowing the ones used for food. Right Al?

The only thing I'd change next time is perhaps
increase the percentage of beeswax as my stuff is just
a bit too runny at room temperature. I put it in the
fridge where it firms up nicely. 

It takes a little longer to dry to a haze than I
thought it might, but it may be the higher oil-wax
ratio. Once it does haze up and I buff it, man it is
just gorgeous. 

I had fun making it, and it's special enough when I
started with someone else's raw beeswax. It would be
even better if I knew the bees personally. :-)

Do it! Just go to the archives and search on "beeswax"
and you'll find everything you need to know. 

AAAndrew
Tomorrow night you'll see the pictures and then no
more mentioning of the table for which I'm sure you're
all gratefull. 

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Hi and welcome aboard

Come on over here and set yerself down for a spell. One thing you can do
with tools that you can't do in an office is....tada...family project.
Git's (galoots in training) love sawing, hammering and drilling.

>Occasionally I keep bees, too. Last year a giant windstorm came through
>and blew the bees right out of the hive. I forgot to reorder this last
>winter - and it's probably too late to get much of a start for this
>year. Perhaps I'll start a new hive next year.
>

can't wait to see your first project completed with....your own homemade
beeswax polish

Regards Jonathan

Seem that's how it all gets started, someone shows you what a tools best 
for,and how to use it and "Bang" You end up on a web sight of this 
nature,wich just happens to be made up of some of the best peaple that I've 
ever run upon.(excuse the spelling thing, never been much on it).
  Many welcomes.
Been many of a year since I've lived in Tucson.Spent serveral years of my 
early teen age life in South Tucson, S. Tennessee st. At that time I was the 
only "gringo" withen ten blocks.Good neighborhood once you got in. got my 
first learning of plane at Wakefield Jr. H. Wonder if it's still there.
  Then as now the local thing was a"fortune behind every tree". For those 
who aren't aware the average humiitaty is something like 9% on the yearly 
average, and trees are like snow-balls in Key west.
         As I allow many welcomes and enjoy,Lamar

>From: "Anne Watson" 
>Reply-To: "Anne Watson" 
>To: "oldtools" 
>Subject: [oldtools] Bio
>Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 13:32:27 -0700
>
>Guess I better submit one.
>Anne Watson, Tucson, Az.  Where wood dries and cracks on the way home from
>the lumberyard.
>
>Years ago someone showed me how to sharpen and old Stanley Pane and I have
>been a user and collector ever since.
>
>Not that there is a lot to choose from in Arizona.
>Spent a few years working at an antique store where i managed to snag some
>planes that were in pretty bad shape, Certainly nothing that a collector
>would really want, but with the use of lots of vinegar got them back 
>working
>again.
>
>Since spring has sprung again today, spent a couple of hours building a
>mallet - filled with shot and using my Stanley 63 spokeshave to shape the
>handle.  At first I could not get it to work at all but after my hands got
>tired forcing it, all of a sudden it started taking off nice little
>shavings.
>Anne
>
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "hb" 
>To: "oldtools" 
>Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 10:00 AM
>Subject: Re: [oldtools] more deck questions
>
>
> >
> > SNIP
> >   My concern is that while a wooden
> > > pin has good sheer
> > > resistance across its grain, and works well for
> > > holding a tenon in its
> > > mortise, I'm unsure how well it will hold if there
> > > is a force pulling
> > > the board directly away from the support member?
> > >
> > You could put a saw kerf in each end of each dowel so
> > that it will accept a wedge, then your borings would
> > need to be slightly enlarged toward their bottoms,
> > then insert a wedge in each saw kerf so that the
> > dowels expand slightly and lock into place when driven
> > home.
> >
> > Just a thought.
> >
> > Good Luck.
> >
> > HB - it's raining again....
> >
> >
> >
> > __________________________________
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> >
> > Archive: http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/
> > To unsubscribe or change options, use the web interface:
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>
>
>
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