OldTools Archive
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165603 | David Nelson <macher@p...> | 2006‑12‑12 | Warning bio |
Since I have been lurking here for about eight years and received much good advice from the members I guess it is about time that I submit a bio. My first exposure to woodworking was during World War II. We lived with my grandparents in Duluth, MN, while my father went around the country working for the Army Corp of Engineers. My grandfather was a carpenter who built his house in 1895 and then made the furniture to go in it. The house was like a museum collection of Mission style and Arts and Crafts furniture. His shop was in the basement and I would go down there with him and “help” out. I still have a chair we worked on together in 1943. Fast forward to 1958. We now live in Whittier, CA. I am just out of the Navy and go halves with my father for a Craftsman radial arm saw. I inherited about several hand tools from my grandfather, but the power tools are of more interest to me. We made several built-in pieces for my parent’s house and a primitive workbench. My first project for my own home in 1963 was a built-in bathroom cabinet. It was a design from Sunset Magazine. It had sliding doors made of pegboard and goes downhill from there. I continued to use power tools for projects for the various houses my wife and I lived in. Beginning in 1966 I started buying old tools at flea markets, mainly Stanley planes. When I graduated from college in 1968 I set some career goals for myself. I planned to have met them all by 1990. I actually met them in 1981 and wanted another challenge in life, one that would last me through retirement and beyond. I decided to attempt to build furniture that my wife would allow in the house. By 1979 my wife, two children and I were living in Los Gatos, CA. I bought a book called “A Cabinet Maker’s Notebook”. I was really impressed with the quality of finish and overall appearance achieved with hand tools. I sharpened a couple of planes and my chisels and started using hand tools more. I continued to purchase old tools at the local flea market. In 1981 I completed my first major project. It was a 10 by 8 foot five bay bookshelf with room for a television in the center bay, glazed doors on the top and raised panel doors on the bottom. As far as I know it is still in the family room of the house. One day around 1984 I happened upon a loom that was in pieces in a box. I bought it, took it home and assembled it. I made my first project on the loom and got hooked on weaving. The next six years, and a larger loom, I spent weaving various items. Woodworking was limited to making parts for the loom and items for our house. All this time I had been building my tool collection via the flea market. Around 1991 a friend came to me and asked if I could make a replacement for a quarter sawn oak pendulum rod for an antique clock he had. I said I would try. The rod was a flattened football shape. I was trying to figure out how to duplicate the rod when I came across a wooden plane that was a match to the rod. It was a number 20 hollow. I sharpened the iron and proceeded to duplicate the rod. Shortly after this I sold the loom and all of the attachments and decided to concentrate on woodworking. I also started buying wooden planes. In 1993 I selected several items from Norm Vandal’s book on Queen Anne furniture and asked my wife to pick one. She picked the tea table with the slide out candle platforms. A year-and-a-half later the table was completed and was granted permission to enter the house. It sat in the entry hall and was the first thing a visitor saw when they entered our home. The next year I concentrated on various shaker items and made some mission style wastebaskets I sold to an antique store. My wife decided it was time for her to have a Bonnet Top Queen Anne entertainment center for the bedroom. The piece was a regular highboy like the one in Norm Vandal’s book with the drawers in the upper cabinet replaced with raised panel doors. By this time I was using hand tools most of the time. I built the base and put it in the bedroom with the TV on it. Since I was going to make the raised panel doors by hand I built a Shaker chimney cabinet to practice on. The upper part was then built and assembled to the base with screws so we could move it. The whole project took three years. By 1997 I was on the internet with tool dealers in England and my collecting accelerated. By this time most of my Stanley planes were sold to finance my wooden plane collection. In 2002 the company I was working for had a cutback and my job was eliminated. My wife and I decided retire, sell our house in Silicon Valley and find a new home where I would have room for my shop and a vegetable garden. We found a house in Folsom, CA, that has what we both want. Since moving into our new home I have made several small items for various rooms. The most comprehensive project was a complete floor to ceiling remake of our computer room. I started by replacing the carpet with a hickory floor. I then made two 9-1/2 foot by 30 inch cabinets to go on either side of a work surface. One end of the work surface sits on a 12 inch diameter fluted pedestal; the other is anchored to a wall. The whole project is made of white oak lumber and plywood. The 12 glazed doors and the four raised panel doors for the bookshelves were made entirely by hand, as was the cornice molding. This project took six months. I learned a lesson here. Do not show your wife your molding plane collection and ask her to “pick one” for the molding. She chose a 2-1/2 inch cornice molder. It took about three days to make 12 feet of oak molding with it. I lost a month in January because it was too cold in the garage to put on the varnish. I finally completed a mahogany Chippendale footstool from Andy Marlow’s book. The parts had been sitting around for about four years while I worked on other items. My sister was the recipient of a mahogany Canterbury sheet music holder also delayed for the same amount of time. My mother-in-law received a walnut shadow box with a picture of her father in his World War One army uniform with his ribbons and medals mounted in it. Now that the house commitments have been fulfilled I have the time for a couple of projects I have wanted to do for myself. The first is completing eight sash doweling boxes to go with my collection of English sash maker’s tools. This was finished in May of 2006 and displayed at the PAST meeting in Sonoma, CA this past August. In November I started work on a reproduction of the Seaton tool chest. The original is in a museum in England. I am using a book written about the chest as well as some drawings of it as a guide for project. In addition to the chest I will need to make some tools that duplicate the ones made by the builder of the chest. I plan to display the chest as well as examples of the tools that are in it in September, 2007 at the PAST meeting in Sonoma, CA. My tool collection consists of about 170 planes and ephemera from Varvill of York, England, another 100 English molding and joiners planes, about 200 sash maker’s tools including molding planes and other related tools and about 50 Ward and Payne chisels and plow plane irons. I also have several rolls of carving chisels I have used on various projects. I collect Varvill tools because they consistently stamped the name of the molding or type on the plane. With few exceptions I stay away from rare items. I want to tune up and use any of my tools at any time without worrying about ruining a rare or unique item. I have used about 25% of the Varvill tools and most of the chisels on various projects. I am not certain what I will build after the tool chest. I have mahogany for the legs and pedestal of a pie crust table in my garage waiting for the go ahead from SWMBO. Dave Nelson, Folsom, CA, December, 2006 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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165605 | DCarr10760@a... | 2006‑12‑12 | Re: Warning bio |
Dave Nelson speaks: >>My tool collection consists of about 170 planes and >>ephemera from Varvill of York, England, another 100 >>English molding and joiners planes, about 200 sash >>maker=E2=80=99s tools including molding planes and other >>related tools and about 50 Ward and Payne chisels and >>plow plane irons. I also have several rolls of >>carving chisels I have used on various projects. Sounds like a real good start! ;-) Dave and I have emailed before given our mutual interest in the Seaton Chest. Welcome to the porch it's a nice bunch of folks with lots of knowledge to share. Make sure you post some pictures of the Chest as it goes together! David Carroll In Branford CT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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165609 | <don.bruey@t...> | 2006‑12‑13 | RE: Warning bio |
Thanks for sharing that bio. I really enjoyed reading it. As someone who is still in the early stages of hand tool use and accumulation, I'd be interested to see your molding plane collection - do you have any pictures you can post somewhere? Don Bruey in Ann Arbor, MI -----Original Message----- From: oldtools-bounces@r... [mailto:oldtools-bounces@r...] On Behalf Of David Nelson Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 7:26 PM To: oldtools@r... Subject: [OldTools] Warning bio Since I have been lurking here for about eight years and received much good advice from the members I guess it is about time that I submit a bio. My first exposure to woodworking was during World War II. We lived with my grandparents in Duluth, MN, while my father went around the country working for the Army Corp of Engineers. My grandfather was a carpenter who built his house in 1895 and then made the furniture to go in it. The house was like a museum collection of Mission style and Arts and Crafts furniture. His shop was in the basement and I would go down there with him and "help" out. I still have a chair we worked on together in 1943. Fast forward to 1958. We now live in Whittier, CA. I am just out of the Navy and go halves with my father for a Craftsman radial arm saw. I inherited about several hand tools from my grandfather, but the power tools are of more interest to me. We made several built-in pieces for my parent's house and a primitive workbench. My first project for my own home in 1963 was a built-in bathroom cabinet. It was a design from Sunset Magazine. It had sliding doors made of pegboard and goes downhill from there. I continued to use power tools for projects for the various houses my wife and I lived in. Beginning in 1966 I started buying old tools at flea markets, mainly Stanley planes. When I graduated from college in 1968 I set some career goals for myself. I planned to have met them all by 1990. I actually met them in 1981 and wanted another challenge in life, one that would last me through retirement and beyond. I decided to attempt to build furniture that my wife would allow in the house. By 1979 my wife, two children and I were living in Los Gatos, CA. I bought a book called "A Cabinet Maker's Notebook". I was really impressed with the quality of finish and overall appearance achieved with hand tools. I sharpened a couple of planes and my chisels and started using hand tools more. I continued to purchase old tools at the local flea market. In 1981 I completed my first major project. It was a 10 by 8 foot five bay bookshelf with room for a television in the center bay, glazed doors on the top and raised panel doors on the bottom. As far as I know it is still in the family room of the house. One day around 1984 I happened upon a loom that was in pieces in a box. I bought it, took it home and assembled it. I made my first project on the loom and got hooked on weaving. The next six years, and a larger loom, I spent weaving various items. Woodworking was limited to making parts for the loom and items for our house. All this time I had been building my tool collection via the flea market. Around 1991 a friend came to me and asked if I could make a replacement for a quarter sawn oak pendulum rod for an antique clock he had. I said I would try. The rod was a flattened football shape. I was trying to figure out how to duplicate the rod when I came across a wooden plane that was a match to the rod. It was a number 20 hollow. I sharpened the iron and proceeded to duplicate the rod. Shortly after this I sold the loom and all of the attachments and decided to concentrate on woodworking. I also started buying wooden planes. In 1993 I selected several items from Norm Vandal's book on Queen Anne furniture and asked my wife to pick one. She picked the tea table with the slide out candle platforms. A year-and-a-half later the table was completed and was granted permission to enter the house. It sat in the entry hall and was the first thing a visitor saw when they entered our home. The next year I concentrated on various shaker items and made some mission style wastebaskets I sold to an antique store. My wife decided it was time for her to have a Bonnet Top Queen Anne entertainment center for the bedroom. The piece was a regular highboy like the one in Norm Vandal's book with the drawers in the upper cabinet replaced with raised panel doors. By this time I was using hand tools most of the time. I built the base and put it in the bedroom with the TV on it. Since I was going to make the raised panel doors by hand I built a Shaker chimney cabinet to practice on. The upper part was then built and assembled to the base with screws so we could move it. The whole project took three years. By 1997 I was on the internet with tool dealers in England and my collecting accelerated. By this time most of my Stanley planes were sold to finance my wooden plane collection. In 2002 the company I was working for had a cutback and my job was eliminated. My wife and I decided retire, sell our house in Silicon Valley and find a new home where I would have room for my shop and a vegetable garden. We found a house in Folsom, CA, that has what we both want. Since moving into our new home I have made several small items for various rooms. The most comprehensive project was a complete floor to ceiling remake of our computer room. I started by replacing the carpet with a hickory floor. I then made two 9-1/2 foot by 30 inch cabinets to go on either side of a work surface. One end of the work surface sits on a 12 inch diameter fluted pedestal; the other is anchored to a wall. The whole project is made of white oak lumber and plywood. The 12 glazed doors and the four raised panel doors for the bookshelves were made entirely by hand, as was the cornice molding. This project took six months. I learned a lesson here. Do not show your wife your molding plane collection and ask her to "pick one" for the molding. She chose a 2-1/2 inch cornice molder. It took about three days to make 12 feet of oak molding with it. I lost a month in January because it was too cold in the garage to put on the varnish. I finally completed a mahogany Chippendale footstool from Andy Marlow's book. The parts had been sitting around for about four years while I worked on other items. My sister was the recipient of a mahogany Canterbury sheet music holder also delayed for the same amount of time. My mother-in-law received a walnut shadow box with a picture of her father in his World War One army uniform with his ribbons and medals mounted in it. Now that the house commitments have been fulfilled I have the time for a couple of projects I have wanted to do for myself. The first is completing eight sash doweling boxes to go with my collection of English sash maker's tools. This was finished in May of 2006 and displayed at the PAST meeting in Sonoma, CA this past August. In November I started work on a reproduction of the Seaton tool chest. The original is in a museum in England. I am using a book written about the chest as well as some drawings of it as a guide for project. In addition to the chest I will need to make some tools that duplicate the ones made by the builder of the chest. I plan to display the chest as well as examples of the tools that are in it in September, 2007 at the PAST meeting in Sonoma, CA. My tool collection consists of about 170 planes and ephemera from Varvill of York, England, another 100 English molding and joiners planes, about 200 sash maker's tools including molding planes and other related tools and about 50 Ward and Payne chisels and plow plane irons. I also have several rolls of carving chisels I have used on various projects. I collect Varvill tools because they consistently stamped the name of the molding or type on the plane. With few exceptions I stay away from rare items. I want to tune up and use any of my tools at any time without worrying about ruining a rare or unique item. I have used about 25% of the Varvill tools and most of the chisels on various projects. I am not certain what I will build after the tool chest. I have mahogany for the legs and pedestal of a pie crust table in my garage waiting for the go ahead from SWMBO. Dave Nelson, Folsom, CA, December, 2006 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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165612 | "Ken Greenberg" <ken@c...> | 2006‑12‑13 | Re: Warning bio |
On 12 Dec 2006 at 16:25, David Nelson wrote: > My tool collection consists of about 170 planes and > ephemera from Varvill of York, England, another 100 > English molding and joiners planes, about 200 sash > makerTMs tools including molding planes and other > related tools and about 50 Ward and Payne chisels and > plow plane irons. I also have several rolls of > carving chisels I have used on various projects. I > collect Varvill tools because they consistently > stamped the name of the molding or type on the plane. You should have seen it before he decided to thin out his collection and only focus on what he's got now. There used to be a bunch of American-made molding planes too... -Ken, who has a plane or two that used to be Dave's Ken Greenberg (ken@c...) 667 Brush Creek Rd., Santa Rosa, CA 95404 http://www.calast.com/personal/ken/wood.htm Visit the oldtools book list at http://www.calast.com/personal/ken/booklist.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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