OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

27608 John Carson <txcarson@a...> 1997‑10‑05 Bio, Lament, and Gloat (long)
Paddy's last message has prodded me into action so in keeping with many
previous messages heres the short and the long of it

Short version:
I'm a doctor
I broke my very first old tool
My dad recently handed down to me some old tools of my grandfather

Long version:

My dad although he was a doctor was a frugal man and did many home
maintenance chores himself.  Although he never got into woodworking as a
hobby his handyman activities caused him to have many tools both electric
and hand.  While growing up I had little interest in any of this and it was
not until I lived in my own dwelling did these skills and tools seem very
worthwhile ( this seems to be a predominate theme both here and on rec.norm
as to the beginning of woodworking interest).  Anyway while I was borrowing
my way through medical school money was very tight and so I went down the
handyman path starting with a lot of reading at the library (Lee Ward would
be proud :-)  )   Tools were acquired slowly both the tailed and non tailed
kind.  One thing led to another and building things out of wood became
almost an obsession.  My first handplane  was a Stanley no 7 that I bought
at a flea market around 10 years ago while I was in medical school.  I had
used it some at various times but did not think much about it as an old
tool because it had no markings that I could see and I didn't have a clue
about its age.  Several years ago I was planing a piece of oak with my kids
out in my garage shop and wasn't paying too much attention when I set it on
the edge of my workbench.  I turned around to watch my son who was also
planing another piece of oak with a block plane and when I did I knocked
the No 7 off the bench.  It landed nose first on the concrete floor.  I was
sickened!!  I kept the pieces and still have them.  A couple of years ago I
found rec.norm and not too long after that found oldtools.  When I first
started reading oldtools it was like a different language and I didn't stay
very long.  I did remember the names of Paddy and MofA and was always
impressed with their posts so I came back several times each time a little
more familiar with the language.  As the conversation on rec.norm became
more redundant and less civil I found myself more and more reading
oldtools.  As one of my anatomy professors repeated over and over "You
read, you learn" and that is what has happened.  I still am no expert but I
read enough to be able to figure out from the Stanley Plane dating page as
best as I can figure the No 7 I broke was probably a type 7 with the S
casting (needless to say that sickening feeling came back even worse)  The
silver lining is that last Thanksgiving my FIL gave me a No 7 he had bought
at a flea market and had been using to help build his new house.  It was a
type 11 with 3 patent dates but was missing the knob.  So I took the knob
off of the plane that I broke.  I still have visions of doing something to
try and fix that plane into some kind of user .  I even contemplated using
the Veritas Scraper plane insert to try and use it that way
(anybody have any idea if that might work?)
     Anyway, as far as the rest of my life- I finished medical school and
went on to be an Ophthalmologist (an eye surgeon Jeff- just joking)  I just
finished a three year stint in the Army at Ft Polk, LA and have moved to
Douglas, GA to go into private practice.  I am married and have 4 kids age
16, 10, 5, and 17 months.(boy,girl,boy,girl).  I hope in this changing
medical world to be able to pay off all of that debt that I accrued in
medical school.
Now, on to the gloat part of the post.  Recently, in discussing my interest
in oldtools with my dad he told me of several tools that had been passed on
to him after his mother died.  They belonged to his father who had died
when my dad was a young boy.  His father had used them to help build their
house in Charleston, SC in the early nineteen hundreds (he thinks around
1920)  Anyway my dad said he would be happy to give them to me and two
weeks ago while I was visiting he did.  The best find was a Sargent
equivalent of a Stanley 45.  This thing had been wrapped in an oily rag
along with the canvas roll up that contained the complete set of basic
cutters.  This plane was very close to being in like new condition and is
the prettiest tool that I have ever seen in person. He also gave me a
Sargent VBM transitional jointer also in great condition as well as a brace
and a drawknife that have no markings on them that I can see.  These tools
in addition to being great finds in their own right additionally have a
great amount of sentimental value that makes them almost priceless as far
as I am concerned ( I know, I know - any one can be bought for a price but 
it would probably have to be enough so that I could by the house that my
grandfather built!!)
In closing this post I have to say that I am endebted to the people that
post regularly on the porch for the knowledge and wit that they share so
readily and am looking forward to being able to post stupid questions
without worrying that I haven't posted a bio.  I suspect that I will be
much busier now than I was in the Army, so I may not be able to read the
list as much as I have in the past but I doubt that I will ever stop.  As
far as tools go I will never be a total neanderthal as I enjoy using tailed
apprentices as well but the chase of oldtools is almost as fun as using
them.  It is sometimes sort of embarassing when people find out you're a
doctor (I try to keep this a secret but am a pathological truth teller) as
you're stooping down in a dingy old flea market rummaging through a pile of
rusty old metal, but life is too short to care too much about what people
think (present company excepted)
 

In the King's service
Tex    ( txcarson@d... )

Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth
the countenance of his friend. 



Recent Bios FAQ