Patrick Leach wrote:
> 
> So, when did it dawn on you that you were given to fits of
> handtool fundamentalism?

I wasn't going to get in on this thread but as I continued to read
something was becoming increasingly obvious: almost everyone else had a
head start!!

Everyone is saying how their Dad helped them get into woodworking. My
father's one, and only, talent is as a cook. I did learn a bit about
this from him (mom too). But woodworking?! Not a chance. For most of
the years of my youth we lived in mobile homes or trailers (4 people in
an 8x28 trailer for 6 years...) with metal siding set on concrete
blocks. I doubt very much whether he even owned a handsaw.

My first experience working with wood was JHS shop. Disaster! Next HS
shop. Ditto! Didn't think about wood again until I was about 30,
married, working full time for next-to-nothing and going to school. It
figures that this is when I'd first spot Norm on NYW. I was probably
saved from becoming a rabid Normite by nothing more than the twin evils
of my life: lack of money to buy tools with and lack of time to build
anything with even I had the tools which I didn't.

So for years I just watched and drooled. Over this time though Cindy
and I both became more and more amazed at the number of tools that he
seemed to need to build even a reasonably modest project. It became a
bit of a running joke for us ("... my dedicated 1/2" hollow chisel
morticer...") and I began to wonder whether there was something wrong
here.

Finally we bought a house where I'd be able to have a shop in the
basement and have room for tools!! That was when I found rec.ww looking
for advice on what TS to buy. That was also where I found Paddy, Steve,
Tom and some crackpot from back east named Patrick. I'd say that their
talk about handtools on rec.ww was when I was converted, but I'd be
lying. Indeed right after I went out and bought some of my tailed
helpers Cindy decided that she had better things for me to do with my
time so I dissappeared from the rec.ww scene for 6 or 8 months. Thus I
was gone when the fatefull announcement was made.

When I came back something seemed a bit strange. I never saw anything
from Steve (sorta like now on OldTools, eh?) and precious little from
Paddy. I was a bit puzzled, and a bit letdown as I always enjoyed
reading a well written piece and they were two of the few who routinely
managed to write reasonably well! Then Paddy posted "Why Powertools Are
Evil" and the voices started.... I sent him a message and got
directions to the porch. Started lurking on the archives and thinking
about it. Sent a message to Patrick asking for some recommendations and
then THE order (#5, #7, #45) which was the subject of my first ever
gloat. I don't think that I've read rec.ww more than 6 times since and
haven't enjoyed it any of those times.

So for me, at least, the voices are only a bit over 16 months old. This
is not to say, however, that they haven't pretty readily dominated my
"free" time since then (I think that the reason Cindy has been pretty
good about the amount of our disposable income that I've sunk into my
tools is that she is the reason that I don't have any time to use them.)

-Ken