Patrick Leach leach@s... Wrote ...
(edited)

So, when did it dawn on you that you were given to fits of
handtool fundamentalism?

This seems like a really good topic for the Oldtools group.

I too, was given a set of tools and a workbench around my fifth Christmas. I
don't remember much about what I built. My father was a cabinetmaker, and I
do remember making swords and daggers that kept breaking, so he showed me
that I had to select scraps where the grain ran along the length instead of
across it.

In 1966, after a stint in the Army, I tuned-in, turned-on, and dropped-out,
moved to San Francisco then ended up in Venice, CA, where I taught myself to
do leather work and opened a store. I made mostly sandals, belts, handbags
and clothing. I loved designing and making things from leather almost as
much as I liked rooting around junk stores, pawn shops, etc., looking for
old leather tools, and also usable woodworking tools. Hey-*acquiring* old
tools is part of the fundamentalism, too... I was mostly drawn to tools that
were beat to hell, because they seemed *old*. In hindsight, I wish I had
been sharper, and also looked for some in better condition, or some of the
other tools that are great old classics.

After college, where I studied sculpture and design, I became a contractor.
I billed myself as a designer-craftsman, and worked on the old houses around
here (they're from the turn of this century ... not old to a lot of you
east-coasters), and built furniture, mostly in the then-budding post-modern
style, which was based on borrowing heavily from older, traditional, styles.

Being a contractor, I was mostly influenced to use non-handtools, even
though I had used mostly hand tools earlier in my life, especially when
building a cabin and living in the woods with no electricity. I had
continued looking for old tools, and had begun selling them, too. As
building became more about wrestling with 4 by 8 sheets of one thing or
another, I stopped doing it, except to work on my own projects, and began to
spend more time as a tool dealer.

My most recent change to using hand tools was influenced partly by this
group, which made me realize that instead of using a belt sander to smooth
the edge of a board, a plane does a better job, and is not as dusty. It was
also from necessity. I was making some pine bookshelves for my wife at
Christmas a few years ago, and went to the woodworking store for molding.
All the pine molding was made from little finger-jointed pieces, and it
looked terrible, especially since I was using a clear finish. So, I made my
own, using a No. 55. I found it liberating to be able to make my own
moldings, and am planning projects to be built around them. I'm now trying
to get the antique tools storage, cleaning and photographing out of my shop
and into another room so I can use my shop without having to spend a lot of
time cleaning it out first.

Jon