Galoots:

Let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Robert (Bob) Mc Cleary. I
am married to my childhood sweetheart that I met when she was seven
years old. We had two boys and two girls who are now married, and gone
out on there own in California, and New Mexico. We have three Welsh
Springer Spaniels, Angharad, Burton and Gareth, (Hi Snick n' Sandi). I
have almost completed my seventh decade, so I am well aware of the care
and attention needed for old fools, unh...tools. I was a dedicated
Pennsylvanian for nearly fifty years, and then I moved to California. I
lived life to the hilt in the Eastern tool and woodworking heaven near
Valley Forge, but now I miss its history, and the unlimited antique
anything-you-want-at-bargain-prices.

Following my profession in semiconductor engineering, I moved to the
Left Coast, and the little cowboy town of Morgan Hill, CA. Life here is
good, purchasing old tools is the pits. The only joy in tool sources
comes from the MofA (shameless shill), and an occasional flea market
not-too-rusty nugget.

I have maintained a low profile among you Galoots, sort of a Turkey
Lurky if you will, because I think I of myself as a SNAGONE (Surely Not
A Galoot Or Neanderthal Either). For the last six months I have been
drifting around the fringes of oldtools, picking up good woodworking
information, and good hand tools. I have only gone public once because I
have little general interest information to contribute, and I am also
about 50% metalhead oriented. Because one of my lifetime avocations is
gunsmithing, (Heavens to Stanley.....He Is A GUN NUT!), I try to keep a
low profile and not cause nervousness, lest you know I am less than
politically correct. Well, I should also make a clean breast of the
whole sordid mess. I am also a Life Member of the National Rifle
Association. Egad! Sweep him under the porch.

For those of you who haven't tuned me out yet, the woodworking parts of
gunsmithing are stockmaking, cabinets, shooting boxes, benches, etc.,
and require a lot of the old tools which we all treasure. This includes
carving, and general woodworking tools. Even, dare I say it, some P***r
tools. Oh, Oh, now I have gone too far. I won't give up my bandsaw!

I specialize in making replica flintlock and percussion rifles and
pistols, and all the accoutrements like powder horns, bullets, buttons,
clothing and possibles bags from the pre-American Revolution period,
(sorry Jeff Gorman), through the Civil War (or War of States Rights, as
some would have it). There is possibly something here to offend
everyone. Sorry about that.

With head hung low, I shuffle back to the obscurity of lurk mode, and
away from the company of real woodworkers.

There, I did it.

Bob