(attempting to not be intimidated by the fine bio posted by John R. Ruth...)
Here is my story -
I grew up taking wood shop classes in junior high and high school (I
can still hear Brother Norbert, my high school advisor, telling me I
needed to take a foreign language to get into a good college and me
explaining to him that I would rather take wood shop!). I managed my
way through college (wood working skills play as much a part as a
foreign language) - math and computer science degrees. I have been
working in the computer industry (primarily as a Macintosh software
engineer) for about 15 years.
I have been doing some wood working for that past 10 years -
occasionally taking a class (more below) and making things for my
wife, our home and later for my daughter. In the last couple of years
I have been taking some classes and workshops from a fellow named
Gary Rogowski who operates The Northwest Woodworking Studio in
Portland, Oregon (http://www.northwestwoodworking.com). While Gary
has a shop full of power tools (and uses them often) he has
incredible hand tools skills - virtually all of his classes and
workshops have significant hand tool components. The first workshop I
went to was about hand planes - tuning, sharpening and using - I got
hooked and have been buying and using many hand tools for my wood
working ever since. Garrett Hack is coming to Portland this Fall at
NWS - I am signed up and anxious to see him go at it.
I have a good bunch (purposely avoiding the word 'collection') of
hand planes - mostly Stanley, Sargent and Keen Kutter bench planes.
My favorite is a Keen Kutter K5 (same as the early Bed Rock 605) that
was my grand father's (I never did meet him, the plane came to me via
my father) - it has a Hock iron in it and does a fine job of finish
smoothing. Chisels (too many of which have blue plastic handles - but
recently came into 6 socketed chisels in need of handles), an old
brace (marked Victor No. 965 for those that care) that I am getting
the hang of, a number of measuring/marking tools (some I made, some
great Brown & Sharp and Starrett stuff). A few saws (gents, nice
dovetail saw marked Jackson, and a couple of crosscut saws that
belonged to my wife's grandfather). And the usual bunch of other
miscellaneous tools.
All of this stuff is lodged in a wall hung cabinet that I made last
year. I work on a bench that I made in a two weekend NWS class last
January - we bought the maple tops and built trestle-style
undercarriages with wedged through tenons - it is fantastic to have a
good solid bench to work on. I will try to get pictures of the tool
cabinet and work bench onto a web page soon.
I am very fortunate to have a wife that that is supportive of my
hobbies - she has been the recipient of a number of wood working
projects - jewelry box, spice rack, and a book case that is in (slow)
progress. Cathy enjoys the occasional stop at an antique store and
seems to have a good eye for spotting tools buried amongst the other
stuff. The old tool hunting is pretty slim in Oregon (as compared to
the stories that I have been reading on OLDTOOLS for the past 6
months), but occasionally there is a gem to be had. We have a
wonderful 5 year old daughter who loves to hang out with dad in the
shop - she has some tools (hammer, stamps and a couple of planes - a
Stanley 101 and a Sarget 407) that she likes to play with.
My other hobby is flying - we own and fly a 1948 Stinson Station
Wagon (see http://home.criticalpath.com/splons/idaho_trip/). Great
for trips to the beach, camping in Idaho, etc. The only problem with
having two very enjoyable hobbies is finding time to pursue them.
I enjoy reading the OLDTOOLS digests very much - I have learned a
number of interesting things and been inspired to expand my hand tool
horizons. Thank you for the great diversion from the (typical) rat
race of the computer world.
I have been saving up my questions (wanted to get this bio in first)
- so brace for a few newbie postings.
thanks,
steve
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