OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

72923 "Carl J. Chimi" <cchimi@p...> 1999‑12‑29 Bio: The Professor
Esteemed Galoots,

Howdy.  I've been poking my nose around the porch for a couple months now, and
figure it's about time I posted a bio, before someone makes me polish a
spittoon or
go for beer.

My name is Carl J. Chimi ("Key-me").  I am a 46-year-old professor of
information
systems at a state university in Pennsylvania, USA.  I am originally a
Massachusetts boy, having grown up near Boston, and moved to Western Mass when
I
was about 30.  I moved to PA when I was about 40, and finally got my own house
about 2 years ago.  I've been busily transforming part of my basement into a
workshop ever since.

BTW - On a musician's mailing list that I subscribe to, they found out that I
am a
professor and started to kid me about it, so I insisted that they all call me
"The
Professor", and the name has stuck.  I'd be pleased and honored if you all woul
d
call me that, or "Prof", but "Carl" is fine, too, if you have some bad memory
of a
professor in your past.

My dad was a construction supervisor and I went to work with him and my uncles
a
lot when I was a teenager.  I was truly awful with a hammer and saw.  In shop
class, I could never do anything right, and hated working with planes because
they
just chattered and we were never taught to sharpen anything so that it would
work
correctly.

I started to watch Nahm about 12 years ago or so, and really liked how easy he
made
everything seem.  As I was able to, I acquired a bunch of unmentionable p*w*h
t**ls, and hooked them up to a dust collector.  For a while, I busily fussed
with
those tools.  Some were great, some, like my j**nt*r, were more trouble than
they
were worth.  And they are loud, and make me feel unsafe (although I try really
hard
to always be safety conscious).  I use them when I want to, which is less and
less
often, since gaining skill with and a feeling for my hand tools has become
almost a
devotional practice for me.

Several years ago, I saw Roy Underhill on TV.  I began to understand that it wa
s
possible to do things by hand, and that the work might be somehow more
satisfying
(for me) if I worked as much as possible by hand.  Much quieter, too.

I had a new hardware store-bought Stanley #5, a Stanley low-angle block and a
regular block, and a Record #7.  The Stanleys all were terrible right out of th
e
box.  The Record was not bad.  But none of them, I know now, really was any
good.

The turning point for me happened last spring when John Gunterman kindly
invited me
up to his basement shop to show me his L-N planes.  He worked on my Stanley #5,
and
put a sharp Hock iron in it.  Suddenly a really crappy plane worked really well
.
He showed me saws that could actually follow lines!  This was really amazing to
me,
and I'm very grateful to John for taking the time with a newbie.

Since then, I've read a lot, and spent a lot of time acquiring tools and
building a
small bench based on the one in one of Roy's books.  I've spent hours teaching
myself to sharpen my chisels and plane irons.  I now feel that I can take a
plane
and tune it so that it performs pretty well, although I still have problems
sometimes getting my chipbreakers to sit right.

Today I had some friends over.  They wanted to use my D*W*lt pl*n*r and my
Gr*zzl*
j**nt*r  and my R**b* t*bl*s*w to build a toychest for a new baby in their
family.
At one point, as we fussed with the j**nt*r to get rid of snipe (really to
minimize
it, since it never seems to really go away), I asked if I could try an
experiment.
They all watched in rapt attention as I used my #7 to joint the edge of a popla
r
board about four feet long.  Some of the shavings only had one side!  When I
asked
if anyone else wanted to try, they all declined as if that sort of manual work
was
distasteful when we could just fuss with the noisy machine for 45 minutes to
get it
to do what the #7 does without any fuss.  I enjoyed the experience, but was
bemused
by their reactions.

I have a bunch of other planes I'd love to detail, but modesty forbids.  I'd
like
to find a good #289 (skewed rabbet/rebate plane, Jeff), and I'm waiting
anxiously
for the skewed rabbet with fence set up for a lefty like me that Steve Knight
has
promised me.  I also want to know more about saws, having just got a really nic
e
D-8 rip from Pete Taran.

You can never have enough tools.  I'm trying to have my workshop tools, my
traveling tools, and my Sunday-go-to-meeting tools.

Thanks for all the help so far.  I hope I learn enough so that I can actually
help
some people on the list.

Yer pal,

The Professor



Recent Bios FAQ