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123687 "Robert D. Buskirk" <Buz.Buskirk@e...> 2003‑10‑27 Bio for Buz Buskirk
I promised that I would finally send a bio. Here it is, albeit long.

I was raised in Parkersburg, WV. I was introduced to woodworking
though my father's shop. He was a contractor who specialized in
remodeling and repair. As part of this business he (later my brother
and I) made custom kitchen cabinets, built-ins and miscellaneous
fabrications. Hence, we had more or less a real shop. My brother and I
learned the basics of most of the constructions trades, including some
rudimentary hand tool skills. The real hand tools, many of which were
my grandfather's were kept in a special tool box in the truck.

He was an old-fashioned, country farmer on self-sufficient spread. He
made a lot of the furniture in his own shop in truly galoot fashion,
because electrons had not made it to his place until the 30's. Some of
these have actually survived and are part of my shop now. Mom told me
that his shop shelves were filled with woodies. He was apparently a
wizard with his drawknife. They used the heap of shavings outside the
shop for compost for the vegetable garden. I have his drawknife and
#3, with what I think is the last sharpening he ever put on it. Hence,
that iron is retired to a hallowed spot in the shop, replaced with a
Hock iron.

My other grandfather was a blacksmith, also galoot-trained. I'm part
of a chain of late-in-life children: my youngest grandparent was born
in 1880. So I'm the grandkid of galoots. I've often wished for a
couple of summers helping in his forge. He made tools, in addition to
shoeing horses, tiring wagon wheels, and maintaining the occasional
horseless carriage (automobile work had become his shop's mainstay by
the time he died in the summer of '36). He definitely had the
expertise to turn out a fine set of chisels. I have his shooing knife.

I got back into woodworking after graduate school. Now I'm a math
professor at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY.  The
woodworking has been really slow, because we also started having
kids. Now I have 3 galoots in training, ages 8, 6 and 4. When Selsey,
the 6-year old, was 2, she picked up a #4 and started pushing it back
and forth on the shop floor (luckily plywood)--knew what it was
for. Now they're starting to ask to do stuff in the shop, so there is
hope...

I've been trying to set up a shop like my granddad's. It's kind of a
way to connect with these people who I never had a chance to
meet. Thanks to Patrick Leach, Pete Taran, Tom Bruce, Jon Zimmers, and
others, I've been able to scrounge up a fairly well equipped (although
thoroughly disorganized) turn-of-the-20th-century shop. My indulging
wife has been very gracious with my tool allowance (although her
patience has been exhausted for the rest of this year). It makes up
for not having the time to hunt for rust. My father-in-law, whose shop
is full of used mid-20th century industrial electron-consuming
archdemons (consider a 24" pl*n*r or 30" b*nds*w) that makes Norm's
stuff look like toys, has helped me get a lot, too. He UPS'ed my
workbench to me after we made it in Texas.

So here I am. I've been lurking for several years and can attest that
the porch probably has the friendliest, most informed, and most
helpful people anywhere on the internet. I figured it was time to
introduce myself.

Buz Buskirk
Richmond, KY



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