Hi Everyone, Thanks so much to the ten folks who replied in the first
hour to my request for guidance in how to post my bio (and especially
Anne O'Tucson...don't worry, we'll get our rain soon, I just know it!).
My name is Rex Carpenter and I live in Tucson, Arizona. I'm a full-time
F-16 pilot with the Arizona Air National Guard. Before taking this job
in late '96 I spent 14 years as a active duty F-16 pilot in the USAF. I
have a wonderful SWMBO (newlyweds as of April), and two SWMBette GITs
from SWINLO (She Whom I No Longer Obey). SWMBO and I just bought a new
(to us) home and the great news is there's room on the property for me
to fit a workshop in between the mesquites and saguaros. I can probably
swing about a 20x30 foot shop and plan to make it a really nice one. I
found the porch while doing on-line research on building a traditional
woodworking bench. I found Tom Price's most excellent web page and then
kind of stumbled onto the porch through his links. My Dad and both my
grandfathers had extensive workshops, with everything from blacksmith's
forges to the full compliment of p*w*r t**ls. I wish I had been able to
learn more woodworking skills from my Dad, and my Mom too, who is quite
accomplished herself. I've always loved working with my hands, building
things, and any kind of "old timey" stuff that requires real skill, not
just step one, step two, etc. I love traditional archery, and hunt with
a longbow and arrows I make myself with birch shafts. I also hunt with a
old-fashioned muzzleloading rifle I built myself, and am reminded of an
old muzzleloading friend's definition of "in period"...anything we
intentionally do to make our life more inconvienient. Might kind of
apply to galootism too! I have become a pretty good knifemaker, and made
the companion knife for the American Custom Gunmakers Guild year 2001
project rifle. Now I'm really getting stoked to apply those skills to
making some nice plane irons, and plan to make a shoulder plane from
scratch soon. I'll post a pic when I do. SWMBO and I just stumbled onto
a gold mine of nice hardwood lumber at a big furnitutre making concern
here in town that's going out of business. Got about a ton of maple,
oak, ash, and alder. I got enough to make a real big solid maple bench
with a three inch thick top and lots and lots of furniture for the new
house. Get a load of this...some, but not much, of the ash had beautiful
curly figure full length; I had to root through the piles for it. The
plant manager explained that there wasn't very much curly stock, because
they got so much curly ash in their inbound shipments but had to reject
almost all of it because it didn't fit the style of (hotel) furniture
they produced. Aaarrgh! Anyway, it looks like the only thing standing
between a house full of handmade furniture and me is a place to work on
it and the skills to do so! How hard can that be?? Thanks in advance for
all the knowledge I know I will pick up listening to Galoots such as
yourselves. I will keep everyone posted on the shop and workbench
projects, and the occaisional gloat.

Sincerely, Rex