OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

205051 Bob Miller <bobprime@b...> 2010‑06‑12 Introducing myself to the list
Hello everyone,
  After lurking for several months I figured I should introduce myself to
the list (also several list members I contacted in private suggested I do
so).  So here is a brief history of how I got here.

I think it all started as a little kid when I would watch PBS every weekend
just to catch woodworking shows.  I loved to watch New Yankee Workshop and I
thought Norm was the coolest.  I also enjoyed watching that show with "the
weird guy who doesn't know about electricity" though always wondered why he
stuck with hand tools.  I thought though that his woodshop/fort in the woods
was cool (remember I was like 6).  My parents house never had room for a
shop and either way I never had money for lumber so while growing up I just
waited.

Through college and for a few years afterwords I lived in apartments which
are uncondusive to the large shop required for tools with sparking tails.
Finally I bought a house 2.5 years ago and decided it was finally time to
start woodworking myself.  I bought used (way cheaper) wood working machines
and learned two things.  First that I rather enjoy restoring old machines
and two that I hate using almost anything powered by electricity.  I found
myself using my hand tools that I had bought from a borg store for odd jobs
around the house more and more for my woodworking tasks.

Eventually I bought my first woodworking book, Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking
and saw that many things were possible with hand tools.  I also remembered
watching St Roy as a child.  It was an epiphany of sorts.  At about the same
time my parents got me a subscription to PW and I started visiting their
website.  One of the blog posts was either about egg beater drills or bit
and brace (I cant remember which one) and suggested Sandy Moss's site to buy
said tools.  This was about a year and a half ago.  It has gone down hill
since then...

So far I have built various shelving units and book shelves, shop tables, a
3 bin compost containment unit and am currently working on a coffee table
(once my joints started to look like something other than absolute tragedies
I declared myself furniture ready).  I have also built various shop fixtures
and made myself a marking knife, marking gauge and 2 scratch awls.  I find I
like making tools to use almost as much as furnature.

My wife recently got into lathe work in order to make drop spindles and
various other tools for hand spinning yarn.  In the process I discovered
that I also enjoyed turning even though it was a tailed beastie.  I now have
a shop full of old tools and a love of using them.

That, fellow list members, is my "brief" personal woodworking history (you
can also add a bunch of bleeding, some swearing and a little bit of staring
in sadness at parts cut to exactly the right size when I started with wrong
measurements to begin with.

I did have two questions for the list.  The first is for some recommended
reading.  I want to set up and use a small charcoal forge in my back yard to
make more tools.  Does anyone have a good recommendation for a beginners
book on blacksmithing, especially for those of us stuck in suburbia.

The second is an identification and use question.  This past Christmas my
parents knowing my new found love bought me a box of rust (literally, all of
the tools needed a lot of love to get working).  It was one of the best
presents I have ever received and now I have a bunch of tools that work
beautifully.  There is one exception though.  It was a spoke shave that some
previous owner "restored".  And by restored I mean it looks like he took the
blade and chip breaker to a wire wheel and then just rustoliumed the whole
body without removing the rust first.
After filing the paint off of the machined surfaces and back far enough from
the sole to stop leaving black streaks on the wood I thought I had a very
comfortable spoke shave.  It was far more comfortable than the Stanley 151
that also came in said box o rust.  Unfortunately the chip breaker will not
hold the blade in position under use.  I have not tried excessive force but
no tightness of the screw in the center or the top will hold it.  Does
anyone know a remidy for this situation.

Also I have no idea what it is.  The blade has the Stanley rule and level
"arch" logo.  I think I can make out "Balleys patent" on one handle and a
date ending in 1858 on the other.  It is hard to read under the thick cover
of paint and getting a rubbing on a curved surface eludes me.

Since without pictures it didn't happen so here are a few pictures (please
excuse the bad camera work,  I was too lazy tonight to get out my light tent
and non phone camera):

http://picasaweb.google.com/105192907109903453543/Tools#5481762876098890226

http://picasaweb.google.com/105192907109903453543/Tools#5481762451649823298

http://picasaweb.google.com/105192907109903453543/Tools#5481762010909582178

http://picasaweb.google.com/105192907109903453543/Tools#5481761802444720082

Outside of woodworking I am a software engineer working for a small legal
publishing company.  If you live in the northeast in a medium sized town
there is a good chance my company codified and published your town code.  I
am 28 and have a wife and a naughty cat named President Nixon.

Anyway... Hi!

  Bob (from Rochester, NY)
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Recent Bios FAQ