I posted a bio back in July 2009 that never made it into the list of bios.
Never thought much of it until last week when I attempted to post a reply to the
list that was side-railed for review for *posting by a non-member*. Maybe I can
be subscribed to the list but have to have a bio to be a member, so here goes
again.
I listened and learned in my reading this list but usually have remained pretty
quiet given I was in the presence of such an august body. I have made a few
purchases from some of the regulars here. Early on they were always kind enough
to extend Old Tool terms to me without knowing me since I didn't have a bio on
file.
Live in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Married to a good woman. Two lovely daughters and
four grand kids. I am old enough to retire (66), and did once, but still workin
g
as an Technology Support Specialist in a high school. Having grand kids in schoo
l
here makes up for the working part.
I graduated from this high school many moons ago, before Industrial Arts
died in mainstream secondary school education. Stanley was still
considered the Toolbox of the World, the major difference between Delta and
Powermatic was the color of the cabinet, and Japan was only marketing
pocket-sized transistor radios. While we trained on hand tools, the prevailing
wisdom then was that it was a prelude to moving to machine tools.
Served with the Iowa National Guard for 41 years, 35 of them full-time. About
have those years in an ammunition battalion and the other half in an artillery
battalion.
In the late 60s, SWMBO and I purchased a fixer-upper and for the next 28 years I
was involved in carpentry, plumbing, electrical, roofing, painting, etc.
Accumulated a fair share of tools over those years and many of them with tails.
What I really wanted to do with my extra time was build cabinets and furniture
(and did some), but that house was very demanding. Most of my work was with
softwoods. Introducing hard woods into that house had to be done very carefully
so as not to created different shrinkage rates on opposite sides of the house
that would eventually lead to its demise. Hardwoods from the lumber yard were
pretty much limited to red oak and lauan, so the oak was the only thing that
really challenged you to keep your chisels and planes sharp. So hand tools
didn't get used much if I was working with oak.
Sooner or later, one learns that unless you have a production run of something,
hand tools require much less setup, lend themselves to making one-of-a-kind
items, produce much less dust, produce much less noise, and were used to produce
just about everything prior to 1900 and much of it after that up to WWII. While
I was fooling around putting my ten digits in danger of amputation using p*w*r
tools, the tools I used in high school had become OLD tools.
Subscribed to FWW when they first came out and it provided a lot of information
to fill the gaps in my woodworking tools knowledge. Doesn't seem to have as
much of that kind of content these days and in my search for for more I came
across the Old Tools List. Can't claim anywhere near the tool experience and
knowledge of those who frequent the Porch, but I come here every day to soak up
as much as I can. Hope to add my two cents somewhere along the line.
Best regards, Frank Segreto
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