Greetings,

Though I had been active on oldtools at an earlier time, I thought I'd take
this opportunity to file a brief bio.

Am currently employed at a small local (north-central Ohio) firm specializing
in curved stairwork.  I do a variety of things which can't be done on the
machines, but mostly design, rough out, and carve transitional elements of
handrails. Also, am a half-time single parent (shared custody arrangement)
of a soon-to-be ten year old daughter. [Of course, she's the greatest!
But I might be biased. ;-)]

First became interested in traditional (hand) woodworking in the very early
70's, while living in the Boston area. Bought some new hand tools up the
road in Woburn, but was given a wooden jack/fore plane by a friend and
pointed toward a flea-market south of Boston. Bootstrapped an English
joiner's style bench and read everything I could find (this kind of
information was much harder to find then). Discovered Charles Hayward, and
still think of him as a mentor of sorts. Can't believe nearly all of his
books are now out of print.

Was taken on as an "apprentice" in the cabinet shop at the Ohio Village
in the spring of 1977. Spent two years working with/for my mentor/master,
Tom Clark, and then took over the shop for another two years. Tom was still
nearby as a conservator in the collections department of the Ohio Historical
Society. He was unceasingly generous with his knowledge, skills, insights,
and wit. A very fulfilling and formative period of my life.

Then, for some unfathomable reason, I decided to go out on my own. The next
7-8 years I continued building furniture, using hand tools exclusively (yes,
even to resawing material as well as surfacing and thicknessing everything),
in an 1860's one-room schoolhouse on the corner of the failing family farm.
Financially, it was a struggle (to put it mildly), but I took/made the
opportunity to experiment with a variety of methods, techniques, and forms.
Also, had the opportunity to do work for a variety of interesting people,
and learned a lot about myself in the process. I.e., while it was short
on financial reward, it was long on personal growth and satisfaction.
Not to mention the consolidation of a variety of acquired skills.

Have continued in woodworking for the last ten years in a variety of
situations and differing types of projects. Architectural work, including
some sash work and a 40 panel linen-fold panel system (electrons died in
these endeavors). Also some fairly high-end furniture work involving more
extensive carving than previously undertaken.

The grizzled veterans on oldtools may remember this, but one thread running
through my interest in traditional woodworking is a fascination (obsession?)
with wooden stock planes and planemaking.

Thanks for listening (if you've remained this far), and am looking forward
to becoming active on oldtools again (as time, energy, circumstances, and
inclination allow).

Don McConnell
Knox County, Ohio

At 11:57 PM 11/15/98 -0500, Don McConnell wrote:
>Greetings,
>
>Though I had been active on oldtools at an earlier time,

WELCOME BACK! As if anyone could forget the author of so many fine posts.
Ya been missed.

David Brown

Don McConnell wrote:

>Though I had been active on oldtools at an earlier time, I thought I'd take
>this opportunity to file a brief bio.

He's BAAAAAAAaaaaaack! The Prodigal Son returns!

>The grizzled veterans on oldtools may remember this, but one thread running
>through my interest in traditional woodworking is a fascination (obsession?)
>with wooden stock planes and planemaking.

The Cincinatti area Galoots had a gathering last July and I was fortunate
enough to attend. Don showed us some of his handmade wooden planes. The
coffin bodied smoother with a Hock blade did quite well when compared to
a Norris A14, also with a Hock blade. This plane also had the tightest
mouth I've ever seen on a wooden plane.

Welcome back Don.
****************************
Tom Price (TomPrice@a...)
Brakes For Rust
W.F.M. Goss On Bench Planes is featured at The Galoot's Progress:
http://members.aol.com/tomprice/galootp/galtprog.html

Don,

It's good to see your name again, thanks for all those interesting posts
in the past, looking forward to more.

Don

On Sun, 15 Nov 1998, Don McConnell wrote:
> The grizzled veterans on oldtools may remember this, but one thread running
> through my interest in traditional woodworking is a fascination (obsession?)
> with wooden stock planes and planemaking.
>
> Thanks for listening (if you've remained this far), and am looking forward
> to becoming active on oldtools again (as time, energy, circumstances, and
> inclination allow).
>
> Don McConnell
> Knox County, Ohio

Welcome back

Sincerely

Gene

TomPrice@a... writes:

> The Cincinnati area Galoots had a gathering last July and I was fortunate
> enough to attend. Don showed us some of his handmade wooden planes. The
> coffin bodied smoother with a Hock blade did quite well when compared to
> a Norris A14, also with a Hock blade. This plane also had the tightest
> mouth I've ever seen on a wooden plane.

The planes in progress that Don is working on to be able to plane
curved stair rails are an absolute marvel.  Talk about using all the
math you learned in years and years of school.  The planes have to
have different curved fences for doing the inside or outside of the
rail along with being curved in the correct way to match the curvature
of the stair rail as it goes in its downward spiral.  It really does
boggle the mind.

Welcome back Don.