I've  been  lurking long enough.  Thought I should fess up and post my
   bio.  Not that

   is extensive.  I live in the little town of Round Hill, Va at the base
   of the Blue Ridge

   west of Washington, DC.  For you Hooters, I can see West Virginia from
   my front

   porch.

   I've  been  into  old  tools and traditional industries for the las 20
   years or so, but more

   as  an  observer  than  as a hard core doer.  Call me a latent Galoot.
   Hopefully that will

   change  in  mid-1999  when,  if  the numbers look right, I will retire
   after 30+ years working

   for  Uncle Sam.  That will give me th time time (no more getting up at
   4AM five days

   a week) to try some of the stuff I have been seeing and thinking about
   for years.

   I  collect  a  little, mostly Millers Falls, but have been know to buy
   things that strike my

   fancy.   Like  an  ice  saw (more than five feet tall and where do you
   store it) I got at an auction in

   Vermont.   Living  in Virginia there is not a lot of ice to get in (as
   my long suffering

   SWMBO points out from time to time).  Of course, one also needs an ice
   house, not

   a common thing anymore either.  Most of the old tools have been bought
   with the intention

   if using rather than collecting.  I think there is only one, a Millers
   Falls #85 MIB.  I will

   confess,  however,  that I also have a cordless drill which I consider
   one of God's great

   inventions  (along  with duct tape, paper towels, yellow post-its, and
   the glue gun.

   Are  newbies  allowed a gloat, even one that occurred a few years ago?
   If they are, I

   would tellyou about the Stanley #340 furring plane I got in a box with
   six other planes

   at  a  Vermont country auction.  Didn't know what I had until recently
   when I almost

   off my chair on learning.  Call it a belated gloat.

   I'm  also  into  alphabets,  i.e. PATINA, MWTCA, EAIA.  I spend far to
   much time looking

   at  Ebay's  hand  tool  offerings  and trying to stifle my acquisitive
   impulses.  Within the

   last year I became a volunteer at Aldie Mill, an old overshot two iron
   wheel grist mill

   in  Aldie,  VA.   It  is  still  being  restored,  so it is not yet in
   operation.  Come by for a

   look.

   Thanks for bearing with me,

   Tom Graham

         Replies              Author       Date
   41803 Re: Bio - Tom Graham Tom Holloway Thu  12/31/1998