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165603 David Nelson <macher@p...> 2006‑12‑12 Warning bio
Since I have been lurking here for about eight years
and received much good advice from the members I guess
it is about time that I submit a bio.

My first exposure to woodworking was during World War
II.  We lived with my grandparents in Duluth, MN,
while my father went around the country working for
the Army Corp of Engineers.  My grandfather was a
carpenter who built his house in 1895 and then made
the furniture to go in it.  The house was like a
museum collection of Mission style and Arts and Crafts
furniture.  His shop was in the basement and I would
go down there with him and “help” out.  I still have a
chair we worked on together in 1943.

Fast forward to 1958. We now live in Whittier, CA.  I
am just out of the Navy and go halves with my father
for a Craftsman radial arm saw.  I inherited about
several hand tools from my grandfather, but the power
tools are of more interest to me.  We made several
built-in pieces for my parent’s house and a primitive
workbench. 

My first project for my own home in 1963 was a
built-in bathroom cabinet.  It was a design from
Sunset Magazine.  It had sliding doors made of
pegboard and goes downhill from there.  I continued to
use power tools for projects for the various houses my
wife and I lived in.  Beginning in 1966 I started
buying old tools at flea markets, mainly Stanley
planes.

When I graduated from college in 1968 I set some
career goals for myself.  I planned to have met them
all by 1990.  I actually met them in 1981 and wanted
another challenge in life, one that would last me
through retirement and beyond.  I decided to attempt
to build furniture that my wife would allow in the
house.

By 1979 my wife, two children and I were living in Los
Gatos, CA.  I bought a book called “A Cabinet Maker’s
Notebook”.  I was really impressed with the quality of
finish and overall appearance achieved with hand
tools.  I sharpened a couple of planes and my chisels
and started using hand tools more.   I continued to
purchase old tools at the local flea market.  In 1981
I completed my first major project.  It was a 10 by 8
foot five bay bookshelf with room for a television in
the center bay, glazed doors on the top and raised
panel doors on the bottom.  As far as I know it is
still in the family room of the house.

One day around 1984 I happened upon a loom that was in
pieces in a box.  I bought it, took it home and
assembled it.  I made my first project on the loom and
got hooked on weaving.  The next six years, and a
larger loom, I spent weaving various items.  
Woodworking was limited to making parts for the loom
and items for our house.

All this time I had been building my tool collection
via the flea market.  Around 1991 a friend came to me
and asked if I could make a replacement for a quarter
sawn oak pendulum rod for an antique clock he had.  I
said I would try.  The rod was a flattened football
shape.  I was trying to figure out how to duplicate
the rod when I came across a wooden plane that was a
match to the rod.  It was a number 20 hollow.  I
sharpened the iron and proceeded to duplicate the rod.
 Shortly after this I sold the loom and all of the
attachments and decided to concentrate on woodworking.
 I also started buying wooden planes.

In 1993 I selected several items from Norm Vandal’s
book on Queen Anne furniture and asked my wife to pick
one.  She picked the tea table with the slide out
candle platforms.  A year-and-a-half later the table
was completed and was granted permission to enter the
house.  It sat in the entry hall and was the first
thing a visitor saw when they entered our home. The
next year I concentrated on various shaker items and
made some mission style wastebaskets I sold to an
antique store.  My wife decided it was time for her to
have a Bonnet Top Queen Anne entertainment center for
the bedroom.  The piece was a regular highboy like the
one in Norm Vandal’s book with the drawers in the
upper cabinet replaced with raised panel doors.  By
this time I was using hand tools most of the time.  I
built the base and put it in the bedroom with the TV
on it.  Since I was going to make the raised panel
doors by hand I built a Shaker chimney cabinet to
practice on.  The upper part was then built and
assembled to the base with screws so we could move it.
 The whole project took three years.  By 1997 I was on
the internet with tool dealers in England and my
collecting accelerated.  By this time most of my
Stanley planes were sold to finance my wooden plane
collection.

In 2002 the company I was working for had a cutback
and my job was eliminated.  My wife and I decided
retire, sell our house in Silicon Valley and find a
new home where I would have room for my shop and a
vegetable garden.  We found a house in Folsom, CA,
that has what we both want.

Since moving into our new home I have made several
small items for various rooms.  The most comprehensive
project was a complete floor to ceiling remake of our
computer room.  I started by replacing the carpet with
a hickory floor.  I then made two 9-1/2 foot by 30
inch cabinets to go on either side of a work surface. 
One end of the work surface sits on a 12 inch diameter
fluted pedestal; the other is anchored to a wall.  The
whole project is made of white oak lumber and plywood.
 The 12 glazed doors and the four raised panel doors
for the bookshelves were made entirely by hand, as was
the cornice molding. This project took six months.  I
learned a lesson here.  Do not show your wife your
molding plane collection and ask her to “pick one” for
the molding.  She chose a 2-1/2 inch cornice molder. 
It took about three days to make 12 feet of oak
molding with it.  I lost a month in January because it
was too cold in the garage to put on the varnish.  I
finally completed a mahogany Chippendale footstool
from Andy Marlow’s book.  The parts had been sitting
around for about four years while I worked on other
items.  My sister was the recipient of a mahogany
Canterbury sheet music holder also delayed for the
same amount of time.  My mother-in-law received a
walnut shadow box with a picture of her father in his
World War One army uniform with his ribbons and medals
mounted in it.

Now that the house commitments have been fulfilled I
have the time for a couple of projects I have wanted
to do for myself.  The first is completing eight sash
doweling boxes to go with my collection of English
sash maker’s tools.  This was finished in May of 2006
and displayed at the PAST meeting in Sonoma, CA this
past August. In November I started work on a
reproduction of the Seaton tool chest.  The original
is in a museum in England.  I am using a book written
about the chest as well as some drawings of it as a
guide for project.  In addition to the chest I will
need to make some tools that duplicate the ones made
by the builder of the chest.  I plan to display the
chest as well as examples of the tools that are in it
in September, 2007 at the PAST meeting in Sonoma, CA.

My tool collection consists of about 170 planes and
ephemera from Varvill of York, England, another 100
English molding and joiners planes, about 200 sash
maker’s tools including molding planes and other
related tools and about 50 Ward and Payne chisels and
plow plane irons.  I also have several rolls of
carving chisels I have used on various projects.  I
collect Varvill tools because they consistently
stamped the name of the molding or type on the plane. 
 With few exceptions I stay away from rare items.  I
want to tune up and use any of my tools at any time
without worrying about ruining a rare or unique item. 
I have used about 25% of the Varvill tools and most of
the chisels on various projects.

I am not certain what I will build after the tool
chest.  I have mahogany for the legs and pedestal of a
pie crust table in my garage waiting for the go ahead
from SWMBO.

Dave Nelson, Folsom, CA, December, 2006
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