OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

203583 Brian Gilstrap <brian@g...> 2010‑05‑04 Introduction
I want to thank everyone on the list for their kind welcome. The number
of responses to my question about cleaning up old saws was amazing, and
I want to echo the recent posts about how polite the discussions on this
list are compared to the rest of the internet. Mike Siemsen suggested it
would be polite of me to post a bio and let people know where I live
(mostly to warn the tool collecting competition, I think... :-) ). I
thought I'd keep this short and then discovered after writing it that
it's not. Sorry about the length.

I live in the St. Louis area (if you know the area, my town is Webster
Groves). I enjoyed woodworking class when I was a kid in school (I'm
45). I even made a tilt-top table out of walnut my senior year in high
school. I have it (inherited when my father passed away in 2006 [Mom
passed in 1994]). It's not awful but it's pretty bad. But in many ways
it represented the seed that would germinate into my current love of
woodworking.

I began getting back into craftsmanship when we bought our current
house in 1997. It's an old house (built in '22) and it required a great
deal of fixing up. So for many years I was engaged in what would be
best described as carpentry (calling all but the last few projects
"finish carpentry" would be giving too much credit). And then there
were other projects like the swings/fort/playhouse for the kids (2
girls), the cedar fence around the back yard, the gate and arbor to go
with the fence (built 4 years after the fence), the built-in storage in
our closet, and the bedside tables I built for the girls a couple of
years ago.

As the years have gone by, I've found that I really enjoy working with
hand tools. So my hand tool collection has grown and I've been learning
how to use them. I still use power tools (even own a unisaw, a 6"
jointer, a thickness planer, and a bandsaw), but as time goes by I'm
gravitating more and more toward the hand tools when it's not crazy to
do so. Well, with two kids and a mortgage and all the other costs of
life, there's not piles of money to buy new or already refurbished hand
tools except every now and then. I've also found I'd rather wait and buy
a good tool than buy something mediocre now and struggle to make it
work. I'd rather that my lack of skill be the reason things don't turn
out right (which happens often enough).

So, I own chisels, a dovetail and crosscut saw (small size), marking
guages and combination squares, a number of hand planes (#3, #4.5 WWII,
#5, #605, #7, 9 1/4 block plane, 9 1/2 block plane, bullnose rabbet
plane, etc.) and other sundry tools. I've finally learned how to sharpen
a plane blade and a chisel well enough to get good results (and these
days I generally only nick myself too - there's progress for you...).
I'm slowly tuning up the hand tools. I got the #4 1/2 into shape
recently for a hand tool class I took, and my chisels were already in
"almost good enough shape" (according to Frank Klausz, who taught the
class, they need more polish with an 8000 grit stone).

Today I spent some time working on a #98 rabbet plane I recently got.
This evening I finally got it into what I think is good shape except I
still need to sharpen the blade (hopefully before the weekend). I have a
bunch of other hand planes that need cleaning and tuning. I also have
the saws I bought last week and a few others (clearly more than enough
until I get them cleaned up and learn to sharpen them). I have a bunch
of old odds and ends I bought off a guy on Craigslist (came in an old
carpenter's toolbox). I've fixed up a small vise, a warrington hammer,
and some cold chisels, and there are short but serviceable chisels
(they'll make great 'beaters') and a bunch of as-yet-unidentified things
in the box. I'll get to those at some point.

I'm not so much a tool collector or maker, as a woodworker who generally
can't afford to buy spiffy and new; so I buy quality old tools in need
of refurbishing. That said, I do gain a profound sense of pleasure from
taking a tool that is not in great shape and getting it into top form so
it does what it is supposed to do as well as it can. In fact, it's kind
of dangerous how much I enjoy it, as it's easy to spend too much time
fixing up tools and not enough time making things with them.

Hopefully I haven't put anyone to sleep that wasn't looking for a
nap anyway.

Thanks, Brian

P.S. I hope this isn't breaching etiquette. Here is my wish list of
     things to pick up in the coming years:

* mortise chisels - I'd like to pick up a few in common sizes (3/8?,
  1/4?, ???) in a couple of styles on the cheap and fix them up. I've no
  idea what will feel good in my hand (I've got small hands). I'm
  leaning toward the thick ones with flat sides (no bevel). Yes, I
  really do want to cut mortises by hand...
* files for sharpening the saws I have (though I don't yet know enough
  to know what files I need)
* scrub plane
* plough plane(s) (probably wooden, unless I pull together money for the
  Lee Valley one(s)...)
* tenon saw
* other kinds of saws I don't have after I clean up and sort out the
  ones I do have (and educate myself about their different uses)
* auger bits (for my Millers Falls #2 eggbeater drill and the ratchet
  whose make and model I don't recall)
* cabinet scraper (like the Stanley #80)
* scraper plane (like the Stanley #112)
* larger size router plane (like the Stanley #71)
* patternmaker's hammer
* spokeshaves (hoping to learn to make chairs someday)

Drifting off into fantasyland, we get to things like

* Stanley 750 chisels (I have a 1" and drool over the sets that sell for
  oodles of money on eBay - this is a recent obsession - Frank Klausz
  brought a set of nearly pristine ones to the hand tool class I took
  and they are so fine...)
* Emmert patternmaker's vise - it'll be interesting to see if I ever
  pull together the money for one of these (or a tucker vise that Lee
  Valley made)
* #604, #606, & #608 bedrocks
* skew rabbet plane (Stanley #289?)
* tongue & groove plane
* high angle and low angle versions of planes
* rabbet block plane
* joinery and planemaker's floats (surely I'll find the time to make
  some wooden planes someday... :-) )

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Recent Bios FAQ