Hello all,

Well, we all have to take the plunge sometime.

I've been lurking around the porch for a few weeks, so somewhat
diffidently I thought I'd better come out into the spotlight for a
moment.

It's a curious obsession, this ol' tools business, but a nice one.  It
started last October, when SWMBO and I moved into a Victorian house,
close to where we work in Manchester, England.  For the Shaker brethren
amongst you (nice to see that John Guntermann will be imparting his
wisdom at one of the Shaker villages, I forget which one), Manchester is
where the Shaker community started, with Mother Anne Lee and some
others.  Anyway, I digress.  Our house is dated from 1859, with lots of
original fixtures, but mostly in a sad state of repair.

So, I started repairing, and things moved on from there.  I had no
knowledge of wood, woodworking or tools, so at least I was starting from
a clean slate.  I did like buying and restoring antique furniture, so I
suppose it was a fairly natural step to decide to acquire some basic
skills, and some tools.  I read a few books, and made a lot of sawdust.
As somebody wisely said here once, "an hour's planing is worth a year's
reading," and I think it's true.  I've made lots of mistakes, but also
some useable stuff - notably a kitchen table, and a couple of small side
tables.

It's  true what some of you have said:  being able to bring something
from the shop (shed in my case) into the house to be admired by SWMBO
justifies quite a lot of spending on mysterious packages.  Actually, she
(Julie) is pretty good about it, and discreetly fails to notice that the
number of planes dotted around the house in lots of dark corners could
be described as a collection.

I bought the usual selection of new stuff (#4,#5,#6 - well, I'm only
small), but along the way I've also acquired some old things.  In the
cellar, I found an ancient #4 Union, which cleaned up nicely, and there
was also a nasty aluminium Stanley rebate plane.  Last week, I staggered
home from the local flea-market with an English Stanley #4 in good user
condition, an American Stanley #7 which needs lots of attention, and a
SPIFFING American Stanley #10, which has a sweetheart logo and also has
the keyhole shaped slot in the cap iron.  They also threw in a nice old
back saw, which is heavy, patinated, and was  made I think by Vickers in
Sheffield.  So, I set this stuff down on the carpet and just sat and
beamed at it all.  I don't know if this counts as a genuine gloat, but
it's the nearest I've come.

Enough!  I've enjoyed reading the posts, and thanks to the people who
responded to a query that I posted.  I noticed that recently there's
been talk of American English, Scandinavian English, etc., so I'll
sign-off (and risk getting a plane thrown at my head) by reminding y'all
that you have just been reading English English as she is truly writ.

Best wishes ... Keith

Keith Rayner  - rayke01@c...   

----------------------------------------------------------------
Private replies: 

Public replies: oldtools@l...
To subscribe, signoff, to digest: listserv@l...
Other housekeeping: oldtools-owner@l...
Archive: http://mailmunch.law.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/archives/OLDTOOLS
When quoting, edit severely.