OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

38988 Chris Emery <cemery@m...> 1998‑03‑09 Bio: Too long?
March 8, 1998

Hi, my name is Chris Emery.  I am originally from London, England, but came
to Canada in 1966 when my Father immigrated. I live in Guelph (pronounced
Gwelf ) a town of about 100,000 people 45 miles north west of Toronto.  I
have 2 children from my first marriage.  My son Michael is 15, my daughter
Myra is 12.  Both have an interest in woodworking which I try to encourage.

I live with wonderful and supportive SWMBO in a small house (circa 1925)
with a large yard and single car garage converted into a workshop.  Last
winter a gas furnace got installed in the workshop so now I don't have to
freeze my buns off in the winter.  SWMBO is a Registered Nurse by day (and
sometimes night), an avid (and talented) gardener, stone wall/pathway
builder.  I also enjoy gardening and find that woodworking and gardening are
very compatible.

By trade I was a plumber/pipefitter for the first 17 years of my working
life.  As a plumber I learned how to weld and braze all kinds of metals
including cast iron, a skill that I see might come in very useful in the
repair of metal planes.  I now make my living as the Maintenance Supervisor
for the Guelph Non-Profit Housing Corp', a job that I enjoy but is grossly
underpaid.

I have been pursuing WW as hobby for about 5 years.  I seem to have an
affinity, if not talent for WW.  I always leaned towards hand tools but did
at first indulge in P@#$r T^&l acquisition. Like many others hanging out on
the porch I do not like the noise, dust, and danger of PT's. I have the
usual assortment of planes, chisels and scrapers. I am a user rather than
collector but I can certainly see that the potential is there for me to
start collecting. I have a the following planes: #4 Stanley, #4 Record with
corrugated sole (both given to me by my mother-in-law, they used to belong
to SWMBO's Father who died 30 or so years ago) , #4 Record that I bought at
a local hardware store before being given the other #4's, #5 Record
purchased new from LeeValley, Veritas edge trimming block plane, #71 Stanley
(new, again, from LeeValley)  given to me as present last Christmas from
SWMBO and kids.

My greatest woodworking achievement so far is the kitchen cupboards that I
have almost finished (there is a little bit of trim and back splash left to
do).  Most of the work was done with handtools.  I used the European box
system (I'm not keen on the look of face frame)The carcases are cherry or
birch plywood depending on whether or not the sides were exposed.  The doors
are birds eye maple stile and rail with a simple raised panel of solid
cherry.  The handles which I made,  are bog oak, which is black as night,
inlaid with a Bouffard banding of purple heart, ebony, satinwood  and pewter
that SWMBO bought for me many years ago from Leevaley.  The countertop I
made from cherry flooring.  The backsplash is wonderful piece of 5/4 birds
eye maple I found at a local lumberyard.  I learned an enormous amount from
this project.  Mainly that you have to have perfectly sharp planes and
scrapers to deal with birds eye maple.

Another main interest of mine is computers and the net.  I have had a
computer at home for about 15 years.  I started of with an Atari ST which
was a wonderful machine with a graphic operating system on ROM that never
crashed.  A friend of mine still uses my old machine to run the MIDI
software in his home recording studio (the Atari ST had built in MIDI
ports).  However it became apparent about 5 years ago that I would have to
switch to the PC for work and other reasons.  Now I have to put up with a
system that crashes regularly.   I should point out here that I also bought,
and my EX still uses, a Sony Beta VCR, I think this speaks volumes about my
mindset.

My Internet connection is by cable.  This service became available in my
area about 3 months ago and I signed up to be a tester for the cable company
which gave me 3 months free use of this system.  The cable connection is
very fast, no waiting around for pics to download.  It is however not cheap,
but having used the standard modem connection earlier I really appreciate
the speed.  Anyway enough about computers, they are, after all, just the
tool I use to communicate about my main interest, woodworking.

I look forward to participating in this group, you seem like a super bunch
from what I have seen from lurking the last little while.  My thanks to
Galoot, friend, and former housemate of SWMBO, Rob Stevens, for making me
aware of your existence.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.  (Hunter S.  Thompson)



Recent Bios FAQ