Hey Guys & Gals,

This bio is from Mechanicsburg, Pa, an appropriately named town in Central
PA for a WW person.  I am 53 with four kids and two grandkids.  I've been
involved in WW for over 30 years.  When I first started teaching I used WW
as a way to release the tensions from the job by building a maple
grandmother clock, several mantle clocks - both kits and from scratch, and
our dining room cherry trestle table.  The growing family and limited funds
motivated me to take on carpentry where upon I built several additions,
dormers, decks and sun rooms to the various homes we've lived in.

I have lived here in Central PA for 12 yrs, at the northern most location
for the penetration of Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee when he drove
into PA.  General Mad Dog Jenkins, part of Jeb Steuart's forces killed
several locals at the skirmish of Sporting Hill.

Last spring I enrolled in the first course of a four course diploma program
in cabinetmaking at our local Harrisburg Community College.  We spent almost
the entire semester on hand tools which is where I caught the bug.  I built
a very impressive work bench from 6x6 150 yr old pine barn beams I recovered
from a barn that was locally demolished.  I got the scraps after the Amish
went and took the really good stuff.  But I retrieved allot of local old
growth pine barn siding for the tool shelf under the table.  the growth
rings on the 14" piece were almost so close together that it was hard to
count and across the 14" almost flat.  that tree must have been a monster
and we don't see them any more.  I preserved the original character by
having left the mortise and tennon ends on the 3 - 6x6's that I joined
together at the one end.  Had to preserve that character.  I did my first
mortise & tennon joints for the 6x6 legs and stretchers.  I built this from
looking at several photos from FWW's Hand Tools.  I built a quilt rack from
this barn wood for my wife who has been quilting for the past two years.

Recently I just completed making Roy Underhill's portable woodworking bench
out of ash.  I couldn't easily get the pine he used and locally grown ash
was readily available and relatively inexpensive.  It was very hard going
and my intentions were to build it using hand tools.  But my strength isn't
like it was when I was in my 20's.  Ripping was too much for me with the
humidity, so I used some of the don't mention tools to help me with the
physically tough stuff.  But I hand planned everything and used a brace bit
to do all the screw holes.  I did my very first dove tails and am quite
proud of how well they turned out for a novice.  I really did two practice
tails using soft pine and found that almost impossible to do cleanly.  But I
was surprised at how easy the ash was to work for the dove tails.

I plan to do small chests/boxes like jewelry and to begin making more
tables.  have been collecting hand tools for the past 8 months and have
acquired a nice assortment of tools like Roy whom I really enjoy watching.
I'm working on saw sharpening and want to really get into this.

One last item to mention.  I have had the pleasure of meeting and watching
two local professional workworkers:  Ken Heister of Mt. Holly Springs, who
makes reproductions for the Colonial Williamsburg catalog and high end 18th
century reproductions; and Dan Bachentose from Schaefferstown, PA in Lebanon
County who does 18th century high end reproductions too.  Dan particularly
has welcomed me to his shop and allowed me to work with him and learn some
of his techniques and interesting philosophy of life.

Best Wishes 

Herb Lapp