OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

-91 "Thomas R. Bruce" <tom@b...> 1970‑01‑01 Weighing in.

Folks:

O'Deen requested bios, and I was tempted to post my CV, but I figured the
world is not yet ready for that level of insomnia cure.  So here's the
short form: 

By day: net.application developer whose primary interest happens to be 
distribution of legal information, though I did stray into mass-market 
Web browsers for a while.

By night: builder of mostly Shaker-style stuff and terminal tool-drooler; 
in that hazy realm of user-going-collector where you can justify buying 
almost anything (grin).  But tools were meant to be used, dammit, and I 
can't see owning something you don't know how to use.  Tool collections 
should be a form of honorable retirement for the tool...or something.  My 
philosophy on this ain't yet coherent, as you can tell -- I'm just amazed 
at the ignorance of technique shown by some collectors.  I have some 
aspirations to doing a little minor dealing here and there, since I enjoy 
pursuing the small iron, pursuit is fairly easy here in upstate NY, and 
it might be fun to do full time someday when I retire from the 
lawyer-baiting business.

By background: I spent several years working in showbiz (specifically 
legit theater) where nothing is built to last (grin).  I think in the 
process of doing multiple hundreds of shows over a fifteen-year period I 
saw hardwoods used twice, and only in situations where no passable fake 
could be made -- specifically, a set of chairs in that lightweight 
Cowboy-deco style, and I forget what the other was.  It wasn't until I'd 
been out of that business for several years and bought a house that I 
realized how much I missed having a shop around -- and the rest is 
history, or the expense side of the ledger sheet, depending on who you ask.
Not long after putting some builtin bookshelves into a room I was adding 
I encountered the Evil Cult Leader Patrick Leach, and went from being a 
spider dangling over the pit of Hell (as Cotton Mather would have it) to 
being a Crispy Critter with a stack 'o' planes.

Ain't it grand?

Tb.

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|  Thomas R. Bruce                                 trb2@c... |
|  Co-Director, Legal Information Institute                         |
|  Cornell Law School                             Vox: 607-255-1221 |
|  Myron Taylor Hall                              FAX: 607-255-7193 |
|  Ithaca, NY 14853                                                 |
|  "Carving clowns with power tools?  What could be more fun!"      |
|                                         -- _Woodwork_ magazine    |
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Recent Bios FAQ