OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

12148 Scott Stager <ccstager@s...> 1997‑01‑18 Bio
After three or four FMM's with my chin just barely over the edge of the porch 
I guess it is time to step up and submit a Bio.  I am starting to get the
urge to ask an occasional question and I sure want to be a bonefide porch
resident first, even if sitting way over in one of the corners.  
 
I am a 50 year old Computer Techie - Computers in the older sense of big
iron, not these newfangled desktop fancy colored screens graphic pizazzes.
Gee, interesting question.  Does working on computers whose architecture
goes back to about 1960 qualify as using old tools?

I am however enough up to date to have a P.C. on my desktop with Internet
mail and WWW access, which is how I came to find Oldtools (after giving up
on Rec.ww because of humongous volume and too much uncivil repartee).  I
have found oldtools to have good natured and civil repartee, always loaded
with much helpful information and food for thought.

I have been interested in woodworking since taking my first shop class as a
freshman in high school.  Didn't take a second course until my senior year
when I passed on Spanish II and took the shop class.  Built a custom
designed modern boxy style grandfather clock without all of the scrolls and
moulding work which still sits in my parent's living room.  Even then the
emphasis was on p*w*r tools, so unfortunately I did not get a well grounded
education in handtools back in the days when I could have picked them up by
the five gallon bucket for peanuts.  I have always had dreams of a well
outfitted woodworking shop, with the usual 'lectric stuff, and had proceeded
in a small way towards that goal.  But I found myself always feeling like I
didn't quite have the tools to do what I wanted, and the perfectionist in my
kept me from "just doing it".  

My father was always handy with tools and simple woodworking.  From my high
school years through his retirement he owned and ran a hardware store in my
small home town in west central Minnesota.  So I was always around tools and
hardware.  He had of course the requisite Normie type table saw, but at
least of a simple type and small size.  But he also had the usual collection
of hand saws, planes, chisels, and the like.  I was more likely to pick up a
hand saw for simple cutting tasks, figuring it was faster and easier than
dragging out some power monster. Just never quite formed the image of doing
all or most of the work with hand tools.   

Over the last year or so and particularly since I began reading oldtools I
have begun to realize that the relatively small shop space I have in the
front of my garage, along with the things I keep thinking about wanting to
build would lend themselves very nicely to the tools and techniques
discussed on this list.  Simple cabinets, bookshelves, boxes, storage
cointainers and the like would be excellent oldtools projects, and I now
truly believe the "getting there" would be more fun using planes, chisels
and the likes. 

I had a partial epiphany over 25 years ago when just out of grad school.
One of my Computer Science Prof was into woodworking with a typical well
equipped p*w*r woodworking shop.  But, he also had an appreciation of hand
tools, especially good planes.  I built a custom designed somewhat intricate
spice bottle rack in his shop with his assistance, and when the time came to
finish it up, I thought the process would involve that paper product with
gritty stuff stuck to it.  But no, he drags out this thing that looked like
a hard maple 4*4 with a single handle on it and proceeded to produce
shavings the likes of which I had never seen.  It was what I now know to be
a wooden jointer plane of modern construction (Swedish I think), probably a
good 24 inches long.  Just had this wooden wedge sticking out of the top, in
front of a simple blade with no adjusting screw, so I was totally stumped as
to how to adjust it.  He explained the tap it here and poke it there with
the small hammer adjustment process, but I am not sure I really believed him
at the time.  We used it to put the smoothest finish all over the surface of
the walnut which was used for the spice rack, including right over all of
the bored holes on the face of each shelf designed to have the bottles show
through.  Wow - smooth as glass without ever being touched by that rough
paper.  I now know that a jointer plan was probably not the ideal for final
surface smoothing, but it was the one he was most proud of and boy did he
have an edge on the blade (including my first introduction to a slightly
rounded plane blade edge).

That spice rack still hangs in my kitchen with it's 30 tall six inch tall
slender bottles each ensconsed in a separate hole bored in three
"constructed" walnut 2*4s each of which independently swivels forward to
allow removal of the bottles.  With the Danish oil clear finish, and only
occasional dustings and replenishing with some kind of lemon smelling
treatment, the wood on that rack still has the original smooth as a babies
bottom surface.  That rack is what frequently causes me to want to do more.
Oh yea, he also introduced me to the concept of re-sawing and surface
planing, but it was done with non-Neanderthal tools.   

I have begun to frequent places where oldtools might be available, and am
beginning to acquaint myself with some idea of what basic equipment might
cost me.  I haven't found any mother load of old iron here in Central
Missouri, but I am already looking forward to the National MWTC meeting here
in June of 1998.
 
The pleasant surprise is that I should be able to get a real good start for
a lot less cash layout than any serious trip down the Norm road would
require.  And the FMMs here with access to the iron mongers on this list
will certainly allow me to get a good start.  I treated myself to a late
Christmas gift by getting on the IT waiting list.  I know; awfully big jump
for a beginner, but what the hey I'm a sucker for a "get it before the price
goes up" offer, and 
having one new old tool that I know is drool bait on this list should force
me to get with it.  And the idea of all those cabinets and boxes with "real"
dovetail joints is an image I can't get out of my mind.

The recent discussions about spokeshaves have got me itching also.  I have
the Japanese bench and Western chisels, and a few other tools from an
earlier stalled trip down oldtools lane a few years ago, so once I get a
couple three planes I will be ready to go.  I also picked up a four grungie
but I think salvagable old saws on my Christmas trip back home to Minnesota.
One has got a fancy Disston and Son's  logo engraved on the blade with some
scrolls and fancy words (and a 12 buried in the middle).  Another has one of
those older fancy feels so nice in the hand handles, and one has the "extra"
finger hole.   So expect followup questions with details to attempt better
identification. 
Many of the nuts on them are non-original and ugly replacements, but what
the hey, the nuts don't make them saw good.  I guess I will just have to
learn to sharpen or correspond with some of the folks on this list to do it
for me.  I certainly do not want to let the local hardware store "sharpen
anything" guy get his hands on them if they are any good.  Though maybe I
could check him out on my fairly new, but non-function top of the line
Crapsman crosscut.     
        
Oh, by the way, I also got interested in blacksmithing a few years ago and
have become a regular attendee of the Blacksmiths Association of Missouri
(BAM) organization.  (Tomorrow we are visiting a nearby  cooperage with a
promised "from scratch" barrel construction demonstration).   The thought of
being able to mix the two avocations of wood and iron working really gets my
interest up.  Projects involving both wood and iron, come to mind, and the
possibility of actually manufacturing usable woodworking tools oneself is
quite intriguing.  Have got a small hand crank forge, a couple of small
anvils, a small post vice (unmounted), a few tongs and tools, so just need
to drag it all out in the back yard next summer and convince the neighbors
that I am barbecuing, or that I can make them something real neat if they
will just put up with the smoke and noise.    
Looking forward with enthusiasm to being a member of the porch, and thanks
for the knowledge already gleaned from four months of lurking.  The variety
and depth of knowledge of the members of this list is truelly phenomenal.

Whew, it you got this far you are a glutton for punishment or have way too
much free time on your hands.   

Galootingly yours, 

--Scott Stager

(P.S. I already have my red wool galoot had :.) )

(P.P.S - Any Galoots within 50-60 miles of Columbia Mo willing to stand up
and introduce yourselves? - I'm always ready for a field trip ;.) )     
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Scott Stager  -               Blacksmith/woodworker wannabe          |   
| (University of Missouri)      Internet: ccstager@s... |
|                               Work Phone: (573)-882-9289             |
|                               Home Phone: (573)-474-5955             |



Recent Bios FAQ