Greetings All,
I've been lurking around the porch for some time now, and thought I would
formally join in- hope this doesn't get windy. I'm Randy Osborne, 47 years
young, married to a wonderful lady Amy, and I have 4 children, 3
step-children, and 2 grandchildren (yes, I like my shop). We live in the
beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina where I was born & raised on
our family farm. I have a bachelors & masters degree from North Carolina
State University, and have been designing electrical systems for buildings
for the past 24 years and primarily design hospitals, although I have been
known to design an occasional school, industrial plant or commercial
building. I often joke that my engineering work is just to support my
woodworking and old tool habits (and SWMBO agrees, ....and ain't laughing,
not even a smile, maybe a death look). Woodworking and old tool collecting
are my passions, and I'm an active member of MWTCA, pretty regular on ebay,
and know every flea market, antique store and junk shop in a 200 mile radius
and points beyond.
I've been doing woodworking since the 9th grade or earlier if you count the
pole sheds we built on the farm. A couple of years ago, we converted our 2
car garage building into a woodworking shop with a vaulted ceiling, a big
double window in one end, plenty of good fluorescent lighting, and dust
collector & compressed air systems. Amy, the kids and I did all the work,
just as we've done all the work in renovating our older home. The house
isn't finished but the shop is.... Had to have the shop so I could do the
house ya' know. The shop has a pretty full selection of tailed and hand
tools, but I'll go ahead and admit most of the work gets done with tailed
tools. The hand tools always take over though when it comes to fit & finish.
I specialize in arts & crafts/mission style furniture, and have gone so far
as to teach myself veneering and the traditional ammonia fuming process
(stay up-wind and be ready to RUN) to build authentic pieces. I design
everything I build with autocad which saves a lot of time and "oh damn-its"
in the shop.
I've built a lot of non-traditional (not quarter sawed oak) mission pieces
out of walnut, cherry and maple with a lot of "randyism's". 2 years ago I
built my first grandson a walnut mission dresser with burl walnut veneered
end panels, ebony pegs, hand cut half-blind dovetails on the drawers, and it
turned out pretty decent. The kids hounded me to put it in the NC Mountain
State Fair, and it won all of the 1st place awards in the division. I'll try
to attach some pictures. Most of the wood I use I cut the trees myself and
haul them to my buddy's sawmill, although the wood for the dresser came from
the local community college sawmill and kiln. Unfortunately, between work,
family and "gotta do" stuff, I usually don't have as much time for
woodworking as I would like. But I try to catch up on it in the winter like
most woodworkers.
I've been actively collecting old tools for about 8 years and started out
trying to find some old planes to use in my woodworking. From growing up on
the farm, I already knew a lot about old tools and didn't realize it. On the
farm we just worked and used what we had, and a lot of it was generations
old because tools (and everything else too)were taken care of. I'm
interested in all kinds of old tools and how they were used, but mostly
concentrate on woodworking tools, primarily metallic planes. I have oodles
of planes, but also chisels, saws, levels, braces, measuring/marking tools,
primitives, etc. Many of these "treasures" need a new home and there may be
an exodus soon. I collect Stanley stuff like everybody else and their
grandma, but my rebellious streak directed me to other quality mfgrs like
Marsh/Rockford, Union, Birmingham, Sargent, etc. The past several years
I've focused on the Marsh/Rockford planes since so little is known about
these planes and there's a real opportunity for study and research for the
betterment of the "old tool kingdom". I've already learned a lot, but
there's yet much more to discover. At some (future) point, I'll probably
publish "something" to pass along this Marsh/Rockford info. If anyone on the
Porch has any wayward Marsh or Rockford planes they want to part with, drop
me a line. I specifically need an M2C and M4 1/2C (bench planes Jeff), and
M65 and M65 1/2 (low angle block planes Jeff) to have a complete collection.
I've also heard rumors of an M81 scraper plane, but this is unconfirmed.
Well, that's way more than enough. I look forward to learning and sharing
with you folks.
My Best
Randy Osborne
______________________________________________________________
|