OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

214432 professor@f... 2011‑03‑04 Bio
I posted a bio back in July 2009 that never made it into the list of bios.  
Never thought much of it until last week when I attempted to post a reply to the
 
list that was side-railed for review for *posting by a non-member*.  Maybe I can
 
be subscribed to the list but have to have a bio to be a member, so here goes 
again.

I listened and learned in my reading this list but usually have remained pretty 
quiet given I was in the presence of such an august body.  I have made a few 
purchases from some of the regulars here. Early on they were always kind enough 
to extend Old Tool terms to me without knowing me since I didn't have a bio on 
file.

Live in Fort Dodge, Iowa.  Married to a good woman. Two lovely daughters and 
four grand kids.  I am old enough to retire (66), and did once, but still workin
g
as an Technology Support Specialist in a high school. Having grand kids in schoo
l 
here makes up for the working part.

I graduated from this high school many moons ago, before Industrial Arts 
died in mainstream secondary school education. Stanley was still 
considered the Toolbox of the World, the major difference between Delta and 
Powermatic was the color of the cabinet, and Japan was only marketing 
pocket-sized transistor radios. While we trained on hand tools, the prevailing 
wisdom then was that it was a prelude to moving to machine tools.

Served with the Iowa National Guard for 41 years, 35 of them full-time. About 
have those years in an ammunition battalion and the other half in an artillery 
battalion.  

In the late 60s, SWMBO and I purchased a fixer-upper and for the next 28 years I
 
was involved in carpentry, plumbing, electrical, roofing, painting, etc. 
Accumulated a fair share of tools over those years and many of them with tails. 
What I really wanted to do with my extra time was build cabinets and furniture 
(and did some), but that house was very demanding.  Most of my work was with 
softwoods.  Introducing hard woods into that house had to be done very carefully
 
so as not to created different shrinkage rates on opposite sides of the house 
that would eventually lead to its demise.  Hardwoods from the lumber yard were 
pretty much limited to red oak and lauan, so the oak was the only thing that 
really challenged you to keep your chisels and planes sharp.  So hand tools 
didn't get used much if I was working with oak.

Sooner or later, one learns that unless you have a production run of something, 
hand tools require much less setup, lend themselves to making one-of-a-kind 
items, produce much less dust, produce much less noise, and were used to produce
 
just about everything prior to 1900 and much of it after that up to WWII. While 
I was fooling around putting my ten digits in danger of amputation using p*w*r 
tools, the tools I used in high school had become OLD tools.

Subscribed to FWW when they first came out and it provided a lot of information 
to fill the gaps in my woodworking tools knowledge.  Doesn't seem to have as 
much of that kind of content these days and in my search for for more I came 
across the Old Tools List.  Can't claim anywhere near the tool experience and 
knowledge of those who frequent the Porch, but I come here every day to soak up 
as much as I can.  Hope to add my two cents somewhere along the line.

Best regards, Frank Segreto
------------------------------------------------------------------------


Recent Bios FAQ