OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

260391 "David & AnnTardiff" <tardiff13@v...> 2016‑11‑10 Bio Update
Having recently, and for the first time in a while, enrolled in the seasonal 
festivities held here, I went to check my bio and found it......old.
It's listed below....and while old is appropriate for this list, and even 
more appropriate than previously for ME, I thought I should update it a bit.

Everything listed is still true...and I'm still living in the same place, 
although working for a different organization these days.
The old house is still incomplete, now only 32 years into a two-year 
renovation plan, but in the interim we've also been building a log cabin in 
Vermont, where I do most of the work with hand tools, being off-grid.  This 
has also led me into dabbling in logging and related industries, and had 
added a few chainsaws to my collection, along with the more traditional one 
and two-man saws, peaveys, etc.  My collection of molding planes has 
expanded by, well, quite a few, as has the pile of handsaws.
Along the way I've messed about with leatherworking and carving/whittling, 
both for Scouts, and the current projects for the cabin would be a 
traditional staircase (two flights, nested) and some letter/sign carving 
that's needed for the cabin.  That should keep me busy for the next 20 years 
before the next update.....

previous bio:

I'm Dave Tardiff, living in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts.
Approximately 38, married, two apprentices in progress, aged 8 and 2.
I got addicted to tools early, by my father, a handyman type, and assisted
in the typical home repairs as a kid.  My tools came primarily from Sears,
and those that weren't chromed had electric tails.  There was a new Stanley
plane around somewhere, but that thing never did do anything.

    About 10 years ago we bought a circa-1835 farmhouse with
a modern-but-incomplete addition, and I began to expand the tool inventory
to deal with this.  At some point, while scrounging in Dad's basement, I 
came
across another, older Stanley - my grandfather's 5 1/4, with his nickname
scratched into the side as he marked all his stuff.  Inspired by the age of
my house, I'd been reading a lot about woodworking, and by now knew enough
to get it working, and I saw the blinding light...

    While accompanying in-laws 'antiqueing', I'd often seen old tools,
and I started buying wooden molding planes, my first a Scottish multiple
iron, I recall.  At this point I had no plans for using it, I just
thought it was interesting.  Since them....well, a while ago we were
visiting, and I commented on an old wooden smoother being used as a
match holder on a mantle (it wasn't good for much else, actually.)  My
wife commented that I had over a hundred planes myself...and I denied it!
Actually, I'd never really counted.  A bet was made, though, and I started
counting....just the metal put me up near 30, and then came the wood...I
quit counting at 115, and I hadn't yet tallied the 'demo' planes in my 
office.
I went directly to the chocolate store and paid up.

    I've always bought with using in mind, and I really don't have any
(well, many...) duplicates.  I may have the dubious distinction of being the
galoot who lives closest to Crane's affairs in Nashua, as it's just 5 miles 
up
the highway from my house.  I say dubious because it took me a few years
to stumble on it, even though I'd heard of it in FWW.  Of course, that was
the 'old' days, when we kept our hobbies in the closet and didn't have all 
these
support groups.  Usenet's rec.woodworking, Patrick Leach, and now oldtools
have changed that a great deal.

    My current job as a personal computer enclosure designer (that's the
metal and plastic stuff) has had me travelling around the globe.  I've slept
in Ayr, Scotland, home of the original Spiers infill planes, and bought 
stuff
in Glasgow, a little more direct than buying the scottish stuff in New 
England
antique shops.  So far I've found no trace of woodworking history in Taiwan,
but am still looking - I'd like to know if China traditional techniques are
closer to European or Japanese.  I also dabble in metalworking, and have a
metal lathe and horizontal mill in the garage near the treadle jigsaw and 
the
floor-standing wooden saw vise.

Recent Bios FAQ