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55697 Gary Elswick <gelswick@c...> 1999‑01‑09 bio.: Gary Elswick
Bio.: I have been a weekend woodworker for ~20 years and in the last few years
have been doing more and more with hand tools. Several notable people have
influenced and been a mentor to me. One of the first was Craig Stevens.

    Craig is an artist of unbelievable talent. He is a graduate of the College
of the Redwoods in California and shows the strong Krenov influence. He has
published several books on carving and numerous articles in the woodworking
magazines. I had the pleasure of attending his plane making and dovetail
classes. He was the first to give me new perspectives on woodworking - the
importance of hand tools and that I am an artist whose medium is wood. I have
to admit on some days I'm still working on the artist part (actually far to
many). Thank you Craig.....

    Next I had the immense pleasure of spending a week carving with Chris Pye
at Peter Korn's school in Maine. I thought I was pretty good at sharpening
already and when Chris started out announcing that the first day and a half
would be spent learning how to sharpen I thought oh great...I don't need this.
An hour or so later I could not believe what I did NOT know about sharpening.
Chris' carving talents are also highly honed. He is a master of the technical
and the artistic and can teach both. Besides, being from Great Briton he has a
neat accent and is fun to listen to. Chris has also published several books on
carving, sharpening and numerous magazine articles. Chris, don't worry...I have
not quit my day job yet. Thank you Chris....

Craig and Chris give hand powered tool classes and I highly recommend both.

    Currently I volunteer on weekends as an apprentice for Tom Clark, the
master cabinetmaker at the Ohio Village in Columbus, Ohio. The Ohio Village is
a *process* museum sponsored by the Ohio Historical Society. The Village is a
recreation of a typical Ohio town around the 1860's. They have a cabinetmaker,
blacksmith, tinsmith and print shop among other things. The printer does hand
engraved woodcuts also. Tom, the master cabinetmaker, is also extremely
talented. There is one electric outlet in his shop and that is for the
coffeepot. All of the furniture, tools and caskets that come out of his shop
have been built using hand tools only. Every day I spend in the shop I learn
something new. Tom was trained by several European trained cabinetmakers and is
a wealth of woodworking wisdom and knowledge. I just hope that I can remember
half of what he has taught me already. If only he would write a book! Among
other things he has/is teaching me plane making, carving, saw sharpening!
 and how hand powered woodworking was done in the production shops of years
gone by. (Tom probably does not even realize he is a galoot to the
max...someday I'll tell him) Thank you Tom....

The Ohio Village link:
http://www.ohiohistory.org/places/ohvillag/
That's Tom In the cabinetmakers shop.

My day job is a tied to the desk, paper shuffling land surveyor. My swmbo and I
enjoy spending time with our 3...no....4.... jeeze is it really 5 grandkids. We
live in the central Ohio area.

I'm currently working on getting a hand tool web page up and running and will
let you know if I succeed.



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