GGG,
In the spirit of the season, I am updating my little bio. When I
first found the porch I was a neophyte w'worker who was swayed by the
very persuasive writings on the wreck of a certain jack plane collector
and soon-to-be shellac-pimp (you, Paddy).
Since beginning woodworking in 1997, and turning towards the
enlightened ways of galootitude, I have accumulated a decent arsenal
of tools, while still managing to build enough to convince SWMBO that
I really do use all those hunks of cast iron in my shop. (Looking
back at my initial bio is almost embarrassing, as I had a total of
four planes when I posted. Now I have that many *smoothers*.)
We recently moved into a new house and I now have half of a large
two-car garage that is solely dedicated to my, er ... hobby. Living
as I do in old tool heck is probably a good thing, as otherwise, I
would probably have the garage *totally* filled with tools. As it
is, I have some room for wood and other things.
Now that I have most of the iron bench and specialty planes I will
likely ever need (plus wooden dado planes), I can concentrate on
adding saws to my collection, and making my own wooden planes. I've
already made a smoother and a couple of Guntershaves, and they are
among my best users.
Recent projects have found me doing all work from rough stock prep
to joinery in true Neander fashion. I am not religious about it; I
just prefer it that way.
I am currently building my first "real" bench. It is a simple
design based on Kirby's from The Workbench Book, making use of planing
stops for holding work, but with a leg vise instead of a cast iron
vise. The base is made of standard construction grade SYP (except for
the leg that will be the fixed jaw for the vise; that one is made of
dense "guato" pine laminate to 4x4"), and the top will be SYP
face-glued on edge giving a top of roughly 2-1/2". It's nothing
fancy, but hopefully it will be good enough for the kind of work I do,
and will help me build my dream bench in the future.
In the future I hope to concentrate on jewelry-box making and other
detailed work. If I get good enough at it, I can always sell my wares
to unsuspecting tourists in one of the many craft shops in our little
hamlet (Wimberley, Texas).
The porch has been a great source of inspiration and information to
me during these last couple of years, and I hope someday to be able to
help pass the torch the next gaggle of budding galoots.
Chuck Vance
See my project page at: http://www.swt.edu/~cv01/projects.html
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