Posts: 10,118
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Joined: Sep 2006
Location: South Alabama
My story? Well, growing up, the only "woodworking" I did was salvaging boards from an old barn we had and nailing together tree forts. I learned a few things, I guess, mostly about straightening nails. (We kids weren't about to buy our own nails, and mom and dad sure weren't going to buy them for us, either.) I also learned that using a dull handsaw is miserable. We did have a little saber saw and an old circular saw, which my brothers and I used unsupervised. No injuries, though!
When I got married in my early twenties, we needed a bookshelf, so I bought some lumber, sawed boards to length with a circular saw, and assembled everything with L-brackets. It's ugly as heck, but it's still there and full of books! We were living in the Waco, TX, area at the time (pre-Chip&JoannaGains), and we enjoyed visiting Homestead Heritage, where Paul Sellers was teaching at the time. On a whim, I took a one-day hand-tool-joinery class there with Frank Strazza, and I was hooked. Soon, while searching the internet for info on hand tools, I stumbled upon WoodNet. I signed up for a membership, and I've been here ever since.
I was in grad school at the time, so money was extremely tight. I scoured antique malls for diamonds-in-the-rough. I found a few, as well as a few duds, but I learned a whole lot about restoring old tools--much from the folks right here. I was also given quite a few tools early on, and those were always a godsend. For the first few years, I was a hand-tool-purist by necessity. I was living and working wood in a single-wide trailer, and I made myself a tiny workbench that doubled as a kitchen island for years. (My wife had grown up helping her jack-of-all-trades dad do repair work around the house, so this was pretty normal for her.) I struggled with saw sharpening, hand plane fettling, dimensioning stock--you name it. But for some reason, I persevered. I did like the results when I finally finished a project. And I was making things that I couldn't possibly have been able to purchase.
Eventually I graduated and got a real job, and we moved into a real house. So I built myself a real workbench. Most of my woodworking tools still fit into a small tool chest. Because I now had a regular income, as well as a whole house to fill with furniture, I began to fill in the gaps in my toolkit. I was never a collector. Sure, I'd hold on to individual tools for sentimental purposes, and I'd snap up a too-good-to-pass-up deal at an antique shop, so I ended up with a few duplicates. But by and large, I focused on getting the tools I knew I needed to do the kind of work I needed to do. I built an "Anarchist's tool chest," and that did help limit my tool acquisition. I've only got so much space to store new tools, so I can't collect indiscriminately.
I still visit antique malls and flea markets now and then in search for fine tools. But I'm also a whole lot more picky than I used to be. I pass up a lot of junk because I know exactly what I'm looking for. I know what I can fix and (mostly) what's worth fixing. These days, I'm mostly on the lookout for tools that I can clean up for my kids to eventually use. I'm teaching them the basics of woodworking as I have opportunity. Once they're grown, who knows what kind of woodworking I'll want to do? But that's a few years off yet.
Steve S.
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Tradition cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour.
- T. S. Eliot
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