Hi, my name is Tom Watson and I'm a recovering rec.normer.  I've come here
to get in out of the rain (and it rains aplenty on rec.norm) and this here
porch looks mighty inviting.  I'm a cabinetmaker by trade and have a host
of tailed tools, both large and small.  Still, there's a Stanley 55 tucked
away in my neander cabinet out in the shop and a few galootish devices
that I use on a day to day basis.

I live one county south of the Mercer Museum, which I believe to be a
Galootish Shrine and at which I have lit a candle or two while standing
with mouth agape at the wonders wrought by our forebearers.  Although I
started my woodworking journey during the sixties, with a Rockwell 315 in
hand and an attitude, I was reading 'A Reverence For Wood' at the same
time and have always felt the pull of that sort of thinking.

I'm looking to move my business from building big ole liberries,
bookcases, kitsch cabinets and such, to making traditional furniture on
spec that I'd like to make using a combination of Normite and Neander
techniques.

My primary interest just now is to learn about the acquisition, tuning and
making of molding planes, to be used in making this vaporware furniture.

This seems like a good place to learn about such things and so I stand,
hat in hand, and ask if you might find a small, out of the way spot in
some porchly backwater (don't have to be a clean spot) where I might
crouch for a spell and learn with eyes and ears.

Regards,

Tom.
Thomas J. Watson - Cabinetmaker
tjwcabinetmaker.com

Welcome, Tom. Nice lookin' stuff on yer website.

If you haven't already, rush out and get a copy of Michael Dunbar's
Restoring, Tuning and Using Classic Woodworking Tools. Then save your
pennies and take a plane-making class from Tod Herrli here in Hoosier-land
(or get the tape from Anatol). Then what you can't find and restore, you
can make.

Steve - another Kokomo galoot
who almost resisted any reference to golf

Hi Tom,

From one wRECk.normite to another, welcome.  I'm still feelin' like the new
guy here, but it's all good.  Happy, friendly, helpful bunch.  Pull up a
crawlspace here under the Porch and enjoy.

Jon Endres, PE
West Mountain Engineering

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Watson [mailto:tjwatson@s...]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 3:26 PM
> To: oldtools
> Subject: [oldtools] Just sayin' hello.
>
>
> Hi, my name is Tom Watson and I'm a recovering rec.normer.  I've come here
> to get in out of the rain (and it rains aplenty on rec.norm) and this here
> porch looks mighty inviting.  I'm a cabinetmaker by trade and have a host
> of tailed tools, both large and small.  Still, there's a Stanley 55 tucked
> away in my neander cabinet out in the shop and a few galootish devices
> that I use on a day to day basis.
>
> I live one county south of the Mercer Museum, which I believe to be a
> Galootish Shrine and at which I have lit a candle or two while standing
> with mouth agape at the wonders wrought by our forebearers.  Although I
> started my woodworking journey during the sixties, with a Rockwell 315 in
> hand and an attitude, I was reading 'A Reverence For Wood' at the same
> time and have always felt the pull of that sort of thinking.
>
> I'm looking to move my business from building big ole liberries,
> bookcases, kitsch cabinets and such, to making traditional furniture on
> spec that I'd like to make using a combination of Normite and Neander
> techniques.
>
> My primary interest just now is to learn about the acquisition, tuning and
> making of molding planes, to be used in making this vaporware furniture.
>
> This seems like a good place to learn about such things and so I stand,
> hat in hand, and ask if you might find a small, out of the way spot in
> some porchly backwater (don't have to be a clean spot) where I might
> crouch for a spell and learn with eyes and ears.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tom.
> Thomas J. Watson - Cabinetmaker
> tjwcabinetmaker.com
>
> Archive: http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/
> To unsubscribe or change options, use the web interface:
>     http://galoots.law.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=oldtools

Tom Watson writes:

> My primary interest just now is to learn about the acquisition, tuning and
> making of molding planes, to be used in making this vaporware furniture.

I have two words for you-- Tod Herrli.

Tod teaches an introduction to wooden plane making that is *exactly* what
you are looking for.  In 2 days you will learn more than you ever dreamed
possible about making, tuning, sharpening, and using side-escapment molding
planes, and leave with a wonderful hollow or round that you made.  Tod
teaches classes at his home in Marion, IN (about an hour northeast of Indy),
and is also doing a class at the Marc Adams school later this summer.

I've taken several of Tods classes, and had a blast at all of them.

If you can't take the class, the next best thing is to buy Tod's video
(available from Anatol).  In the video, Tod covers everything he does in the
class, plus extra stuff on making floats and sharpening.  I've also got a
copy of the video, and it's terrific.

Here are the links:

Tod: http://www.comteck.com/~therrli/
Anatol: http://members.bellatlantic.net/%7Evze2nwp6/planes/hollow.html

Support your fellow galoots!  Take a class from Tod, and buy the video.  You
can thank me later... ;-)
-- 
Ralph Brendler, Chicago, IL - OTLM, ENB, FOYBIPO
"Science works even if you don't believe in it..." - Penn Jillette

Ralph Brendler wrote:
> Tom Watson writes:
> 
> 
>>My primary interest just now is to learn about the acquisition, tuning and
>>making of molding planes, to be used in making this vaporware furniture.
> 
> 
> I have two words for you-- Tod Herrli.
> 
> Tod teaches an introduction to wooden plane making that is *exactly* what
> you are looking for.  In 2 days you will learn more than you ever dreamed
> possible about making, tuning, sharpening, and using side-escapment molding
> planes, and leave with a wonderful hollow or round that you made.  Tod
> teaches classes at his home in Marion, IN (about an hour northeast of Indy),
> and is also doing a class at the Marc Adams school later this summer.

In a book of mine (I think it was Spons) they refer
to sharpening moulding plane irons. They (essentially) recommend
doing as little as possible, very carefully, with Arkansas slips.

But they advise that the blade will eventually
not be the right shape - the errors accumulate.

This isn't a problem, because you (apparently)
send it back to the makers to be reshaped!!

We've lost some infrastructure methinks.

    BugBear