OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

269954 "Yarrow, Gary" <Gary.Yarrow@SDSTATE.EDU> 2020‑02‑18 Re: the Jeff Gorman collection
When my wife and I were in England about 20 years ago, I contacted Jeff and
asked if he wanted company for a day.  He said it was so far from where we were
staying (about 2 1/2 hour drive), but when I told him that I'm from SD where
that is just an afternoon joy ride, he invited us over.  We got there and Anne
and Margie immediately made very good friends.  They fed us like kings, explored
his shop (which actually was not very big, but maybe on English size it was).
And he really didn't have a lot of tools compared to a lot of folks on this
list.  He gave me two of his planes (I had brought one from SD for him) and also
some very nice English oak pieces that he had.  He then took us over to an old
UAF base that was all antiques, but not the junky stuff you find around here
sometimes.  Explained many of the furniture pieces (some in the thousands of
pounds) and explored with me while Anne and Margie explored different areas.
Jeff came upon a infilled shoulder plane that he thought was a Norris, but
wasn't sure (I did find the markings later).  He didn't like the price so he
negotiated for me and dropped it about in half.  Also found a few books that
were very interesting.

Got back to their place just in time for tea and wanted us to stay the night,
but we couldn't.  Before we left, he went out in the shop and pulled out some
smaller pieces of bog oak and another piece of English oak and then gave me
copies of almost all of his magazine articles.  Thought it was great that he
didn't keep magazines, but tore out articles that he liked and tossed the rest.
I really felt sad to leave but we remained in contact (occasionally) ever since
and he would send me PDF's of his new articles and such, sometimes before the
magazine would come out.

He was very gentle man, very knowledgeable and fun to hang with.  Got a kick out
of him when you showed me a piece that he made (sort of a dressing table) that
was supposed to me mass produced but was then declined; his comments were
something along the line of "the blokes wouldn't  know a good thing if it kicked
them in the rear"; but he was sanguine about it.

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned, but his job was to travel around parts of
England and to inspect high school (or what we would call high school) shops for
safety issues and to give some demonstrations.  I could see him do that.

He is one person in the world that I would have loved to spend more time with
and not just woodworking related, but just a gentleman.  "What'z that!"


Gary




-----Original Message-----
From: OldTools  On Behalf Of Ed Minch
Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2020 2:26 PM
To: Dragon List 
Cc: Tools Old 
Subject: Re: [OldTools] the Jeff Gorman collection

A true cavalier (gentleman, Jeff)

Ed Minch

> On Feb 18, 2020, at 12:09 PM, Dragon List  wrote:
> 
> ok, hands up, who else had to clear the sawdust from their eyes 
> reading that?
> 
> to jeff, indeed.
> 
> bill
> felton, ca

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