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4188 enbrinson@a... 1996‑08‑19 Ed Brinson/new member bio
Dear Galoots,

My name is Ed Brinson, and when I'm not puttering with tools or making
piles of wood shavings, I'm a college professor at Northeast Louisiana
University. My woodworking/collecting inspiration began about six years
ago when I read Drew Langsner's book called *Green Woodworking* which is
all about making things out of green wood using sharp hand tools. BTW
I've already seen an argument among fellow galoots back on the www
homepage which subject was whether the charter encourages discussion of
just "old" old tools or, say, "fine handtools," and you can put me down
in the "fine handtools" camp since my collection runs to both "old" and
"new" hand tools with the emphasis on HAND and not necessarily either
old or new. My newest tool is probably my Austrian-made hollowing adze,
and my oldest is probably the wooden rabbet plane made, I think, around
the turn of the century, and, of course, I've used both with equal
pleasure. Need I worry that the name of this list is "Oldtools?" Is
there still a debate, or is this topic just old "hat?" (sorry) :-):-)

Some of my collection: double-bladed adze (Austrian, one blade for
saddling Windsor chair seats or hollowing bowls, the other for
chiseling), crosscut saw, 2 buck saws (one homemade by yours truly),
variety of handsaws, wooden and metal planes, inshave, 3 spokeshaves
(straight, concave, convex--two of which are Stanleys and the other
German-made), a homemade froe, a homemade "crooked knife" which blade I
made from an old file using some simple in- structions on metallurgy in
*Green Woodworking,* variety of chisels, one very small qouge with
knob-style handle and one large #8 sweep/15mm gouge, a brace and
bit(not antique), a small "eggbeater" style brace, several bench axes
(single and double bevelled), try squares, straight edges, levels,
three kinds of spring calipers (straight, inside, outside), many "c"
clamps, and etc.

Spent last summer in Germany, and while I was there, bought a bench
axe (with- out handle) and a old wooden bench plane for 20
Deutschmarks each.

Recent good fortune: Lately, two separate windstorms have provided me
with much green wood, e.g., a entire Wahoo Elm tree and one large limb
from a Linden tree which looks to have some very tight and flawless
grain. The Wahoo is a bit (understatement) tough to split but has
yielded somewhat to a couple of large steel wedges and a heavy maul.

Interesting information: I purchased the crosscut saw listed above from
the only company in the U.S. still making them, and that is *The
Crosscut Saw Company* in Seneca Falls, New York, whose name I learned
from a very interest- ing and informative government publication titled
"Crosscut Saw Manual," which not only has everything from A to Z about
these saws, but also some very good photographs of workers long, long
ago using these saws to cut huge virgin trees somewhere in the West,
perhaps, Douglas Firs in Montana or Giant Redwoods in California. These
Forestry Service workers are dwarfed by the trees and the felling saw
they are using looks to be 12 or 15 feet long.

Well, this is quite enough of a "short" bio, I'm sure! Thank you, and,
BTW, I've already enjoyed several postings from galoots, and have
already learned enoughto be worth the price of admission. :-)

Ed Brinson

P.O. Box 5221 NLU Monroe, LA 71212

enbrinson@a...


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