Welcome to the porch, John...and somehow I know there is a thank you from
everyone here...super people here...the old tools are reminders...of what we
learn...how we learned it...and the honor of knowing incredible people
throughout our lives...

I didn't snip your post, since it reminds me of...errr, me in a sense...my wife
and I as well as my daughter are restoring and using my dad's tools...what an
experience, and had it not been for a number of fellow galooti, I would've
probably either dismembered myself, or electrocuted one of my treasured family
as we continue electrozapping, and cleaning...

Joe DiPietro

John Ruth wrote:

> Bio for John R. Ruth, dated 31-AUG-99
>
> Born 1955, Mt. Vernon NY.
>
> Currently living in Woodbridge Township, NJ.
> (Although my neighborhood gets its mail via the Metuchen P.O.)
>
> I grew up under the tutelage of an electrician father, now age 86, who is
> one of the handiest and most intellectual people I've ever known.  This
> upbringing gave me an attitude that I can undertake almost anything, which
> has proved to be manifestly not true in practice!  Pop had a basement shop
> that included both old and new tools in several categories.  As a child, I
> made all sorts of stuff such as wagons with wheels from baby carriages.  Pop
> taught by helping me get started and then letting me do what I could by
> myself.  If I didn't know how to do it, he'd pitch in, all the while showing
> me how.
>
> My mother was from the Aroostook region of Maine.  She was also fairly handy
> and certainly very self-reliant.
>
> I first became aware of the "fine tools" aspect of the woodworking hobby
> while visiting the Marples- & Record- filled shop of a "friend of a friend"
> who did woodworking as a hobby. This introduced me to the notion that high
> quality tools make high-quality results more likely.  (I recall this man's
> surname was Kramer, he lived in Rye, NY.  He moved long ago. I wish I could
> thank him somehow.)
>
> My great uncle Charlie also had an influence on my education in tools in
> that he introduced me to wooden planes.  He had been a piano maker, and his
> father had been a carriage maker.  One day, at about age 20, I was
> struggling to make a new rudder for a wooden sailboat.  My father suggested
> paying a visit to Uncle Charlie.  When I saw his shop, I was positively
> bowled over. It didn't take but a few moments with one of his Hollow planes
> to make the perplexing cut where the rudder met the rudder shaft.  (He had a
> set of Hollows & Rounds that would bring tears to your eyes.  Uncle Charlie
> also had a rack containing a matched set of Buck Brothers chisels,
> V-chisels, and gouges that must have consisted of 50 pieces.)
>
> I took a BS in Electrical Engineering at Clarkson College of Technology, now
> Clarkson U., in Potsdam, NY.  After graduation, I was offered a job as a
> software engineer, which set me on a course of being a software geek, even
> though that wasn't the focus of my studies in college. (Don't take that as a
> "cut" at Clarkson; I had a lot of respect for the school then and still do
> today.)
>
> With that previously-mentioned attitude that I could do anything, I bought a
> two-bedroom handyman special house in Mahopac, NY a few years after
> graduating from college.  It was unliveable when I bought it, as neither the
> water (well) system nor the heating system worked. Everything had been
> broken by ice. I got a good price on the house.  It took about two weeks of
> hard work to get those basic systems functioning.  I did not know how to
> sweat pipe when I started, but I knew I would learn.  I SLOWLY tackled the
> rest of the place, and eventually got everything in fairly good order. I did
> contract out an exterior door replacement and some window trim to my future
> father-in-law, but did almost everything else myself.
>
> Along the way, I acquired a Stanley 55 with four cutter boxes but missing
> about six parts  The man who sold it to me called me up TEN YEARS LATER and
> told me he'd found the missing parts and asked me to come pick them up!!!
>
> I married the daughter of a very highly skilled carpenter in 1988.
> Unfortunately, her father had not shared any of his skills with her, in the
> belief that "girls should not be carpenters"  (I don't share this belief at
> all.)
>
> We had two children, both girls. These girls are 7 and 10 years old as I
> write this.  We make birdhouses, boxes & stuff together.
>
> I moved to central NJ several years ago, having found a nice job here, and
> bought another handyman special house.  This proved to be a strategic
> mistake.  I should have followed the advice of a friend who said that it's
> almost impossible to work full time, fix up a handyman special, and raise a
> family at once.  The work did not get accomplished fast enough to suit
> SWMBO. She wanted me to hire contractors to do a number of things, which I
> think I would have done eventually, but not until I'd had a shot at doing
> what I COULD do first. She eventually filed for divorce, so I am now single
> again.
>
> Old Tools definitely played a part in her rejection; she felt I was spending
> too much effort on the tools and not enough on the work itself.  An
> oft-mentioned turning point was apparently reached when I bought out the
> five remaining machines of a cabinet shop. She found this objectionable even
> though the total spent was only $800. It was the concept of having a
> substantial shop in the basement, rather than the monetary aspect, that got
> under her skin.
>
> >From my point of view, not completing the shop in the basement FIRST is a
> tactical mistake that I've made at both my handyman special houses.
>
> My great uncle died some years ago. His finer tools passed to his sons, but
> they were kind enough to share some oddities with my father.  My father has
> since passed these to me, and they form the center piece of my collection.
> Nothing is particularly rare nor particularly pristine, but they have a
> whole education locked in them for me to puzzle out.
>
> I've supplemented that collection in large and small ways whenever possible;
> I adopt any old tool any of my friends don't want, and I haunt tag sales and
> flea markets. I find mostly user-grade tools. I'll even buy dogmeat or
> parts/pieces if the price is low enough.  My electrolysis tank gets a lot of
> use.
>
> The other day my father gave me his Stanley #1, which I'll treasure forever
> even though it has a big chip out of one cheek.  I can recall using that
> very plane as a young boy.  Now I'll hover over my kids as they heft it. The
> wheel will have turned full circle.
>
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