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I was born in a small town (pop. 2500) in Texas in the I started woodworking in the 1969 when I got married and my wife started giving me small tailed tools for all occasions - birthday, father's day, Christmas, etc. I built a lot of furniture using those things - benches, tables, a cherry display cabinet and blanket chest, desk, bookshelves, hutches, kids' furniture, etc. We couldn't afford to buy anything, so we would go into a furniture store, and my wife would point out what I needed to build. A lot of these items are still in use. Since we were moving around in the military, all the tools (including the tailed ones) were small and portable - until I got a ShopSmith in '82. That is the nearest I ever came to owning a table saw. In '80s, I started watching Roy's Underhill's Woodwright program and fell in love with real (hand) tools. I started picking up odds and ends - mortising chisels, transitional planes, wood and metallic planes, old hand saws, a plethora of miscellaneous tools and oddities, many shelves of woodworking and tool related books, etc. I swore never to become a collector - I would only buy tools I would actually use. I'm sure many woodworkers know how well that works out. At least I take a few shavings with each new plane as I get it; therefore, all my tools are technically users - and you never know when you will need a half dozen jack planes for some project. I do have to admit that I have a "thing" for router planes (especially the miniature ones. I have picked up a number of them over the last few years - both patented versions and ones made by craftsmen and patternmakers. I'm afraid that has made me a "collector" - at least of mini-routers. I belong to the SWTCA and M-WTCA tool
collecting organizations and enjoy the tool meets. Even if you don't
buy anything, it is always a pleasure to talk with a great group of
friendly people who are knowledgeable about My shop (known as the Fort Worth Armadillo Works) is now so full of tools (and stuff), that I have to work under the carport on a WorkMate when I actually make anything. My last projects of note were a mesquite coffee table for one of my sons, a mesquite breakfast room table for my wife, and a bunch of shelves for books, dishes, etc.
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thirties. I spent my youth working around cattle and other
four-legged animals and pumping gas and fixing flats in my brother's
gas station. After high school, I joined the U. S. Navy. I spent
thirty-four years in the Navy as an aerial photographer,
photographic interpreter, and finally as an intelligence officer. I
retired in 1987 and started work for an aeronautics company in north
Texas. I'm still at it 18 years later. I have a wife, four kids,
several grandchildren, and one great granddaughter.
woodworking tools. My wife and I love going to yard sales,
estate sales, and flea markets (especially the 200+ acres of
Canton's First Monday Trade Days in east Texas). You never
know when you will find something that you just can't do without.
