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My name is John MacDonald (or Mac to my friends) and I am yet another FSG (Forty Something Galoot, Trademark Mac). By day I am a chartered engineer working for a large telecommunications company based in Ipswich, Suffolk, UK (that’s about 30 miles away from Tony Murland's emporium in Needham Market) but I spend the majority of my spare time researching and reading about how to restore and use old tools (especially planes – I love ‘em) and putting this theory into practice. I have always been of the hands-on persuasion and am fortunate that in this digital age, the work I get paid to do still involves me getting my hands dirty in a practical environment. Most of my Saturday and Sunday mornings between April and October are spent “rust hunting” at various car boot sales around Ipswich and over the past 3 years or so I have been relatively successful in turning up a number of Stanley Sweetheart and North Bros tools, most of which have been restored to working condition. As a trained engineer I also have a soft spot for engineering tools and have amassed a good selection of hand tools manufactured by Eclipse and Moore & Wright (both still relatively common in the UK as they were manufactured in Sheffield) supplemented with several examples from Brown & Sharpe and Starrett. One of my earliest memories is “helping” my grandfather saw large logs in his workshop. He obviously recognized me as a GIT and kept a special box of tools (okay some beat up old spanners, screwdrivers, hammers and a saw but as a 5 year old kid they were very special to me) with my name painted on it for when I visited. As none of my other cousins were interested in tools, this was a special bond that I shared with him. This obviously had a fairly major impact on me and I believe that my grandfather was responsible for developing my Galootish tendencies from an early age. I still regularly use some of his tools that I inherited when he died. My father has also played his part over the years, encouraging me when I was young to assist him in his shed. He also taught me that a) if you are going to buy tools, buy the best you can afford b) there is a correct tool for every job and c) you can never have enough tools.
Until I stumbled on the Porch I was beginning to think that I
had a problem– all the guys that I know that are into
woodworking buy and use “tailed apprentices”, but I am more
interested in REAL tools !! Having listened to what you
guys (and girls) have been saying over the past few years, I
realize now that I am in fact (relatively) normal. To me
there is a great sense of satisfaction to be had from taking a
lump of “rust” and restoring it back to a state that it can once
again be used to do the job that it was originally designed for.
The great thing about this affliction we share is that there is
always something new to learn or some “slippery slope” that
demands investigation. |
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