Greetings! My name is Spike Cornelius and I live in Portland, 
Oregon. I'm 56 and a retired goldsmith/custom jeweler. I've 
been messing with wood since I was little. When I was 6 
or so my father built a full second story onto our house, 4 
bedrooms and a full bath, and he did everything by himself. 
Although most work was done with p*w*r tools, he also made 
use of hand tools. I learned handsaw sharpening technique 
watching him. Whenever anything needed fixing he did it 
himself, and imprinted that onto me.
 While I have always liked hand tools I have made extensive 
use of el*ct**c*ty. I have a damaged shoulder that made lots 
of p*w*r tools seem very attractive. The problem is that I 
have developed breathing difficulties that fine sawdust doesn't 
help, and I hate respirators!
 The hand tool collection grows and I now use them for 
physical therapy (ya! that's  it!) When I had  remodeling done 
upstairs in our 1926 house I had the workers save a bunch 
of old 2x6's for me. Some of them became my new 
woodworking bench, built with no el*ctr*c*ty whatever, M&T 
joints and all.
 I am just now putting the finish on the woodwork of a 
Shepard Spiers #7 kit, so I am also a member of the 
FOYBIPO. In between all of the other projects, I want 
to build a shoulder plane to facilitate the teak wood dining 
room table I'm working on. 
  
  Spike
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