I've only been lurking for a few weeks, but I've gone through
a couple months of archives.  I'm having a great time.

I'll be 30 in a couple of weeks, married, no kids yet.
I'm a software geek having moved from Pittsburgh to
central Mass after getting my grad degree a couple of
years ago.  I see two things driving my woodworking
interests.  First, I can't stand to pay a contractor for something
I can do myself.  So I do all my own home and auto repairs.
Having three cars and a 100 yr old Victorian house, that keeps
me pretty busy.  It also requires a lot of varied tools.  The
corollary here is I can't stand to buy a new tool when I
can find a used one.  My friends say I'm just cheap.  My
excuse is that currently quality doesn't come close to that
of older tools (with a few special exceptions of course).

The other thing is that I am a toolaholic.  There. I said it.
I'm a big believer in having the right tool for the job.  When it
comes to working on cars, it can save you an awful lot of
time.  Hence I tend to get buy one of everything as I come
across good deals.  This can get dangerously close to
collecting because there are so many tools that I might
need someday.  ;-)  SWMBO and my friends used to try
and reason with me.  They've given up.  Now they just shake
their head quietly.

I do tend to sell off duplicates to finance my tool habit.
So I'm not a collector (said with straight face), and I'm hanging
onto that story for now.  SWMBO lets me get away with
buying everything in site as long as I keep selling the extras.

My new interest in old handtools comes from wanting to
try my hand at making some nice furniture.  I've never been
happy with sanded finishes, and can't stand the idea of
spending a load of cash on a big assortment of router bits
or shaper cutters that produce a less than ideal finish.  OT
seem to provide so much more with respect to finish quality,
joy of use, and kind of a mother-earth-karma type deal that I
can't quite put into words.

I have a shop full of Normite tools for rough work, a metalworking
lathe, and cabinets full of mechanics and machinist tools.
In fact I've done business both buying and selling these items
with several other members of the OT list on ebay (id = old_iron)

My main goals are to scarf up as much knowledge as possible,
and gather together the rudimentary tools and techniques
necessary to try my hand at some high quality furniture and
see how I like it.

Like a lot of other bios I've read, my dad introduced me to
woodworking and various other do-it-yourself projects.  He sure
did teach me a lot about building/repairing houses.  I also
happen to be a homebrewer, similar to a lot of the rest of you
galoots.  I've got an all-grain setup, but my last batch was a
nut brown done about two years ago.  Been spending too much
(or just the right amount) or time on my tool habit of late.

I just hope I can provide as much sage advice as I get from
reading everyone else's posts.

Cheers,
Dave Shepard