Last night I had a unique treat for those with Galoot interests ... my
company rented out the Winterthur Museum (a very large collection of
American and imported furniture, Jeff) for a 'thank you' party to selected
employees.  Involved the usual dinner and dancing, but the special treat was
a private tour of Winterthur, including the Dominy shops and several of
their finest 18th century pieces.  Even though I live within 15 miles of the
museum, I'd never made it to see those displays, only talking with the
curator and visiting the bookstore a few times.  Well, as you might expect,
very few of my fellow employees spent the time I did, and LOML was pretty
good about letting me look, read, listen and observe.  Remarkable how this
display conveys both the crude sophistication of the equipment used 200
years ago, and the simplicity of the shop that produced craftsmanship I'm
still striving to duplicate.  The whole shop is only some 30% bigger than my
own little workshop in the basement.  Dozens of well used woodies, crude but
obviously effective treadle lathe and table-top lathe, and a remarkably
limited bunch of well-worn chisels and gouges.  The clockmaking shop was
also pretty interesting.  If you haven't and can go there, do so.  I wanted
to earlier, and now wish I hadn't waited.

Charlie Driggs
Newark, Delaware