OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

106400 "Boris Karaman" <borislyda@t...> 2002‑05‑04 re-post of bio
As the bio I posted a couple of years ago is not
on the list, I'm reposting.  

I'm 42 years old and a semi-regular lurker on the
porch for a couple of years.  I loved all the 
limited woodworking I did in the distant past.  I
still recall a chessboard of maple and mahogany
made with my shop teacher's help on a table saw
and brought to a mirror shine with lots of 
rottenstone and elbow grease.  It was stolen out 
of the projects room before I could get it home,
but somehow that didn't seem to matter.  It was
a beauty and of my own hand.  Making it was a blast.

After high school I had no time, instead finishing
college and medical school in five years total, and
doing an additional eight years of training after
medical school in two different residencies and a 
fellowship.  I thought the poverty of residency 
precluded serious woodworking because I couldn't 
buy high quality power tools.  Boy was I dumb.

In years since the obvious struck me;  all these 
beautiful antique pieces I saw in magazines and 
in the homes of my teachers were made by folks 
who had no fancy power tools.  The quest began.

It led me to the Porch.  It is impossible to 
overstate the impact that the Oldtools listserver
made on my woodworking life.  Here there was true 
expertise, experience, courtesy to the neophyte and
a generosity of spirit.  Even the arguments were
enlightening.  The Porch made it possible for me
to enter a virtual shop class with a whole group of 
teachers.

I started with a plane or two, helped by the 
Merchant of Ashby to acquire good ones, and was 
hooked.  Since then Lie-Nielsen, Steve Knight, 
and Stanley all share billing in my unheated
cramped garage shop.   Frame saws and a good old
Disston or two co-exist with a couple of nice 
Japanese saws.  I have a roughly made bench of 
douglas fir beams that now is not used.  My
angel of a wife got me a Diefenbach bench
and that really helped with my progress.  As many
have said, a good bench makes a huge difference.

So here I saw and plane and smile,  producing 
pieces that are still not as presentable as that 
chessboard made long ago.  If God grant me time,
I'll get there.  The Porch will show the way.

Thanks to All.     

Boris 



Recent Bios FAQ