OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

15186 J. D. Crutchfield <JDCrutch@i...> 1997‑03‑17 Bio of Jim Crutchfield
Bio of Jim Crutchfield

I live in Norfolk, Virginia, where I've been for almost ten years.  I
was born in Fishersville, in the Shenandoah Valley, and grew up in
Newport News, across the water from Norfolk.  I went to college at the
University of Rochester, New York, washed dishes for a year in Richmond
(at the Texas-Wisconsin Border Cafe, still the best chili I've ever
eaten), then went to law school at Washington & Lee University in
Lexington, Va.

I've practised law since the fall of 1987, though right now I'm only
doing that part-time.  Most of my practice has been defending people and
companies that get sued, though I've done some criminal defense work and
a little bit of plaintiff's work.

I'm also a musician and I play in the folk band "Dramtreeo", as well as
an alternative rock duo called "Things in Action".  You might have heard
of Dramtreeo.  The band's been around about sixteen years, though I only
joined about four and a half years ago.  We have four albums out so far,
of which I'm only on the fourth one, "Storm".

I've always loved working with my hands and lurking in hardware stores,
but I never did any real woodworking until fairly recently.  And I have
yet to really make anything besides a bench hook and a couple of other
simple projects.  I've been assembling tools, though, and am getting
ready to build my first workbench.

Reading Underhill's "Woodwright" books turned me into a galoot, I guess;
though I read Eric Sloan's books when I was in high school, and have
always had fantasies of living off the land and doing everything by
hand.  That didn't stop me from buying some power tools (and I'll
confess, it would be hard for me to give up my Makita cordless drill);
but I've long since gotten pretty tired of Norm's "I'll just put this
through my thickness planer, then cut the mortices with my hollow chisel
morticer," etc.  I'm just waiting for Norm to get hold of a complete
furniture-making machine, so he never has to touch the wood with his
hands at all.

-- 
Best wishes,

Jim Crutchfield
Norfolk, Virginia
http://vabch.com/mrcynick



Recent Bios FAQ