Galoots,
A few things have changed since my 1997 and later Bios, so here is my update. I
am now within a few months of my 80th birthday, and have finally retired.
Actually,
this is my second
retirement. I spent 34 years in the Navy and then went to work for the General
Dynamics
A-12 Program Office in Fort Worth. I spent 27 years there, and then
finally required from there on the first of July 2014. This will be my last
retirement - until I go into the big box.
I started woodworking in '69 when I got
married and my wife and kids started giving me tools for all occasions -
birthday, father's day, Xmas, etc. I finally caught the hint and built a
lot of furniture using those things - benches, tables, a cherry display
cabinet and blanket chest, desk, bookshelves, hutches, kids' furniture, a
mesquite dinette table,etc. We couldn't afford to buy furniture, so we would go
into an Ethan
All*n furniture store, and my wife would point out what I needed to
build. A lot of these items are still in use.
Since we were moving around in the military, all the tools (including
tailed ones) were small and portable - until I got a Sh*pSmth in '82.
That was the nearest I ever came to owning a t*ble saw. In the early '80s, I
started watching St. Roy's program and fell in love with "real" tools.
Started picking up odds and ends - mortising chisels, transitionals,
wood and metallic planes, a plethora of miscellaneous tools and
oddities, many shelves of woodworking and tool related books, etc. I
swore never to become a collector; I would only buy tools I would
actually use. I'm sure most of you know how well that works! At least I
take a few shavings with each new plane as I get it; therefore, all my
tools are technically users - and you never know when you will need a
couple of dozen jack planes for some project (right Paddy?). I also
found that if you leave Bed Rocks laying around the shop, they multiply
rapidly - which is a good thing. The same could be said for mini-router
planes over the last few
years.
I belong to SWTCA and M-WTCA, although I don't get a chance to attend
events very often. Even if you don't buy anything (sacrilege?), it
is always a pleasure to talk tools with a great group of friendly
people - including a bunch of galoots. I love flea markets (especially
the 200+ acres of Canton's First Monday trade days), yard sales, and estate
sales.
You never know when you will find that Stanley #603 for $10 (actually,
that was at an antique show in Dallas). In my 1997 bio,
I mentioned I
was still looking for my first No. 1. No comment on that now, other than
to say I am no longer looking, although I would certainly be willing to
give Walt double his money for his famous $5.00 find. My shop is now so full
of tools (and stuff), that I have to work under the carport on a
Workmate - when I actually make any shavings. My last projects of note
were a mesquite coffee table for one of my sons, a mesquite breakfast
room table for us, and a bunch of book shelves.
Now that I am finally retired, SWMBO and our daughter are starting to build
up a fair sized to-do list for me - enough to keep me busy for years if I last
that long.
Frank Sronce (Fort Worth Armadillo works)
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