OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

69069 "Paul Pflumm" <p.pflumm@w...> 1999‑10‑09 Bio
       It seems I have to write a bio so I can ask my question (and gloat
   a bit perhaps too).

   I am a thirty-five year old attorney, until Monday anyway.  I practice
   in   Shelburne  Falls,  Mass.,  which  is  about  ten  miles  west  of
   Greenfield.   Not  surprisingly, there is a lot of Millers Falls stuff
   at tag sales around here.

        My mother was an antique dealer.  So, I spent a large chunk of my
   childhood  at antique shows.  The tools of course, were just about the
   only  thing  I  found  interesting at most of those shows.  When I was
   about  12,  I  even  picked  up a couple of cheep paint covered wooden
   planes,  cleaned  them, and tried to sell them in her booth.  That was
   the end of any attempts to be a tool dealer.

        My,  ah,  accumulation  of  tools  has  its basis in two sources.
   First,  I  have  inherited  some things from my machinist grandfather.
   These  include  a  forties craftsman lathe and b*nd saw, and a starret
   combination  square  with protractor head and center finder, and a few
   other  measuring tools.  Unfortunately, when his stuff was divided up,
   I was quite young, and my cousins made off with most of it.  My second
   source  was  an  old pattern makers toolbox my Dad bought cheap when I
   was  young.  All that is really left of that now is a few saws, a 271,
   marking  gauges,  and  a  couple  other odds and ends.  I am afraid to
   think  what  I  may have lost or destroyed as a kid, using those tools
   for such things as a tree fort in the woods.

        After  college,  I apprenticed for a year at a commercial cabinet
   shop  in  Maine.   We mostly used tailed equipment, but I learned that
   there  was  definitely  times  and places when hand tools were faster.
   There  was  this  one  guy, Torque, who would spend days designing and
   building  a  r**ter  jig  to  avoid  having  to  use  a plane for five
   minutes.   I  also  learned  that  had  a  slight  weakness when I saw
   something  for  sale  that said Starret on it.  When the eighties real
   estate  boom  went  bust,  so  did  my job at the cabinet shop, and my
   access  to  large  p*w*r  tools.  Thus, my steady accumulation of hand
   tools since then.

       I mostly buy tools at tag sales and flea markets.  I am definitely
   a  bottom  feeder.   To spend more than ten dollars on a tool is rare.
   To  spend  thirty  is  extraordinary,  in  fact  I can't remember ever
   spending thirty dollars or more on a hand tool.

        This  hasn't  stopped me from building up a small accumulation of
   good  tools.   Planes  seem  to be something that everyone recognizes.
   Ignoring  block  planes,  I  have a Stanley 5C, a chromed 4 with three
   patent  dates, a 3 (that needs a lever cap),  12 (that needs a blade),
   a  72, 78, 80, and 271.  I also have Millers Falls numbers 22, 15, and
   14.   Millers  Falls  apparently  used  the  length of a plane for its
   number,  so  those  are  equivalent  to  a 7, 51/2, and a 5. (I think)
   Bottom feeding can be good.

         Replies Author           Date
   56679 Bio     David Sawyer     Wed  10/27/1999
   57203 Bio     James Gemmill    Sun  11/7/1999
   57204 Re: Bio Bill Webber      Sun  11/7/1999
   57205 Re: Bio Jim Erdman       Sun  11/7/1999
   57206 Re: Bio garyallan may    Sun  11/7/1999
   57208 Re: Bio scott grandstaff Sun  11/7/1999
   57209 Re: Bio James Gemmill    Sun  11/7/1999
   57210 Re: Bio TomPrice@a...    Sun  11/7/1999
   57227 Re: Bio Minch            Sun  11/7/1999



Recent Bios FAQ