OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

-778 Fred Walker <fcwalker@h...> 1970‑01‑01 Bio
Shameless lurker mode now switched to off.  These bios have the feel of the
introductions at 12 step program meetings, not that I have any personal
experience in this regard.  Although I think of myself as a rank amateur in
woodworking, I have held an interest in the craft since I made a rocking
horse (close relative on the food chain to the pukey duck) for my nephew,
who is now a junior in college.  I now produce colonial and Federal period
reproductions, mostly from plans or photos.  Any attempts at design have
been abject failures, and I have now resigned myself to the fact that I have
very little sense (no need to pause here) of proportion.  I am somewhere
between neanderthal and normite (making me a normderthal?), with an
increasing interest in the neanderthal methods.  I have to admit that
although I find some of the hand tool methods more satisfying, the real
reason I would like to use more hand tools is that I have an increasing fear
of power tools... just find myself doing things that feel dangerous after
the fact.  I have always hand cut dovetails, mainly because I am too stupid
to actually figure out how most dovetail jigs work.  The MofA has been
helpful in stocking my plane shelves, prompted by the untimely death of my
several year-old Record #3 that coasted off the workbench and onto the
concrete floor of my workshop... cracked the casting at the mouth.  So, I
have some experience with planes, but not with old saws, which I have now
gained an interest in after reading some of the posts (anyone want to sell
me a good dovetail saw?).

In the pursuit of filthy lucre, I work at the world's foremost biomedical
research facility, the National Institutes of Health.  I like to think that
it is one of the Federal agencies that operates effectively, with a mission
we can all identify with... but like all Federal employees, I'm a little
sensitive about being one of the useless bloodsuckers private sector people
worry about.  Watch it, any one of us might go Postal at any second.

Faceless bureaucrat now slipping back into lurker's anonymity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frederick C. Walker
Voice:  301-496-1443
FAX: 301-402-6139
Email: fcwalker@h...


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Recent Bios FAQ