You are a man after my own heart, Jack! Welcome aboard.

I don't remember any other architect on board.

On Jun 24, 2007, at 9:07 PM, jjb-aia@j... wrote:

> Oh great Galoots:
> I realized that I have forgotten my manners and failed to post a bio.
> My name is John (Jack) Butkus and I am the product of three generations
> of carpenters.  (There were a couple of farmers, toolmakers and
> blacksmiths dangling from the family tree too.)  Unfortunately, despite
> having sawdust in my veins, I became an architect rather than being
> wise enough to apprentice under my father first.  Thus, I struggle to
> achieve the end results that my eyes were trained to look for, but my
> hands were not.  My favorite old tool is a Sweetheart vintage Stanley
> #1 plane given to me by grandpa when I was about 6 or 8 years old.  By
> the time I was 10 I had dropped it onto the basement floor and done it
> in.  Ah, we grow too soon old and too late smart!  It is now brazed
> back together and still usable, but now I'll never part with it as the
> sentimental value FAR EXCEEDS the intrinsic!
>
> Through habit or necessity, grandpa was a professor of the philosophy
> of "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."  Thus, many of
> his old tools have remained in the family, some given to me.  I can't
> stand buying a new doohickey (especially when Made in China appears on
> it) when something authentic and American can be put into use.
> Although I appreciate the elegance of moulding planes, (grandpa gave me
> a mint Stanley #45 in the box and a handfull of woodies too) I confess
> to throwing some cash in the direction of Mr. Porter and Mr. Cable.  I
> am not likely to give up my *able saw either.  I am, however,
> assembling a rather respectable user set of chisels, planes, handsaws
> and the like, and just re-trimmed much of my home's interior with a
> 1940's vintage Stanley mitre box at the ready, despite my friend's
> insistence that his chop saw was the only way to fly.
>
> Way too long and rambling a way to say I like woodworking and love old
> tools!  Let the therapy begin!
>
> John J. Butkus, AIA (aka Jack)
> Trumbull, Connecticut
Jim Thompson, the old millrat in Riverside, CA.

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