OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

206258 Don Schwartz <dkschwar@t...> 2010‑07‑15 Bio
Hi!

I guess it's about time I did this... I'm a  former Immigration 
investigator so I don't really publish personal information. My 
galootish interests are mainly in furniture, old tools and woodworking 
technologies. I have done quite a bit of antique furniture refinishing 
and restoration, and try to do things right, using authentic, 
appropriate materials and techniques when I can. I have built a little 
furniture from scratch. My most recent major project is a Gustav 
Stickley-influenced bed for our guest room - currently awaiting a finish.

My shop is a disaster area. My sharpening bench is littered with 
dullards, and my new maxi-lathe is languishing in a corner. But it was a 
great excuse to buy more tools - and a new variable-speed grinder! I 
considered building both a pedal lathe and grinder using bicycle 
freewheel hardware but I don't need any more projects just now! I need 
the lathe for the old bowfront mahoghany chest gathering dust down 
there, waiting to be returned to service. I started restoring it ages 
ago, but currently have no time for big woodworking projects - and it 
needs a lot of work. I am taking some time here and there to learn how 
to sharpen saws!  And my whole-yard renovation is almost complete... 
Soon my MBR & ensuite renovation should be finished. I just need to make 
a medicine cabinet, install the hardware, make some trim & put another 
coat on the cork flooring...

My accumulation of tools began years before, and includes a few good old 
ones - a Spiers infill panel plane, an anonymous ebony-filled 
coffin-sided smoother, and a Spiers Yorkshire pattern shoulder rabbet, a 
few good carvers and chisels, quite a few planes, marking gauges, 
mallets, squares & bevels and etc., a few old Disstons, and a bunch of 
stuff that was my my father's or grandfather's. It makes a fair pile, 
though I try to restrict myself to buying only what I can use as-is or 
put in good nick without too much effort. Most of my old tools are 
English, and most of them were picked up on trips. The pickings are 
pretty slim here in western Canada. OTOH, I live within 15 minutes of a 
LV store!

Don
Calgary

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Recent Bios FAQ