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Recent Bios FAQ

211735 Roy <rp77469@c...> 2010‑12‑31 Roy (Parker) Bio
Gentle Galoots,

I have been lurking here for over two years. During that time I have had
private exchanges with many and have come to know many of you from
reading your posts these many months. One of my 2010 New Year's
Resolutions was to publish my bio to the group. I hate to leave things
to the last minute, maybe the last hour or two, but not the last minute.
The time has come for me to finally crawl out from under the porch and
set a spell, and complete at least one of this year's Resolutions. Count
on me to jump in the discussions and cloud the issues just as they seem
to be clearing. I just turned 60, which puts me at the mean, median and
mode of the group, as we're all a year older since the survey. I am
mostly a self-taught do-it-yourselfer who is trying to learn to be a
decent woodworker and gain enough skill to no longer need to buy caulk
by the case for final finish work. I am a retired chemical engineer and
married to a wonderful woman who owned her own table saw, tool boxes,
router and workbench when I met her. I learned to plumb, wire, plaster,
paint, roof and dig deep holes while still in high school and my parents
bought a fixer-upper home. After school, I spent several years improving
those skills on my very own fixer-upper. Back in the 70's I got
interested in muzzleloading, and am a former member of Crockett's
Battalion, Brigade of the American Revolution and now a buckskinner
reenacting a later era. I've built a few muzzleloading rifles, and have
a couple setting around in parts I'll get to one of these days. I do a
little forge work now and then and sew some leather once in a while.
Jack of all trades, master of none, but interested in everything. SWMBO,
my chief partner in all projects, is also a history buff and a former
member of the cannon crew at the Vicksburg Military Park.

My interests have moved from DIY to furniture building in recent
years. I've subscribed to many of the usual mags for years. I joined
the local club (www.wwch.org) which helped a great deal About 5 years
ago one of the members of the woodworking club started a splinter
group (I'll pause here while all y'all recover from the woodworking
humor) that specialized in hand planes. Like a clueless newbie, I went
to the very first meeting, not realizing he was greasing up an awfully
slippery slope.

The splinter group started as a classic example of the blind leading the
blind, but got better each time one of us learned how to do something
correctly, then showed the others. We pretty much used up every topic on
hand planes, then changed the name from the Hand Plane group to the Hand
Tool group and charged off down a different slope. We have a roster of
about 25 people although meetings typically run 4-9 attendees. We've
taught ourselves how to sharpen, restore, fettle and build planes. We're
on our second round of plane building as I write this. Mine will be a
spill plane. We've made bow saws and boxes as a group plus work on
individual projects. We've learned to use scrapers, sharpen saws.
chisels and about anything else that needs sharpened. I am not a
collector, but I seem to have acquired dozens of planes and chisels, a
small stable of handsaws, scrapers, braces, bits, and all kinds of other
hardware that now require cleaning, sharpening and fondling in much of
my spare time. Sounds a lot like many of the topics discussed on th
Porch. Most of the woodworking I do is not 'fine' work. We're at the
point in life where we need to consider downsizing since we have so much
stuff, so I make little furniture for the home. I have made an
occasional piece for the kids. I piddle in the shop trying to practice
my hand skills to make acceptable hand cut dovetails, improve chisel
work, etc. by making shop things...or just shavings. I still have my
tailed assistants, and use them too. Doubt if I will ever take the leap
to total silence in the shop.

I have enjoyed reading the many messages posted over the last two years.
Thanks for sharing the knowledge. I've learned a lot. Happy New Year,
Galootdom.

Regards, Roy Roy Parker Richmond, Texas December 31, 2010

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Recent Bios FAQ