Roy,

Welcome to the porch.  There is always room for one more Texas Galoot at 
the south end of the porch.  (Where the tequila and Shiner Bock flow 
smoothly.)

Frank Sronce (Fort Worth Armadillo Works)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roy" 
To: 
Sent: Friday, December 31, 2010 3:56 PM
Subject: [OldTools] 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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