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275868 Frank O'Donnell <gio@i...> 2022‑07‑03 Updated bio
GG's,

After nearly a quarter century of wandering on and off the Porch, I'm back. I'll
see if I can find an open chair, and meanwhile this is probably as good a time
as any to update my bio:

My slippery descent into oldtools started soon after our 1997 move into a 1909
California bungalow, which had all kinds of projects crying out for attention.
After spending time on rec.woodworking I came across Oldtools.

I was exceptionally lucky to work within a five-minute walk of where Pat Olguin
was then working. Pat was kind enough to give me a demo of Scary Sharp on a
nearby park bench. This led into the usual array of Galoot experiences -- making
a Gunterman spokeshave, obtaining the swag (t-shirt, hat, etc), doing
Galootaclaus. Besides too many planes, I got interested in saws, as well as
finishing (in turn, meaning becoming a collector of shellacs and tinting
pigments). As it happens my wife spent most of her childhood in Japan, and a
trip there not long before Y2K got me started on Japanese hand tools.

So now, a couple of decades have gone by, and the 1909 bungalow is 113 years
old. It seems to be going through a wear cycle, showing its age and again
calling for attention. For me this will require finding some good resources on
construction techniques of early 20th-century homes, if anyone has any
favorites.

Glad to be back,

Frank O'Donnell
South Pasadena, CA

Recent Bios FAQ