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12679 Keith S. Rucker <ksrucker@t...> 1997‑01‑28 BIO - Keith Rucker

Well, I have been lurking around here in Oldtools for quite a while now and
have decided to come out and join the freindly folks on the porch.  I am 28
years old living and working in South Georgia (not exactly the best place
on earth to find old tools).  Well, here goes a little about me.

I guess that my love for old tools began back in my high school days.  I
was very lucky that in my freshman year of high school to take a class in
metals technology.  The reason that I was so lucky was that the instructor
was quite an accomplished blacksmith.  There just were not that many people
in the class interested in blacksmithing so while most of the class was
wasting their time filing away on a piece of steel, I was back at the forge
learning from a master.  Because of this, my first old tools started to be
gathered (in the form of blacksmithing tools).  Over the years I have put
together quite a blacksmith shop (including that 400 lb anvil in almost
mint condition that I bought for $50.00).  Unfortunately, this shop is
located in the barn at my parents home 200 miles from here (my wife just
does not seem to think that there is room under the garage for both a
blacksmith shop and woodworking shop - not to mention that I can only guess
what the looks on my neighbors faces would be when the coulds of smoke
settle on the neighborhood while I am "firin' up the forge").

After high school the bug for old tools starged to grow while I worked for
two years as an apprentice in a machine shop.  Here again, I was very lucky
in that this was an "old time" machine shop - no modern CNC equipment, just
a bunch of old, well maintained machines.  Most of the equipment in the
shop was W.W.II vintage or earlier with a few machines still running off of
the line shaft via a flat belt.  Oh the education I received while working
there.  I learned that if you needed something, don't go out and buy it,
just make it!  I was also very lucky in that the owner did not mind if I
used the shop on my own time for personal use - in fact he encouraged it. 
He figured that if I was in the shop working I was learning and he would
benefit.  During this time, I spent many long nights in the shop re
building a old blacksmiths post drill.  If I added up all of the time I
spent boring out holes and re babbiting bearings, I could have just bought
several real nice drills, but what the heck, I was learning!

After two years in the machine shop, I decided that I could make more money
doing something else and decided to go back to school.  This began about 6
years pretty much away from old tools while I was busy studying and going
to college.  Now days I have a Masters degree in Crop Physiology (not
exactly tool related) and am working for The University of Georgia as a
Research Coordinator.

Once I got out of college, a new interest began to creep into my blood -
woodworking.  I guess that I really got the bug while in college.  When I
was attending Junior College in Tifton, GA, I got a job working at the
Georgia Agrirama (the Georgia living history museum for Agriculture and
Industry).  While working there, most of my time was spent working on site
at the steam powered sawmill (not to mention driving the train and plowing
a mule).  At the sawmill, I mainly ran the boiler and steam engine but I
did get to spend some time learning from a great sawyer on a sawmill built
in the 1890's.  Before long, I was spending about half of my time at the
museum doing research for the museum curator.  They were in the process of
building a woodworking shop on site and needed a bunch of historic
information on woodworking.  The museum had received a gift of a bunch of
old woodworking machines from the early 1900's that ran off of a line shaft
with flat belts and pulleys and since I had worked with these kinds of
machines in the machine shop, they put me to work in getting it all set up
and in writing a manual for people who would later work in the shop.  While
most of the woodworking done in this old time shop was on machines rather
than by hand, during my research, I began to get real interested in
woodworking with hand tools.

Now days, my main interest is in woodworking.  I have a nice shop set up in
the garage of my home.  Currently, the shop is some what of a mixture of
hand tools and a few p*wer t**ls (sorry folks but I just can't see getting
rid of my table saw - I like working with hand tools but I also like
getting my projects done!).  I am still in the gathering mode trying to get
my basic set of tools.  I have most of the basic planes, saws and chisels
needed but to be quite honest, I do not see a end to what I "need".

Keith S. Rucker
 
__________________________
Keith S. Rucker - NESPAL Research Coordinator
The University of Georgia, Coastal Plain Experiment Station
P.O. Box 748, Moore Hwy., Tifton, GA  31793-0748
Phone (912) 386-3184   FAX: (912) 386-7005
e-mail:  ksrucker@t...
WWW:  http://nespal.cpes.peachnet.edu



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