OldTools Archive
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139115 | Ludovic Angot | 2004‑12‑03 | BIO: Ludocic Angot |
Hello You may be a little disappointed reading my bio, as you will soon discover I am far from being an expert as most of you are. Hence I will be an active spectator rather than a renown actor on the list. My name is Ludovic Angot, and I come from France. I live in Taiwan since 2 years and work here as an electronic engineer for a USA company. I am 31 yrs old, married and will be dad in 2 months (I can't deny it is an experience!). I worked on wood since I'm about 10, and my first tools were a jigsaw and a drill, all electric. The only hand woodworking tool I had access to were drawknifes from my grandfather. It is only recently, 6 months ago, after I finally set-up to a fixed place, that I start to be more and more interested in tools, hand tools and woodworking. How? Thanks to internet, and thanks to the skills discribed by members of this forum, and online shops. Wihtout this, I wouldn't know anything about what is a good handplane, a performant saw... France has wonderfull pieces of furniture, surely some skilled craftmen, but you need to be an apprentice to learn working wood the traditional way. Hand woodworking is definitely not as much accessible as it seems to be in the US. Am I wrong if I say that the traditional hand tools are given a new life thanks to english speaking people, a lot of them being american? Thank you, guys. So it is only recently that I bought my first plane from Lie-Nielsen, then another one, a PAX tenon saw (I since then learnt about ADRIA, and all the range of Japanese hand made saw), and a wonderfull olive wood smooth plane from HNT gordon, some chisels... And I started with the basics: truing a small board, thanks to a DVD from David Charlseworth. I buy about a tool or 2 per month, good tool I mean. And hand tools. I won't go electric, except maybe for a small drill press. Most of my tools come from the US, so you can imagine the money I need to spend for the shipment... To finish, few words about my host country: the difficulty has been to find wood. People here are definitely not DIYers, though few B&Q opened their doors about a year or so ago. Last month, my wife and I localized a reseller of high quality wood: zitan, blackwood, ... I bought an 80$ sample of species in various forms. I will continue to explore other source for wood, I heard there is beech here. Otherwise I have been given few pieces of camphor wood, quite common here. My current project is a bow saw, made out of zitan and guava wood (yes the fruit, which wood is very very hard). Hopefully in a near future I will post (if possible?) a picture of my first hand made hand tool. Thanks again to make the woodworking word so nice and sympathic, and accessible. Ludovic |
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139116 | Steve Reynolds <stephenereynolds@e...> | 2004‑12‑03 | Re: BIO: Ludocic Angot |
Please excuse my bad typing skills and the typo in the Subject line. Ludovic is having trouble with the LYRIS server and I posted his Bio for him, mangling his name in the process. Regards, Steve - excited about the increased international flavor of the Porch with the presence of Ludovic and Hans on the same day. -----Original Message----- From: Steve Reynolds |
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139134 | Ken Meltsner <meltsner@g...> | 2004‑12‑03 | Re: BIO: Ludocic Angot |
You might find some interesting tools from Australia, although I doubt the shipping's much cheaper. I've also seen Taiwanese wooden planes in the Lee Valley catalogue. They're not the same as Japanese or Western planes -- they're pushed, I believe, but have a crossbar handle as well. They've got to be made somewhere in Taiwan; perhaps you could get factory seconds? George Frank, one of the better known wood finishing experts and a great writer, worked in France for a number of years. There's a book collecting his stories and articles that's out of print. My favorite described how he had to ammonia fume an entire bank full of oak furniture and paneling -- the color was too light so they put bowls of ammonia in the main room, sealed everything up, and kept checking through the windows until the color was correct. Finally, there's at least one good bilingual French/English woodworking web site, including a shopmade grinding jig designed to sharpen lathe tools: http://www.jeanmichel.org/ Ken Meltsner |
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139136 | Ken Meltsner <meltsner@g...> | 2004‑12‑03 | Re: BIO: Ludocic Angot |
Aargh. Judging from the pictures and text (incorrectly remembered) in the Lee Valley catalog, Taiwanese planes can be pushed or pulled, and don't have the distinctive crossbar handle -- that's the Hong Kong style. Lee Valley lists the planes as "Hong Kong-style" or "Taiwan-style" -- I'd guess that means they may not be made in those areas. The HK plane is cool since the through cross-bar handle is removable. http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?page=50251&category=1,41182,4118- 7&abspage=1&ccurrency=2&SID= Ken Meltsner |
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139156 | scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> | 2004‑12‑03 | Re: BIO: Ludocic Angot |
What about my favorite FWW article of all time? You know the little guy dressed in bare feet and a diaper, looking out the window, talking on the phone to his bookie, cigarette dangling from the bottom lip, loud raucus rock n roll blasting .......... and sawing out extremely fancy cabriole chair legs straight from the rosewood log with a bowsaw and no pattern needed? Then proceeds to cut incredibly intricate joints that lock seamlessly together with no glue or other fasteners and last 1000 years?????????? It was in Taiwan someplace. yours, Scott ********** Scott Grandstaff, Box 409, Happy Camp, CA 96039 ********* Tools:http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/scott/scotts/tools/tools.html PageWorks:http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/ |
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139163 | "Christopher J. Scholz" <chscholz@y...> | 2004‑12‑03 | Re: BIO: Ludocic Angot |
Sounds reasonable to me... Considering that during the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) the "[...] quality and accuracy of joinery was so precise that nails and glue were used only as supplements [... and that ...] the artisans that produced the beautiful pieces of this time were far more advanced than their European counterparts [...]" (Source: http://www.ea- sterncurio.com/easten%20curio/Afurniture/Furniture%20Informations.htm or google: "ming dynasty" wood joinery) Also considering that the Chinese built up to 400ft long 180ft wide ships with up to 9 masts in the 1420's (Source: http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/journey2001/greatship.html http://www.vancouvermaritimemuseum.com/watery/treasure_fleet.htm http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/journey2001/greatship.html or google "admiral zheng") Makes me wonder what kind of tools the old Chinese woodworkers were using... --- scott grandstaff |
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139125 | Richard.Wilson@s... | 2004‑12‑03 | Re: BIO: Ludocic Angot |
Well, no way of replying direct to Ludovic, as I'd do if his email address was given, and I *know* Steve won't be appreciating lots of reponses saying 'welcome to the list' when we all know he's one of the door posts here. (meaning - a fundamental and valued bit of the fabric) So, publicly, Welcome Ludovic, and as for >France has wonderfull pieces of furniture, surely some skilled >craftmen, but you need to be an apprentice to learn working wood the >traditional way. Credit where its due - the age of the craftsman reached a peak in France when it was a monarchy. As now, people with way too much money can afford to pay an itinerant craftsman to do nothing for years but learn the skills and produce the absolutely finest items of craftsmanship - be it furniture, art, or other stuff nowadays. >Hand woodworking is definitely not as much accessible as it seems to be >in the US. Am I wrong if I say that the traditional hand tools are >given a new life thanks to english speaking people, a lot of them being >american? Thank you, guys. Here I think you may just not be looking in the right places. I've been surprised by the amount of craftsmanship still at work, though it's well hidden. As for the US of A being part of a revival, I think that that's just that wealth thing again - so many people with wealth and not enough to do to survive - like building a house and growing food. Taiwan has lots of craftsmen producing carvings, and capable of doing the finest work, if only someone will pay them to spend so much time on one piece that a man and his family could starve before it was complete. So lets hear more about the French tools that made fine furniture, and the current tools and work in Taiwan - welcome aboard ! Richard Wilson Yorkshireman Galoot ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- For information on Christian Salvesen visit our website at www.salvesen.com. The information contained in this e-mail is strictly confidential and for the use of the addressee only; it may also be legally privileged and / or price sensitive. Notice is hereby given that any disclosure, use or copying of the information by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited and may be illegal. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail. Christian Salvesen has taken every reasonable precaution to ensure that any attachment to this e-mail has been swept for viruses. However, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment. Christian Salvesen is a trading name of the Christian Salvesen Group. Christian Salvesen PLC (Company number SC7173) is the ultimate holding company within the Christian Salvesen Group whose registered office is at 16 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh EH2 4DF. |
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139171 | Steve and Dianne Noe <dandsnoe@m...> | 2004‑12‑03 | Re: BIO: Ludocic Angot |
Welcome to the Porch, the hot cider is at this end. Steve Noe, in Indianapolis dandsnoe@m... "Of course there's a lot of knowledge in universities: the freshmen bring a little in; the seniors don't take much away, so knowledge sort of accumulates..." -- Anonymous |
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