Greetings! My name is Spike Cornelius and I live in Portland,
Oregon. I'm 56 and a retired goldsmith/custom jeweler. I've
been messing with wood since I was little. When I was 6
or so my father built a full second story onto our house, 4
bedrooms and a full bath, and he did everything by himself.
Although most work was done with p*w*r tools, he also made
use of hand tools. I learned handsaw sharpening technique
watching him. Whenever anything needed fixing he did it
himself, and imprinted that onto me.
While I have always liked hand tools I have made extensive
use of el*ct**c*ty. I have a damaged shoulder that made lots
of p*w*r tools seem very attractive. The problem is that I
have developed breathing difficulties that fine sawdust doesn't
help, and I hate respirators!
The hand tool collection grows and I now use them for
physical therapy (ya! that's it!) When I had remodeling done
upstairs in our 1926 house I had the workers save a bunch
of old 2x6's for me. Some of them became my new
woodworking bench, built with no el*ctr*c*ty whatever, M&T
joints and all.
I am just now putting the finish on the woodwork of a
Shepard Spiers #7 kit, so I am also a member of the
FOYBIPO. In between all of the other projects, I want
to build a shoulder plane to facilitate the teak wood dining
room table I'm working on.
Spike
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