Welcome to the Porch Al--
  If I'm any judge, you're just the kind of guy we need around here,
likes Old Tools, has a job---someone will probably move a chair over
and make some room for you.  Not me, probably, but someone.
                Oh, best to all galoots, everywhere; gAM Seattle
                        

--- Alan Perreault  wrote:

> Friends & Lovers of Wood Grain & Iron,
> 
> So, what's knew this side of Wachusett Mountain you ask? Well, the
> big story
> is that I have decided to get rid of all my tools, and I am now
> just going
> to collect anvils, over 100 pounds. This way I'll free up a lot of
> space 
> currently taken up by all those saws and planes.
> 
> Wait, Wait! Hey, Quit That! Owe! I'm just kiddin', Really! Come on,
> get rid
> of tools, that's crazy talk. What would all my Yankee ancestor say?
> My mom
> once had over a hundred ice trays in her basement, cause they were
> all good.
> Why would anyone want to accumulate stuff like that anyway?
> 
> I've been hangin' out heeya for a while now, and I can still say
> that the
> folks here are all top notch. I am very impressed with everyone I
> have
> conversed with off-line, and all the guys I have met at auctions
> and LFOD.
> There is no better group anywhere. The knowledge I have gained by
> just
> sittin' back and listenin' is amazing. I remember once upon a time
> when a
> plane was just a plane, a saw just a saw, all the same. When I had
> no idea
> how to sharpen anything. I thought you bought another saw when
> yours got 
> dull.
> When I used to hang out lookin' at mail order tool
> catalogs, and wincing at the prices, not even knowing that I had a
> gold mine
> of a flea just 10 minutes away. When I used to watch Norm spend an
> hour
> fixin up a jig to guide one of those evil machines and didn't
> question it,
> well, until I saw Brother Underhill do the same thing in 5 minutes
> with a
> chisel and a stair saw. My friend Sweeney was helpin' me 10 years
> ago to put
> up some plastic over a pictya window for the winta, when he asked
> me if I
> had a block plane. I replied, "No, but I got a cheese grater."
> Sweeney
> laughed for a half an hour. It's been a strange trip, from cheese
> graters to
> knowin' what a Stanley #65 looks like, and why you WANT to bring it
> home. 
> Again, thanks to everyone,  to the ListMoms, and to
> those highly skilled craftsman who share their work and knowledge
> with the
> rest of us. I hope that as my GITs get a little older, that I'll
> have more
> time to spend building benches, saw tills (maybe a saw barn),
> making rustic
> furniture, etc.
> 
> I think my path leads down that way, choppin' trees, makin' hewing
> benches
> and shavin' horses. Axes and hatchets, can a man ever have too many
> axes? 
> Why do I find axes so attractive, why do they feel so comfortable?
> I 
> remember visiting Higgins Armory in Worcester, Mass, as a kid, and
> thinkin' 
> that I wanted those big axes.
> 
>  I got most of the iron planes I want, or would ever need or use.
> Lately I
> been thinkin' I need some woodies. All I got is a mixed set of
> beaders. I
> sharpened up a Greenfield round, and was intrigued by it's action.
> Hmmm, is
> that a slope ova heeya? Looks like it drops off right quick. I'm
> still (not 
> often enough) playin' around with drawknife and spokeshave,
> fiddlin' on that 
> Mountain Laurel walking stick. It seems to me that this could also
> be 
> somewhat addictive.
> 
> Well, I wish I could hang out here all day, but I got mouths to
> feed, and a 
> couple-o-packages to wrap.
> 
> Long live the Porch.
> 
> Al Perreault
> Wachusett Galoot
> Westminster, MA
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>
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> aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history,
> usage,
> value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of
> traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools.
> 
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> 

...save the people from the worst of all tyrants, themselves.  
                           Robert A Heinlein

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