OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

165265 "Michael D. Sullivan" <galoot@c...> 2006‑11‑30 Updated Bio
It looks like I last updated my bio in 1999, using a different email
address, so here goes:

I'm a 54-year old telecom lawyer in the Washington,
D.C. area who likes to make shavings and sniff rust when time permits.
I rarely use tailed apprentices other than for sharpening, although I
have been known to use tailless apprentices that have rechargeable
b*tt*r**s.

Saws:  Got somewhere around a dozen saws of various types, including a
couple of D-8 thumbhole Disston rips, an E.C. Atkins crosscut, a Disston
D-23 lightweight rip, an IT dovetail saw, a Disston K-1 Keystone
dovetail saw, unmarked brass-backed English tenon and carcase saws, a
ryoba, two dozukis, and a nice small old English bowsaw.  The Japanese
saws seem to get used most often.  They even work well on plywood.

Chisels:  a bunch of user Everlasts get used the most; I also have some
very nice Japanese chisels, some newish Robert Sorbys, a couple of
pigstickers, and assorted others.

Three braces and assorted bits, including an ebony and brass Ultimatum
from the Merchant of Ashby.

Metallic planes feature, among others:  LN #1, Stanley #2-8 (some
bedrock, some not; some corrugated, some not); two #5 1/4s; a #40; LN
#140; LN low-angle block plane; #71 router plane, LN #164 low-angle
smoother; Veritas #4-1/2.  Stanley #12 and #112 scrapers.  My favorite
metal planes are the #8, the #3, the #140, and the #4-1/2.

Infills:  gunmetal chariot plane; Norris smoother (love this puppy!);
Spiers panel plane; a couple of shoulder planes.

Woodies:  30 or more of them, including a Jo. Fuller cabinetmaker's
airtight seal plane, several J. Kelloggs (plow, complex molder, several
others) a couple of moving filletsters, a beautiful partial set of H&Rs
by J. Moseley, London, and an unmarked but very useful unusual molder
for putting a slight bevel (bezel?) and a rounded edge on an arris.
Numerous side beads and other molders, tongue-and-grooves, etc.  A
couple of smoothers and a big Ohio Tool jointer (my first woodie, which
I overcleaned and refinished to death).  Several of the molders are
upstate NY planes that belonged to my great grandfather and were used by
him and my grandfather.

My other grandfather contributed a "Metro" Yankee-style screwdriver and
a hammer with a square face and wedge-shaped back face.

I've got a handful of carving tools that I may actually use at some point.

A lot of the smaller stuff gets stored in the Gerstner, but most of the
tools seem to pile up on the workbench, the utility bench, and the tool
storage surfaces of a couple of unplugged tailed things.

All of this fits, somehow, in about a 12x16' area in the basement.  I
have a big north-facing window, which is useful, since the glass can be
removed for bringing big stuff in.

What do I do with all of these tools?  Well, there are a lot of projects
I think about.  I haven't done any serious work in several years,
however.  My most ambitious project was was a shaker-style sewing table
in cherry and cherry ply, french-polished, with a recessed shelf for a
sewing machine.  My wife loved it, but it ended up becoming my
15-year-old son's computer/gaming desk.  Which is fine, since the
materials were actually purchased before he was born for building a
computer desk.

I seem to be more what SWMBO calls a virtual woodworker than a real one,
since I spend far more time on the computer than in the workshop.  Oh,
well...
-- 
Michael D. Sullivan
Bethesda, MD (USA)
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