Cutting to the proverbial chase with lots of snippage.

I too have opted in.  It is a good thing that Jim does. Hope my gift(s) 
don't disappoint as this is my first Galootaclaus.

So be gentle.

Cheers,

Rick Yochim

Who's probably been to many of the same places at the same times that 
Mark has but won't bore him or anyone else by asking.

>> Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:06:23 -0500
> From: "Mark D. Harrell" 
> Subject: Re: [OldTools] Galootaclaus Opt In is OPEN!!
> To: "Bill Taggart" , "'Jim Esten'"
> , "'oldtools'" 
> Message-ID: <004501c93aa9$74b6a260$6501a8c0@m...>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Following esteemed galoot Bill Taggart's lead, I too have just opted 
> in the Galootaclause celebration, and am now updating my bio with the 
> following information:
>
> Bottom Line Up Front: 49-year-old former Army guy with a teenaged 
> daughter, a 4-year old boy and a 3-year old girl, living in an old 
> turn-of-the-century four-square in La Crosse, WI. Married to a SWMBO 
> far smarter than he who works from home in her PJs because she can. 
> Madly obsessed with the art of restoring rusty tools, with a 
> particular emphasis on saws. More details follow for those with time 
> on their hands. . . .
>
> Recently retired Special Forces Colonel who hung up 28 years of 
> service last December when I redeployed from Afghanistan, where my 
> crew and I ran a training compound for the Afghan National Army 
> throughout 2007. I spent roughly half of my military career with 
> assignments in the 5th, 10th and 12th Special Forces Groups 
> (Airborne), and spent much of the other half of my career in the ROTC 
> business, where I served as an Assistant Professor of Military Science 
> and Professor of Military Science in upstate New York and Southwest 
> Wisconsin (La Crosse), where I presently live. Other assignments 
> throughout my career have taken me to Korea, Germany, Panama, Hawaii, 
> Northern California, Georgia and North Carolina.
>
> LOL--I've been wearing a uniform since age 11, when I joined the Boy 
> Scouts. It was in the Boy Scouts where I learned the following values: 
> service to community and country, gun control (as in hitting your 
> target!), and protecting the environment--values that are seldom, 
> well, valued anymore. I confess to a Teddy Roosevelt blend of politics 
> as a result, and tend to annoy both liberals and conservatives. Blind 
> dogma stinks, and I hate seeing ouur country divided along cultural 
> lines between red and blue states. I like thinking for myself.
>
> All this travel and training formulated a strong desire to build my 
> own (damned) house out of locally-procured and recycled (if possible) 
> materials, and that the house should remain off-grid, powered by solar 
> panels. I built this house south of La Crosse nine years ago; it's of 
> timber-framed construction, and insulated with plastered strawbales 
> (anyone ever heard of strawbale construction?). The house is powered 
> by the sun with eight, 100-watt solar panels, and I obtain household 
> water needs some 200-year-old piece of technology called a water ram 
> (that the Amish still use). Not that the device itself is 200 years 
> old, just the concept regarding how it works. I built my own with PVC 
> and galvanized metal fittings, and it's powered by the water gushing 
> out of the eye of one of my springs that promote the cyclic action of 
> two check valves, which harness the energy and inertia of moving 
> water, pumping it 275' laterally and 18' vertically from the source to 
> my house. I describe al
> l my cabin's operating systems at my website found below my signature 
> block. This phase of my life can best be characterized as 'Earth 
> First! meets the NRA. . . .'
>
>>From my obsession to build my own (damned) house, thereby meeting 
>>Maslow's hierarchy of needs on my own terms, sprang an obsession with 
>>the craft of timber-framing. I began collecting vintage chisels, 
>>mallets, axes, and slicks, and away I went, crafting large joints, 
>>building crew-served sawhorses, a saw bench, and a Roubo workbench 
>>(inspired by Chris Schwarz's excellent article in the Fall 2005 issue 
>>of WoodWorking magazine. This activity led to an increased fascination 
>>with vintage hand tools, and by then, I had fallen well down the 
>>slippery slope that SWMB cocks a disapproving eyebrow to this day on 
>>my activity. One thing I kept realizing during this stage, was that I 
>>thought it rather unAmerican to rely so much a a couple of cheap 
>>Japanese saws to make my saw cuts. Loved the way they worked, but 
>>working with them just didn't sit right with me. I'm no xenophobe, but 
>>(dammit) I wanted to learn to saw 'Merican! Hence, my foray into Pete 
>>Taran's most excellent web site at vi
> ntagesaws.com, and down the slope I went. But here I digress. . . I 
> was about to leave the Army and had to figure out what I really wanted 
> to be when I grew up. In my neurotic madness, I turned to eBbay.
>
> So--to justify my endless fascination with vintage tools, I began 
> restoring tools and selling them on eBay, determined to find a niche 
> in the galoot world, where I could modestly supplement my Army 
> retirement--besides, most businesses hiring officers tend to shy away 
> from overpaid Colonels unless you're seeking employment somewhere in 
> the military industrial complex, and I'd decided that becoming a 
> contractor for the defense department wasn't where I wanted to go. 
> Back to eBay. My wife calles this my 'hobby-job' and would really 
> rather see me wash more clothes and do more dishes. Here I must 
> confess that recall from active duty for another Afghan or an Iraq 
> assignment beckoned. You see, the Army is like a diseased, disloyal 
> prostitute you keep dragging your butt back to time and again, because 
> you just can't let the old wench go and you love her. But sooner or 
> later, you just have to grow up. Determined to adapt to civilian life, 
> I renewed my commitment to spend spend most of
>  my time chasing our 3 and 4-year-olds around our old four-square 
> house in La Crosse, do more clothes and dishes, teach part-time at the 
> local community college (speech and written communication), and seek 
> every spare moment to work on my tools and my off-grid cabin south of 
> town.
>
> At any rate, there I was one night hovering over my Roubo, flattening 
> the benchtop in prep to saw up some lumber I milled from my property 
> to make yet another Chris Schwarz project, and I realized that it was 
> high time I got around to sharpening up my Simonds mitre saw driving 
> my Millers Falls Langdon Acme Size 2 1/2 No. 75 mitre box. I was 
> intimidated by this, because I had royally butchered a rather nice 
> thumbhole PHILADA-vintage Disston D8 rip saw in an earlier attempt. 
> But I was determined to sharpen my own (damned) saw. The light bulb 
> flashed over my head, I didn't wreck the Simonds, and I wound up 
> shooting down the slippery slope faster than a greased pig in an 
> Arkansas mud-flat. I madly began procuring saws, sharpening them, 
> disciplining myself to leave no flats, and selling them on eBay. One 
> after the other. Got better and better at it, and before I knew it, 
> people began contacting me for sharpening work. Built a web site. 
> Worked on one of Chris Schwarz's saws, and he
>  was kind enough to post an entry on how I did it on the WoodWorking 
> blog. All of a sudden one day, a dozen saws showed up on my doorstep, 
> and even deeper into the mysterious shadows of sharpening Valhalla I 
> marched, armed with a growing inventory of taper files and a clearly 
> defined post-retirement mission.
>
> My obsession grows--it's worse than cigarettes, Copenhagen and crack 
> cocaine, this saw addiction. I digress. Now I want to follow in the 
> footsteps of esteemed Galoots Pete Taran and Mike Wenzloff by 
> producing my own line of saws. So we'll see where this obsession 
> leads. . . .
>
> I thoroughly enjoy absorbing the wisdom of fellow Galoots on the porch 
> like a sea sponge chock full of wisdom absorbed thru old tool osmosis. 
> This is an incredible dynamic, an honorable pursuit of all that's good 
> in a Luddite, and I salute all of you who so freely share your 
> insight. I hope to reciprocate in kind one day.
>
> Happy Galootaclause,
>
> Mark in La Crosse
>
> Mark Harrell
> www.technoprimitives.com
> technoprimitive6@t...
>
>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>  From: Bill Taggart
>  To: 'Jim Esten' ; 'oldtools'
>  Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 7:38 AM
>  Subject: RE: [OldTools] Galootaclaus Opt In is OPEN!!
>
>
>  Well then.
>
>  I just opted in and noticed that the roolz for Galootaclaus require 
> an
>  up-to-date bio.  I don't think I've posted a bio in a few years at at 
> this
>  point.  I'll keep it brief.
>
>  Born in Morristown, NJ, 9/11/1966.  Graduated from Lehigh University,
>  Bethelehem, PA, 1988, B.S. Biology.  Went into the environmental 
> field.  Got
>  married in 1990 to a girl I met in Biology lab.  First daughter born 
> 1996;
>  second daughter born 1998.
>
>  Became interested in handyman-type stuff by watching Bob Vila on the
>  original TOH back in the late 1970's/early 1980's (I think that was 
> the time
>  period).  My dad bought an old farmhouse built around the turn of the 
> 20th
>  Century and we spent years doing a lot of our own fixing up.
>
>  Became interested in woodworking by watching Nahm on NYWS.
>
>  Bought my first house in 1990, set up a tiny "workshop" in the 
> basement.
>  Acquired an old Shopsmith 10ER and a few other power tools (jigsaw, 
> drill).
>
>
>  Attended a craft fair and saw a guy making Windsor chairs with 
> drawknife,
>  shave horse and spoke shave.  WOW.  Very cool.  Started to ponder 
> anteek
>  hand tools.
>
>  Bought a Type 11 #5C at a barn sale from a very old guy who said he 
> was
>  unloading all his stuff before he died so his kids didn't have to 
> deal with
>  it.  IIRC, I paid $12.  My very first anteek tewl!!  (Later stolen 
> from me
>  by Nathan Lindsey along with several other nice tools, but that's 
> another
>  long story).
>
>  Started researching the plane, discovered the Old Tools Front Porch 
> mailing
>  list (that was probably about 1996? Or so?).  Spent WAY too much time 
> on the
>  list every night - as evidenced by this exchange with List Prose 
> Master
>  Laureate Tom Price: 
> http://homepage.mac.com/galoot_9/words_of_advice.html
>
>  My job during the 1990's involved extensive business travel all over 
> the
>  continental U.S., so I spent about 11 years acquiring all kinds of 
> tools
>  from anteek mauls, flee markets, yard sales, estate auctions, etc.  I 
> was in
>  acquisition mode.  Bought lots of tools; kept some good ones; sold a 
> lot of
>  others (including some really good ones).
>
>  Took a 6-week blacksmithing class sometime around 2000 or so and 
> loved it.
>
>  At the end of the 1990's I was burned out on travel, tired of my job,
>  decided it was time for a career change.  After 2-3 years of 
> pondering, I
>  ended up going to law school.
>
>  In 2002, moved from NJ to VA to attend University of Richmond School 
> of Law.
>  Dropped off the Old Tools list for a while to focus on law school 
> work.
>
>  Graduated in 2005 summa cum laude, 1/164 (hey, sometimes ya gotta 
> blow yer
>  own horn, ya know?).  Went to work for the Tax & ERISA team of Hunton 
> &
>  Williams LLP, a very large international law firm in Richmond, VA.
>
>  Just a cuppla weeks ago I switched from Tax to Environmental Law - 
> returning
>  to what I know.
>
>  Last year I built a workshop and moved all my stuff in - I have too 
> much
>  stuff!!  In addition to Old Tools, I also hang out a lot at 
> www.owwm.org and
>  www.owwm.com.  I have acquired several nice pieces of old woodworking
>  machinery and am in the process of restoring all of them.
>
>  I occasionally volunteer at a local living history museum and do 
> simple
>  blacksmithing demonstrations in 1860's period clothing.
>
>  My website (which is sorely in need of updated):
>  http://home.comcast.net/~ilikerust/
>
>  - Bill Taggart

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