OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

252958 Matt Hanley <smlcosmi@g...> 2015‑01‑14 Bio
Hello, all - Nice porch you have here.

I found you while researching an obscure bench plane I inherited recently.
At some point I'll ask about it, but I didn't want to just barge in and
start blurting out ignorant questions.

My name is Matt Hanley and I live in Lansing, MI.  After almost 20 years in
and around government/politics for a living, I've cooled my jets a bit the
last three years or so and enjoyed other aspects of life.  One of these is
a rediscovered interest in woodworking, which had its genesis in a one
semester woodshop class I took in 9th grade more than 30 years ago.  While
I'm relatively handy and usually brave enough to try something after
educating myself on how to do it, I hadn't done any woodworking at all
since 9th grade until a couple years ago.  We were redoing our living room
and needed a proper mantle for the fireplace. After getting a couple of
quotes I realized I could build it myself for the same money and have a
couple new power tools on the shelf as a result.  (After all, every home
improvement project is an excuse to buy at least one new tool.)

As a result of the reading/research necessary to prepare myself for that
project, I had gotten the woodworking bug.  With no specific plans in place
to use them, I started looking for second-hand tools; hand planes became an
early interest.  I went to a local craigslist seller's place to buy a
Stanley 78 and he tried to get me interested in the Parks planer he was
trying to sell.  I didn't need a planer.  I didn't even have a jointer.
But I couldn't get the machine out of my head..  Three months later, I
owned it.  This lead to other machines - all older than me - which led to
traditional layout tools and clamps and machinist's tools and chisels and,
oh my.

For me, the fun of setting up a shop has been the hunt.  I've been able to
acquire a very nice set of user tools for very short money, relatively
speaking.  Part of the allure is the quality.  Part of it is the
restoration of something that is still perfectly capable of doing the job
it was designed to do, rather than simply throwing it away and buying a new
one.  And part of it is the connection with the people who used to use
these things to make their living; each one of these objects I touch has a
history, and I think it's cool to be a small part of it.

There are times when I have to remind myself that I got into this escapade
so I could make things out of wood, not to simply own tools.  But around
here at least, there's an awfully faint line between being a woodworker and
a de facto tool collector.  I traipse across it routinely.  On those
occasions where I catch myself, I make amends by sharpening something or
removing some rust from one of my "project" tools (which is still most of
them).

I'm not sure where this interest will take me, but I'm sure having a heck
of a lot of fun so far.  I expect I'll be a user of both hand tools and
power tools, because I buy the notion that they each have their strengths.
I'll never be an expert on any of this stuff, but there's enough to learn
about this craft and its tools that every day is a chance to gain just a
little more knowledge, a little more appreciation for the history, and a
little more understanding about why it still appeals to so many.  And I'm
an eager student.  To the extent that I learn along the way, I look forward
to the opportunities to share some of that with others.

Recent Bios FAQ