My name is John Gilman.  I’m from Kansas City.  Have one SWMBO (Hey, at
least I was smart enough to stop at one), and 4 CWMABO (children who
must also be obeyed).

Having read a number of the bios, I think I come to the porch a little
differently than most.  My father certainly was not a tool guy.  Growing
up I didn’t really have close contact with anyone who built things.  My
mother, however, collected early American furniture.  Consequently, I
grew up in a world of old windsors and highboys.  I remember standing on
this old, beat up glossy black wooden chair when I was 10 and my mom
asking me to get off it because it had cost her $500.  When I took
woodshop in the 8th or 9th grade, I poorly designed and poorly built a
shaker style side table.  This was in 1972 or 1973 in Kansas, and I
think my shop teacher had some serious concerns about me.  Baseball bats
and guitars were standard and all finish had to be 8” thick glossy
polyurethane.

My mother picked up the foxfire books as they were published.  Man, I
thought they were cool.  Built a pole-spring lathe in the basement,
etc.  When I was in high school we took a trip to Williamsburg and I was
blown away by the cabinet shop.  Didn’t really do anything for years,
then started catching Roy Underhill’s show and thought - I could do
that.  Roy makes it look easy.  Actually he makes it look like he is
about to put a chisel through his hand and that’s the part I thought I
could do.  Picked up Krenov’s books.  Given my prejudice for early
stuff, I wasn’t originally attracted to the furniture design, but I was
impressed by the man and the attention to detail.  Messed about a bit,
tried to make a plane.

Eventually, I found Mike Dunbar’s book and set out to make a windsor,
actually I was going to make six windsors for my wife..  Okay, that was
a number of years ago and I never finished the first one, but I do have
a seat, legs, and spindles.  I bought all the wrong tools, and had to
fake up a lathe.  As usual I didn’t know what I was doing.
Unfortunately, everything I’ve ever done is self-taught and I now
realize I’m a very poor teacher.  Now that Mike teaches classes maybe I
can get these done someday.

Years go by. . .

My wife and I just got back from Williamsburg for a second honeymoon.
Of course, I spent all my time at the cabinet shop just watching these
guys get out stock.  I came back determined that I would change my life
for the better.  No more back sliding for me.  Yesterday, I put in my
first order for a #5 and some marking gauges.

I think I’ve always been a galoot in my heart, if not my hands.  Now, if
I can just find a place to hide my table saw.

John Gilman

On  6 Nov 97 at 12:29, John Gilman wrote:

[snip]

> I think I've always been a galoot in my heart, if not my hands.  Now, if
> I can just find a place to hide my table saw.

Hey, I've got the perfect solution for this problem - just pile a ton 
of stuff on top of it.  You can hardly tell there's a tablesaw 
underneath all that stuff in my shop.  After all, "tablesaw" is a 
compound word, right?  And what's the first word?  Yep, "table".

Mark E. Stull
Jefferson, MD
mstull@f...

On  7 Nov 97 at 9:34, Geoff Kimbrough wrote:

[snip]

> I keep mine buried in shavings.  Actually, that's not too much different
> from my pre-galoot days, when it was usually buried in sawdust.
> The iron table is useful for various tasks, especially if it's really
> flat. 8^O

I've still got a bunch of the sawdust around it, too.  It's kind of 
hard to sweep around all the lumber I have stacked up around it, 
leaning against it, ....

And actually, I find it to be just about the right height for 
sharpening (but I have to clear enough space, first).

Mark E. Stull
Jefferson, MD
mstull@f...

> > I think I've always been a galoot in my heart, if not my hands. Now, if
> > I can just find a place to hide my table saw.
> 
> Hey, I've got the perfect solution for this problem - just pile a ton 
> of stuff on top of it. You can hardly tell there's a tablesaw 
> underneath all that stuff in my shop. After all, "tablesaw" is a 
> compound word, right? And what's the first word? Yep, "table".
> 

I keep mine buried in shavings. Actually, that's not too much different
from my pre-galoot days, when it was usually buried in sawdust.
The iron table is useful for various tasks, especially if it's really
flat. 8^O

Geoff -- I don't have to tell this list whether I ever use it. Nope, I don't
have to tell anyone.