OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

51986 hedgehog@s... 1998‑10‑21 Hello out there!
Members of this list,

As requested by the sign-up materials in your faq here is a somewhat brief
biography of me myself...

I was born in a log cabin... just kidding!

My name's David Miles and I reside in the redundantly named city of Daly
City in the State of California. I've been a wood carver and a turner for
about 20 years. I do not live a normal life...

I am one of a handful of folks on this continent that earns a substantial
part of his living as a professional Hurdy-Gurdy player (I also play drums
in various brass bands and play early flute) What does this have to do
with wood working? Well, in performance I often use an ancient puppetry
form called marrionettes ala planchette. These puppets, currently
Pulcinella and Rosa, dance while I play the Hurdy-Gurdy. They require only
one string to control them, are finely balanced, and hand carved. The act
is about 300 years old.

My work as a turner is equally strange. I have been interested in and have
built working replicas of 18th century bow-lathes and have demonstrated
them in places like Ghirardelli Square and various historic parks. In 1995
someone heard me at remark, during a demonstration, that I thought that a
human powered lathe could produce better work than a powered tool and
turned me in to the F.B.I. as a suspect in the unabomber investagation. I
had a great deal of fun touring the agents around my shop, with all the
little heads, hands and puppet bodies strewn about.

I'm interested in the history of tools, particularly lathes and the
working techniques used by early woodworkers (yes there is a shrine to Roy
Underhill in a corner of my shop). I am currently carving some dancing
skeletons and finishing up twenty small turning tools based on the
hardwood and metal tools in Holtzapffel's "Hand or Simple Turning."

When I'm not performing or being investigated, I'm earning extra money
repairing old chairs or making mysterious trunks for stage magicians.
I'm 44 years old and not married (what woman in her right mind would have
me?)

This seems like a fun list, Thanks for having me on board!

dAvE

======================================================================

If you want to know what god thinks of money, just look at the people
he gave it to.
                -- Dorthy Parker

"Is it easier to believe that nature has gone out of her course or that a
man would tell a lie?"
            --Thomas Paine

A Galileo could no more be elected president of the United States than
he could be elected Pope of Rome.  Both high posts are reserved for men
favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the bitter
facts of life in bandages of self-illusion.
                -- H. L. Mencken



Recent Bios FAQ