The old rustytool (that's me).  My email moniker when I'm  communicating with antique tool collectors is: 

rustytool@rosewoodandbrass.com

or 

rustytool@rustytool.com

Click here to see images of some woodworking projects I finally completed.

Yup, that's me, with assistants and part of my Bed Rock collection in the background.

AND there's more help on the way!
The twins, Liesl Marie and Maria Isabel, on the left
AND the first grand baby BOY, Jonathon Kenneth on the right

And the ALWAYS helpful Jules (aka the tongue) to the far right!

My hobby is woodworking. I bought the most necessary tools, at first, and then decided I needed three relatively expensive items. That is, a dust collector, a thickness planer and a jointer. Each of these, of course, cost several hundred dollars. While I was trying to get the money together for the one of the tools, I attended a meeting of the Southwest Tool Collectors. One of the members demonstrated the use of a hand plane and casually mentioned, "I'd rather have these shavings dropping on the floor than dust flying around in the air.". This made a lot of sense, to me. I could see that hand tools are less expensive and (more importantly), much safer than power driven tools. I was convinced and bought my first hand plane. A few months later, after I bought my fourth hand plane, my wife stated, "You're collecting". I weakly objected that each plane was for a different use (which is true), but she had diagnosed me. I will say this, I have less than a thousand tools, so my collection is small (relatively speaking). :>)

Well, as so many collect... USERS do, I started selling off duplicates and tools I couldn't use to support my habit. So here I am, selling. As a member of the Oldtools listserv states it, "I'm not a collector, I'm just a user without enough spare time to use all my tools.".

If woodworking is your hobby, what's the rush? In addition to saving money and fingers, I find it more satisfying to use hand tools. When I finish a piece or even just one step in completing an item, I feel more like I did it - not some piece of machinery. This is just my feelings. I still use my power equipment, but mostly for "carpentry" work, not "cabinet or furniture" making. Well, the wife has enough work scheduled for me to keep me busy well into the next millenium (3000), so I better get back to work. 

Regards, Larry

Last Modified: 05/30/2002 10:58 AM