Welcome to my Cave!

Hi, my name is Gary and I'm a Neanderthal. This tag was originally intended as an insult, but I and several hundred other people like me now wear it as a badge of honor. We also call ourselves Galoots. We enjoy finding, restoring, collecting and most of all using old woodworking hand tools. We're all part of the OldTools listserv.

Use to I would have to walk to school, barefoot, in the snow, uphill, BOTH ways. But now I.......er, wrong story.

Ok, I'm 5...unhhh older, married and have several thousand women in my cave. SWMBO, SWMBO Jr., a dog and several bee hives! All of them manage to keep me busy most of the time. The rest is spent in my shop dreaming about when I'll be making money building handcrafted furniture for the rich and famous.

I have always lusted in my heart for the "Old Ways". The antique furniture, toys, you name it, I've always found them to be much more fascinating than most modern conveinences. So becoming a Galoot was natural for me. One part of my shop has the usual magically powered apprentices, but the bulk of the shop is given over to the deification of Handtools. My shop was my first serious woodworking project. With the help of a friend we built a 10'x16'x12' barn with loft doors in both ends. Makes it very easy to store lumber in the loft and helps keep the shop cool in the summer. Course the HUGE elm tree we built it under dosen't hurt either!

I was caught up in the sweeping tide of handtools with my first plane (MF #8, a Stanley #3 counterpart) acquired from a friend who passed on many moons ago. I have since accumulated numerous bench and block planes along with the other assorted and sundry items one needs to doink with wood.

I have many hobbys, (beekeeping is the newest one!) but the funnest by far is working in the shop with my oldtools. Nothing relaxes me better. And I'm even helping to continue the tradition of apprenticeship by teaching my daughter how to use my tools. She already has her own block plane, smoother and thumb plane. She loves to go to the shop with daddy and build "castles". And I can't think of a better way to teach her about life than to let her learn how things were done long ago. It helps to keep one's feet firmly grounded and one's head somewhere between the clouds and terra firma. With occasional lapses for flights of fancy!! ;-)