All of the background and category photos on this site were taken in my shop. Here’s the story that goes with them:
The really, really short version: I love working with old tools, and I hope you will too — and I’m happy to supply them and help you put them to work.
The short version: Way back when, I needed to put hardwood facings on some bookcases I was building. I didn’t have many power tools, so I used a hand plane that had belonged to my father to finish the facings. Then I bought a couple more hand planes. Then I started finding high-quality old tools at flea markets and antique stores. Then I had more tools than I really needed. Then I started selling them. That was in 1994. I still sell tools — and would like to help you use and enjoy them. That’s pretty common in the old tool business — people are happy to help, and share knowledge.
The longer version: In 1992, I bought a house, and needed to put some built-in bookshelves in a study I was building for myself in the basement. I’d done a fair amount of scenery-building in an earlier career, but that doesn’t usually involve hardwoods. So I was trying to figure out how to finish some facings I was making for the bookshelves, and it happened I had a smoothing plane that had belonged to my father (as I later learned, one of the postwar Sears/Craftsman planes that were made by Sargent and were actually pretty good). I liked it.
And because I had this house, I needed to make some furniture, and that seemed like it would be fun, so I got a table saw, and started haunting garage sales and flea markets to see what other kinds of usable stuff I could find. And in those pre-eBay days, you could find quite a lot, and I did. And so within a couple of years I found myself with a tool collection, and some online friends who had similar interests (I was one of the original listowners of the “oldtools” list, and ran the tech for it from my office at Cornell for a number of years). And then slowly I turned into a dealer.
I did that for about six or eight years, and then my day job got a little too demanding, and I gradually stopped selling tools. But I didn’t stop buying them. I was pioneering a business model in which I only kept increasing inventory without actually selling any (pro tip: that doesn’t work real well). So, now that I’m happily retired, I’m trying to reverse that flow — and you can help!
Now, as to other personal stuff: I started out as a stage- and production manager for a number of theater and opera companies, including Houston Opera, the American Repertory Theater, and the Spoleto Festival. I worked with directors like Alvin Epstein, Lee Breuer, Peter Sellars, and Nathaniel Merrill, and on world premieres of works by Jules Feiffer and Robert Ward. In 1987, I’d had enough of show biz, and decided to do something else. To make a long story short, my next career move was doing tech for the Cornell Law School, where I served as the co-founder and Director of its Legal Information Institute for close to 30 years. Somewhere along the way, I wrote the first web browser for Microsoft Windows. I’ve been cussed out by Miles Davis, hailed as an “artistic vandal” by Opera News, and named one of the 50 most innovative people in the American legal profession by the ABA Journal. These days, I also amuse myself by playing electronic music (see, for example, here, here, and here).
And I still build furniture. I find it really satisfying, and I hope you do too — and I’m happy to supply you with the stuff to do it with.