The latest love

Thanks *LINK*

Michael Recchione

>Actually it's no less of a good story than the "official" version. Your remarks about ScarySharp are interesting, though. I just reread Steve LaMantia's original post about his sandpaper sharpening experiments, and he gives the distinct impression that this was his own insight. I know (and by now just about everybody knows) that the idea has been around for a long time, yet the name and attribution stuck. Until now, though, I believed that he had come up with it independently.

It's funny how these things work out. For example, many people still refer to a shop-built spokeshave of a particular pattern as a "Guntershave", because John Gunterman posted the detailed instructions on his website and was teaching classes on the method for a while. In fact, the method and pattern came from a course taught by Dave Wachnicki. I guess it doesn't matter who really invents something - the guy who spreads and popularizes an idea gets (and maybe really deserves?) the credit.

There was a sort of interesting discussion of intellectual property rights and their relation to things like this over on The Porch in the last few days. It seems to be a common theme in woodworking discussion groups lately. Kind of sad, really. I remember when the collective objective was to share knowledge and insights freely, to the mutual benefit and development of all with the desire to learn. I guess we've passed out of the Age of Innocence in galootery.

I really envy you in having been one of the originals on The Porch. There was a spirit of mutual discovery that was really engaging - kind of like a bunch of kids and a few wise old masters marooned on a desert island, learning to survive together. This spirit was still sort of alive when I first joined in 1998 or so, but by that time Patrick Leach and Larry Williams had both more or less stopped participating, as had Steve LaMantia and a number of others. There still used to be some really good writing there, though.

I think one of the best pieces of advice I could give anyone that wants to learn about galootery and has some time to spend would be to go over to The Porch Archives and read the first five years or so of messages.

- Mike (still a Galoot)


original ScarySharp(tm) post

I resemble that remark! :-)

Michael Recchione

>"Galoot?? It might be a fine term to describe some beginner wandering around a flea market and buying old rusty tools at a greatly inflated price to the amusement of the dealers"

Except I've never paid more than $3 for a pigsticker at a flea market. (It was a really nice one, though, even if it did need a new handle). What name shall we use for people who buy new ones for over $50 a pop? :-)

Re: Thanks

Bruce, a MN Galoot

>I truly wish I could take some credit for the formation of the Porch. As it is, it was more or less serendipity. Pat O and Tom Bruce got to talking about having a place of "our own" at about the same time as the sawset discussion took place. Pat had the know-how (Tom, too) and Tom had server space at Cornell. I remember getting an e-mail from Pat in November, telling me that an announcement of interest to me would be forthcoming in December. It definitely was of interest. These two guys are the real geniuses behind everything. Aside from his incredible sense of humor, Paddy's real talent is his ability to link people together. We had become friends over the wreck several years before, and I guess that's just the way it worked. My Galoot hat is #29.

I suppose it's somewhat the same these days (I haven't been on the wreck for years) but in those early years (92-93), an awful lot of the listers were sysadmin guys who had pretty much unfettered computer access. When I first joined rec.ww, I subscribed to the list, and there were only 30-40 msgs per day. OTOH, there is now so much esoterica on the oldtools list and so many msgs that I can't possibly keep up. I can hardly keep up with the digests. But it is still the best compendium of info on oldtools I know of (sorry po).

Bruce

This Is the Funniest Thread EVER!

Hank Knight from SC

>I just got back to this thread. I can't believe it. I've been laughing for 20 minutes.

Joel, I apologize for calling your chisels "pigstickers." I thought the term was accepted slang. I certainly didn't mean to demean your product. In fact, I intended to praise it.

I don't care what you call them, they are great chisels.

Amazing!

oink, oink, hank! ;)

frank shic (walnut ck, ca)

>and i've got one finger pushing up my nose! here's to not taking yourself too SERIOUSLY!!!

look at the SIZE of that thing!

frank shic

>golly, what do you hit that thing with? a sledgehammer?

Re: look at the SIZE of that thing!

ThomD

>It gets bronze scales on the sides like a knife, so the top will be about 1" wide. Pod., in the FWW article said his vision of a mortice chisel is that it would be something you could wack into a telephone pole and have John Madden do a dance on. This fits the bill! He is shown using a medium large wooden mallet. Steel to steel would just rebound. Wood gives a dead blow.

I started this project in '87. I bought the piece of steel, and rapidly lost gas trying to convert it into a chisel. Mostly I figured I couldn't get it heat treated. These days with a very cheap metal bandsaw, $150, and a grinder, it took about half an hour to cut out and dress up. Needs HT, and the scales. I think the chisel is a little shorter than it should have been.

I'm just making it to clean out the back catalogue. It is also an experiment in morticing with leverage. Even back then I already had good Iyoroi morticing chisels (from LV), and could chop mortices without using leverage on the handle, but I think this chisel positively begs for some reefer madness on the handle. Just another useless enquiry I spun off on after reading something in FWW. ;0)

Re: The latest love - can I beg a favor?

Greg Sloop, Portland Oregon

>Joel.

I'll make you a deal.

I promose I'll decry "pig-sticker" and "Galoot" everytime I see it, as long as you do the same and will decry the use of similarly derogatory terms for those of us who like Bevel Up planes and the planes themselves.

Deal?

Cheers,

Greg

Re: The latest love - can I beg a favor?

joel -( tools for working wood)

>Sure - it's a deal but just because I am not a fan of Bevel Up planes have you ever, ever, seen me call them or their users by a derogatory name?

Re: The latest love - can I beg a favor?

Greg Sloop, Portland Oregon

>Perhaps.

But I've never seen you defend against it either.

It's not quite so lonely here anymore, as a bunch of people have seen the "light," but it's been downright unfriendly quite a number of times with IMHO pretty seriously unfriendly and denigrating comments thrown around.

I found it ironic that you�d ask for changing what I�d consider relatively benign terms like �pig sticker� and �galoot� when you were absent in defense against �Swiss Army Plane Guys� (SAPG) and the Swiss army planes etc. (And these are the ones I can recall off the top of my head.)

Simply not taking part in the fracas doesn�t do away with the ironic factor when I see you complain about terms you find offensive and request their disposal.

But, perhaps you just missed those sessions I guess.

Cheers,

Greg

Re: The latest love - can I beg a favor?

Alice Frampton, UK

>Greg, do what the neanders and galoots did - wear it as a badge of honour. Heck, millions and millions of Swiss Army Knives have been sold; they're probably the best known knife in the world. It's only derogatory if you choose to take it that way ;~)

As far as "pigsticker" goes, I'll stop using it the day everyone stops muddling the meaning of "galoot" and "neanderthal"...

Cheers, Alf

Re: The latest love - can I beg a favor?

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>So, what's the difference between a Galoot and a Neanderthal?

Re: The latest love - can I beg a favor?

Alice Frampton, UK

>Well, as I see it:

Neanderthal: A user of hand tools for woodworking.

Galoot: A member of the Old Tools List. Usually keen on using old hand tools, but not necessarily a woodworker. Or even a user.

A Galoot can be a Neander, but a Neander ain't necessarily a Galoot.

But of course I could be wrong, in which case I'll have to get out my English Oval Bolstered Mortise Chisels, although I'll be so exhausted having said that I won't have the energy to use them ;~)

Cheers, Alf

Re: Deeper Question

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>OK, I'm a Neanderthal for sure, even when I have other tools in my shop, although I may not be acting in a Neanderthal manner when I'm using those others.

Am I a Galoot if I subscribe to the OldTools digest, and have saved several years of them in my personal archives, even if I don't post messages, and own several antique woodworking tools? Do I have to buy a hat? Could I still buy a hat if I wanted one?

Re: Deeper Question

Alice Frampton, UK

>Getting technical now, William...

Never posted? Well I wouldn't call myself a galoot until I'd crawled out from under the porch, but that's a deeply personal judgement call which should be left to the individual.

D'you have to buy a hat? No, I don't think you have to. Shows a certain amount of commitment to walk around in public with "Galoot" across your head though, so for true devotion to the cause, probably yes.

Can you still get one? Search me; I got mine off my own bat from one of those personalised embroidery outfits. How dedicated is that?! (for definition of dedicated see "insane")

Seems to me it boils down to a simple truth; when you're up to your chin in rust and completing a project is a distant memory, you're probably a galoot.

Cheers, Alf ;~)

Pig Sticking in India, ca 1880 *LINK*

Don Thompson - Cutler Ridge, Florida

>After reading the Pig Sticker thread from back in November, I just had to post this link:


Pig Sticking