Bottom of what has been called 'slope"

You can solve this really really easily

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I'm not 58 yet. My father lived to 90, and my mother's still going moderately strong at 91. Adopt me.

Of course, to be fair, you should really adopt some of the youngsters on this community, rather than me. My pile, um toolkit, isn't as impressive as yours, but it's not bad.

Bob, your interpretation is wrong...

john jesseph

>I think if you check into the data more (taking into account infant mortality and childhood disease, accidents, etc) someone who is 58 today will live way more than ten years more on average.

Holy Cow...

john jesseph

>I went back and looked at the pics. Man, what a fine assembly of tools! How about those infill??

Really, good question though, looking forward to the discussion.

John Jesseph

Yes, the older you are, the greater

Garrett in Victoria

>your future life expectancy.

This numbers game leads to silly interpretations. I was at a dinner party in Hong Kong some years ago. That morning the papers announced that life expectancy for Hong Kongers had just passed that of Canadians. The (Chinese) people around the table wondered whether this should be attributed to the power of a) Chinese food, b) Chinese medecine; c) Chinese tea; etc., etc. When they ran out of ideas, the fellow sitting across from me asked if they'd like to know the real reason. (He was the Vice President of Manulife Insurance.) It's because Hong Kong has only a few kilometres of highway, he said, and, therefore, doesn't kill off large numbers of teenagers in road accidents. That simple statistic skews the overall life expectancy number significantly, but is meaningless in terms of the average adult.

Take heart. You probably have many more years to look after your 'children', even if it's impossible for you to outlive them ultimately.

Cheers, Garrett

Re: Holy Cow...

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>Bob,

Dude, what are you thinking? Worried about dying already? holy Smokes man, go out into the shop and make some shavings or something. Sounds like your depressed or something.

On a more serious note, I can relate to your concern as I have some stuff that belonged to my father, that I wonder what I'll do with when it's "Time." Coarse most of us will never know when it's "Time" now will we, and I think that is probably for the best.

There are many avenues you can take. Find a good Boy Scout troop to donate them too, or other such organization that will properly maintain them, and use them for training a new generation of woodworkers, or set up a deal with a well established dealer who'll give your Mrs. a fair deal on them. Coarse, there is always the chance that you may out live her, or tomorrow the sands in your hourglass runs out. Who knows. At 58 I don't think you have much to worry about for for quite sometime, coarse, that's barring lightning strikes, snake bites, auto accidents, earthquakes, twisters, floods, the sun exploding, the ice caps melting, stray bullets, etc, etc, etc, etc. ;~) I've had family members that died in their cribs and one that lived to 108 years old, so there you see there is no Rhyme or Reason to The Reapers methods.

Now go make some shavings!

Todd O.

I repeat: Holy Cow!

john jesseph

>I am beginning to go through my stuff to get ready to move in 4 to 6 months. I am far more pathetic, having trouble trashing real true junk: some crappy drawknives and too-far-gone chisels, etc etc... Now I can march over to the dumpster and give 'em the heave-ho... BTW my Aunt is turning 80 tomorrow. She is thinking about downsizing to a smaller apartment some time in the next few years. Maybe she'll let me give her old Workmate a new home.

Re: One name - Sam Maloof

Norman (Ottawa, Ont.)

>I've been reading about Sam Maloof over the past few years.

He just turned 90 if I'm not mistaken, and still runs his shop

and has grandiose plans about new designs, etc.

James Krenov is around 90 also and he sounds like

he's going to go on forever.

Also read about an individual or two that actually made a career

change into woodworking in their late fifties. They began small businesses which they ran and are still going strong.

So you're a young man in comparison :)

Norman (just as excited about woodworking today

as I was 20 yrs. ago.)

Thrift stores

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Not all thrift stores want tools, but some will be delighted to get what we think is junk - and some people will think they're just fine.

I'm reminded of the guy I met once who'd made a drawknife from some sort of blade (planer knife, who knows) to which he'd brazed handles, because he couldn't find a drawknife. I nearly drove back the next Monday with one of mine. He said it worked fine though.

Re: Bottom of what has been called 'slope"

Dean Lapinel

>Please repeat this note and ask the same type of question when you turn 80. Keep workin those planes and you will certainly do fine.

Live long and Plane

Re: a certainty

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>I think all of the responses so far say basically not to worry about it, you have many years left. I have to disagree with that philosophy. It is a sure thing that you will die. There have only ever been a few people on earth who came back to life after dying, so I am not going to count on that, and one of the two I have read about died again afterwards. I am not scared of death, as I am sure of what will happen afterwards. My wife is perfectly capable of looking after herself. But she would miss me, and the last thing I would want after I am dead is to have her cursing me for my tool collection.

The easiest way to make sure your family knows what to do with your tools after you are gone is simply to find an auctioneer who is reputable and knows tools. Put their phone number somewhere where your family know where to find it. This will ensure that they not only don't have to mess around with sorting the tools, but will also get a fair market value for them; the auctioneer will make some money off of them, but it will be well worth it.

Another option, and one that I hope to accomplish before passing, is to catalog all of your tools with pictures and estimated values of each tool. This could all be stored on a disc. It would be a good tool for an autioneer to use when advertising the auction, as you know your tools better than anyone else.

To end on a note of good cheer; a 58 year old could have many good years left. My wife's grandmother smoked every day of her life I think and lived into her early 80's. Her grandfather is 87 now I think and still in very good health; he was at our house for Thanksgiving dinner, and has enjoyed a very good retirement for many years; he is active in Score, has many friends in the area, and is just having a great time in the sunset years having the time to enjoy hobbies like photography, and has a great interst in the arts and also airplanes, having been a pilot in WW2. We make the best of each day we are given. Drive carefully.

Todd, Todd

Mike Fitterling

>". . . wonder what I'll do with when it's "Time."

Don't worry about it pal. Just leave everything to me. With that wild lifestyle of yours your are going MUCH sooner than me (heck, it could just be a couple more years, unless you fall into an excavation ditch while fossilizing), and you'll rest easy knowing I appreciate old tools. ;)

Re: My solution

Ron in Kokomo

>I will give a few away to my best friend. (These are things that I hope never to part with while alive). Some other things I plan to give to young galoots when I get to the place where shop time diminishes. I do have some valuable stuff, and my wife knows that and understands that an auctioneer should be called in who knows about tools. I really believe that giving to the next generation is a hallmark of this wonderful craft, and I plan to do that as I am able.

58!!!!

Jerry Nicholson

>I wish I was only 58! I have you beat quite a bit and plan to live at least 20 more years so if you are worried about it just send me your planes for storage (I will pay the postage) and I will take care of distributing them after you are gone.

I copied your pictures to show to my wife. She thinks I have too many planes and I only have a small fraction of what you have.

Here's to many more years of fiddlin fettlin and planin.

Jerry

That reminds me

Bruce, a MN Galoot

>of a motorcycle trip I took with my long time best buddy. He had a plan that if anything happened to me on the trip, he was going to tell my wife that I said he could have all my stuff. Worked for him, anyway. :-)

Bruce

Mike, Mike

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I see a flaw in this plan. I'm out fossil hunting in a pit, and all of a sudden 5 sticks of dynomite comes flying into the hole. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, wonder where they come thinks I in the last instant of my Life. ;~)

I did have a Grand Idea tho. Why not have it set up so that any un-wanted tools by family members get auctioned off here on Ellis Island, with a percentage going to Ellis? Coarse, I'm not talking big dollar collector pieces mind you, just you average run of the mill tools. At least this way you'd know that you're tool are going to somebody who'll appreciate them. Just a thought.

Seems to me it was Clay to find a tool for his canoe making classes up in Alaska. Perhaps donate them to a individual that teaches woodworking to kids.

There's many many possibilities.

Todd O.

Re: Bottom of what has been called 'slope"

R.J.Whelan (Eastern Sierra, CA)

>Bob .... when I decided to take early retirement and move to the country I took a serious look at the number of planes, chisels, hammers, etc I owned. When I finally accepted the fact that over 90% of the tools were just "for lookin" I decided it was time to give them their third (or fourth, or fifth) life - I donate a couple of hundred handtools to various woodworking programs (all public schools). I hope students of all ages (and gender) are getting good use out of them and learning to love the simple elegance and usefulness of handtools ..... rj

Oh, Todd...

Mike Fitterling

>It will be more subtle than that! By the way, how'd you like that special marinade on the venison last time? Bwaaahaaaaa!

Re: Bob, your interpretation is wrong...

Paul Kierstead

>I think if you check into the data more (taking into account infant mortality and childhood disease, accidents, etc) someone who is 58 today will live way more than ten years more on average.

Yes, absolutely. Expected life-span at a given age is typically a very different number the average life-span of the population. This is even more true for 3rd-world countries, where very high levels of infant mortality skew the life-span stats heavily, but is true here as well. In addition to this, life-style factors significantly effect the outcome.

We all get old and die, but stats are only a very small indication of when are going to die.

Insane tool pile though.

Re: Bottom of what has been called 'slope"

Todd Hughes

>With me they can just have a big estate sale after I shuffle off. I could care less what the stuff goes for though I would enjoy looking down [or up!] and seeing some people getting good deals as well as some maybe paying to much. Who knows it might be the last auction I'll get to be at eh?

I would like all my my favorite stuff buried with me, well at least as much that would fit in with me and my dog. More I think of it the more I like the idea of some type of burial chamber like King Tut!...Hmmm opeons up a whole new collecting field for me...Things I want to be buried with! See not that hard to turn around the problim of what to do with your stuff to why you should get more of it.

Wonder about the zoning for a big work shop / crypt in the back yard ? .....Todd

Exactly

Jim Reed @ Tallahassee

>Life expectancy charts can be misleading. That one looks like the general chart that includes everyone. Look for some better stats--like healthy non smoker in late 50's probably can look forward to 25+ years, not 10. Anyway, I saw some space on the shelf where you can fit in a few more planes and spokeshaves.

Uh-Oh

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>Well Mike, I'm still kickin', so I guess next time you'll have to add some more of that "special flavoring"

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I get the feeling that from now on during my annual trips down it would be in my best interest to just order pizza! :~O

Looks like our next trip may be around March/April timeframe. there is also talk that this may be the last hunt at the pit, as Eddie is talking of closing it. :~(

Todd O.

Re: Bottom of what has been called 'slope"

Ernie Miller

>I would gladly adopt you and see to it that they are saved for the future. After all we all are family just 8-10 times removed.