In high school, I took another class, and then woodworking faded away while I was in college (Occidental in Los Angeles) from 1956-1960, and medical school at the University of Chicago from 1960 to 1964. During my internship the schedule was every other night and every other weekend on duty in addition to the regular 10 hour days, so woodworking was long gone. Then, during my psychiatry residency in Denver, I started to get a few Stanley hand tools and put a vise on a small table. I met a crusty old cabinetmaker, Tony Jacobs, who still had half his fingers, who helped me in many ways and eventually I made the table you see here. A copy of a popular style of the day, but I think I have the only one ever made in wood.
After finishing my residency in 1969, I had two years to serve in the military, and woodworking again went into hibernation, but when we bought our house in Berkeley in 1972, I knew the time had come.... My shop has been a work in progress for the past 35 years, and the latest and greatest phase has been really getting into Japanese tools and techniques. I have been buying from Hida for about twenty years but didn't really fulfill my obligations to the tools and the craftsmen who make them until the past 7 or 8 years, when I stopped some other avocations and finally focused for real...
During the past few years I have made some Greene and Greene reproductions, as well as I could just from pictures in books and visiting and photographing at the Huntington Museum.
I have known about Jay van Arsdale for a long time, but didn't get out of my self-taught bag until a couple of years ago when I took his class at Laney. Needless to say, he has opened a whole new vista in terms of getting the most out of the tools. Aren't we lucky indeed to have him around?
My favorite tool is, of course, the one in my hand, provided it is sharp, and I leave you with the thought that, "The difference between men and fools is the price of their tools."
|
