OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

159547 "Moshe Eshel" <meshel@g...> 2006‑04‑20 Bio of Moshe Eshel
I'm almost 30, Married, and expecting my first daughter in a short
time (I am EXCITED and infinitely worried).
I live in Israel (The state of) which is pretty far away from most of
you - I've just seen a newcomer (well earlier than me:-)) from
Belgium, which is closer.

I'm a computer programmer (my company insists that I am a senior
software engineer, although I have no engineering degree), working in
a job that does not interest me anymore - it used to, and thinking
about retiring or switching a job. Of which I can do neither
currently. So it's mostly dreaming...

I live in a small Moshav called Gimzo, a Moshav is a form of village
in which each of the people living in has is his own property (I'm
renting), and works his own land (although not many people in my
moshav do that anymore), however some of the property is jointly owned
and the profits (or losses) of that property is shared among the
members of the community. The Moshav I live in is where I grew up, my
parents live nearby (my father used to work the land, but now he works
in the computer industry, after he realised that he can't upkeep his
family from what he earned). The views in the area are great and there
is lots of wood (living) around (you can see this in my website
http://www.eshel.us/OliveTree/index.html which is mainly about an old
dead olive tree I harvested).

I've been interested in wood working for as long as I can remember
myself, since early grades I have been "carving" pieces of wood,
mostly to pass time, but some nice things came out sometimes, nothing
I'd show outside my close family :-).

My recent re-attraction to wood working, and on a much more serious
level, came last year, when I decided to make a set of chess pieces
for my father (read my old wood-carving skills), however, the chess
table was quite big, and while "carving" the second pawn with a
utility knife (which is obviously not suitable), I cut my finger quite
badly. While at the doctors (13 stitches!!!) I started thinking there
must be a better way to do this (chess pieces). I started envisioning
a machine in my mind which turned out to be a CNC lathe (or just a
lathe with a sliding rest) - since I knew (in my mind) that such a
thing must exist, I started looking for something I could afford and
learn - and found Wood turning. I took a class and bought a lathe, and
started producing shavings. Since my injury (nothing was lost thank
G-D except some sensation but most is intact), I am a bit scared of
power tools, and while looking for hand-planes to purchase, I was
introduced to the group by Dave Leader, who has already helped me a
lot.

I won't talk about my tools, I'm just starting on those. But I think I
already know I'll be obsessive about this thing (collecting tools),
sadly my wife encourages this so I have no checks and balances except
myself, and the premium I will need to pay since I can find almost no
tools in my home country (just saw an interesting ad - price seems a
bit expensive as most things here, but those wooden planes look
beautiful and unused).

I know I will learn a lot here, and I hope to help others with what I
can (and buy some tools in the meantime).

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Recent Bios FAQ