OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

72539 "Hugh Brown" <hbrown@q...> 1999‑12‑17 Bio redux
I sent a bio once, back when the list was new and
we were sending clay tablets to each other.  I have
recently been reliably informed it never made it
to the bio index.

You won't often hear from me, except for the occasional
foot-in-mouth question, because nearly everything I
know about woodworking has come from this remarkable
list.  What can I say I didn't hear here first?

My father was an engineer and one of those lucky people
who always knew what they wanted to do in life and were
able to pursue it.  He did a lot of woodworking, but
always with fork-tailed tools.  I learned from him that,
given a reasonable amount of intelligence, a willingness
to persevere, and no fear of dirt, I could do anything in
life I cared to try.  It wasn't until he died this
February I learned he had been a carpenter in the twenties.

I conceived a fascination with furniture when I was in
college.  One time when I should have been studying I sat
up all night with a book on classical furniture design
and have wanted to make some really nice furniture ever
since.  I'm still waiting, but that's another story.

After funds for college dried up, I apprenticed as a
machinist and spent many years in the machine shop.  In
the late seventies I decided to make a jewelry box for
my wife.  I didn't know anything about working wood, but
I knew how to run milling machines, so I stayed late
machining some purpleheart into a box of my own design.
It had some serious faults: I had no clue about wood
movement so I made it without regard to grain direction.
We moved before I finished it, and it languished in a
carton for a year or so.  When I pulled it out again, the
parts that were machined to 0.002" tolerance where out
by a quarter inch!

We bought a house about 15 years ago, and I've done a
lot of woodworking since.  Shingling, framing, building
a deck, putting up fences....  Yep, an old house will
sure keep you busy!  The part I enjoyed most was the
finish carpentry.  The furniture-making bug, never gone
only sleeping, woke up and bit me again.  Well I have
a carriage house with a door too low to get a car into,
so that became my shop.  And, unfortunately, a storage
place for nearly everything that need to be put away fast.
It also serves as an auxiliary stream when the rains are
heavy.  It's the best shop I've ever had, and I love it.

Since then, I've made some cabinetry for the house, a
storage cabinet for the shop with many dovetail drawers,
and a few bits of furniture.  My most ambitious project
is a four-poster bed I've worked on sporadically over a
decade or so.  I work on it for a month or two, real life
intervenes, and I don't get back to it for a year.  By
that time, I've learned a bunch and redesign it.  I last
worked on it in the fall of 1998 and it's nearly done.
I am resolved to finish it before the millennium comes.
(Fortunately, and as all purists will know, that gives me
a year!)

I have learned a tremendous amount from this list.  I've
built two Gunterman shaves.  The first I build without
ever having seen a wooden shave before.  For the second,
I took a class from the Man himself, and brought my first
along to find out what I did wrong.  The second is without
doubt a better shave, but I like the first better.

I can't thank y'all enough for all the knowledge, humor,
and good stories that are shared here.

--Hugh



Recent Bios FAQ