Russ Allen
Illinois, USA
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Russ collects and uses pattern makers tools. He got hooked on patent searching after finding a router with a patent date on it. It turned out that the patent was for the thumbscrew which is why it took so long to find. Russ likes to find patents listed in tool auctions etc. and then add them to the DATAMP database. This makes him steward of nothing in particular. |
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Ralph Brendler
Illinois, USA |
Ralph is a long-time collector of antique woodworking tools, and a well-known authority on marking gages in particular. He has been researching manufactured and patented marking gages for several years.
In addition to marking gages, Ralph has a substantial set of "user" woodworking tools that he builds furniture with, as well as a nice selection of miniature machinist tools (mostly antique) he uses for clockmaking, and more slide rules than any sane person would admit to.
Ralph works as a software engineer in the Chicago area, and is also "list mom" for the OldTools mailing list, a director for MWTCA area E, season ticket holder for Lyric Opera of Chicago, and an unabashed Chicago Cubs fan. How's that for varied interests? |
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Joel Havens
West Seneca, New York |
Joel started with Datamp in 2005 by entering his collection of patents centered around tools manufactured in Western New York. He then took on the X-patent project to enter all of the X-patents (1790-1836) into Datamp in an effort to see if there is more information out there on some of these early patents. From there he moved on the metalworking tools and then metalworking machinery.
Starting in 2011, he took on added responsibilities as a Vintage Machinery Historian, and has been work to expand its focus from woodworking machinery to metalworking machinery, electric motors, steam and gas engines adding and linking relevant patents as they are discovered.
Joel is a retired industrial electrician and has a wood and metalworking shop to play in when he's not sitting in front of the computer. |
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Jeff Joslin
Ontario, Canada |
Jeff has been a member of the oldtools list since 1996, but in early 2001 he switched his focus to woodworking machinery and the owwm.org discussion forums.
Jeff is the woodworking machinery historian for the Vintage Machinery web site, which is how he got interested in patents.
Jeff is responsible for the patents related to woodworking machinery, with a special interest in the evolution of machine design as a result of changes in technology and society. He is also especially interested in Canadian woodworking machinery.
He has a complete shop of hand tools and machinery, which are lying unused since he developed an obsession with patents. During the day, Jeff works for a telecommunications equipment manufacturer. |
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Carl Matthews
Houston, Texas |
As a woodworker and tool collector, Carl found that he enjoy studying and collecting vises. Not the kind found in Las Vegas but the kind
which are the mule of the workshop. As a child in his grandfather's shop, he watched him make and repair many projects. Carl would sit at
one end of the bench and tinker with the vise as his Grandfather worked.
Several years ago Carl wanted to paint his Emmert the original color and found that he had slid down a slippery slope. Now he has a website dedicated to the Emmert vise. The Iron Hand website can be viewed at http://www.mprime.com/emmert.htm.
Carl is an Architect by education and currently works in the Information Technology field in Houston, TX. He is also a father of three and a muscle car enthusiast. He has restored a 1969 Firebird which he enjoys working on and driving.
He is our steward for vises and clamps.
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Brian Pennington |
Brian Pennington joined the OldTools List early in 1998 and with Jeff
Joslin's prompting
began down the slipperly slope headed full tilt into the project that would
become DATAMP.
His focus for DATAMP is currently Handsaws and Metallurgical Processes and
he is the
token non-IT (read computer geek) member of the original DATAMP team.
He is a current member of EAIA and MWTCA. His collecting interests
primarily center around
folding boxwood/ivory rules and secondarily around handsaws which were much
more plentiful
than rules when he lived in the Midwest. He works for a large government
organization and is
currently assigned overseas with almost all of his tools/collection in
storage. His non-tool related
activites include travel, history, playing softball, and SCUBA diving.
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Steve Reynolds |
Steve works as a Patent Agent in Wilmington, Delaware handling the electrical
and mechanical (that is to say, not chemical) arts. Yet he is less
knowledgeable about IT matters than either Gary or Brian. He is steward for
handplane patents. He is a member of the Delaware Woodworkers Guild and a
lapsed member of MWTCA.
Steve is, unlike Ralph, a user, not a collector, of antique woodworking tools.
Like Ralph, he has a substantial set of "user" woodworking tools that he
tries to build furniture with and is also a "list mom" for the OldTools
mailing list. A special interest is sticking molding with wooden molding
planes, which he hopes to do with enough skill someday to make something ready
for the living room and not the garbage can. As a serial hobbyist, he has the
remainders of his astronomy, bicycling, clocks & watches, and scuba diving
junk laying about the house, but prefers to raid a fleamarket, watch a Notre
Dame football game, or browse around in the Winterthur Library when not
woodworking.
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Gary Roberts |
Gary Roberts has been a member of the Galootish community known as The Oldtools
List for, well, a long time since shortly after 30 Odd Galoots departed the
environs of Rec.Woodworking to pursue the pure and virginal world of traditional
tools, no tailed daemons invited thank you very much.
His interests include music-listening (classical, Be-Bop), Asian Cinema
(actually Amy is the expert, he just tags along for the enjoyable ride), Maine
Coon Cats, Olde Books and Ephemera of the technology kind, Science Fiction &
Fantasy, gardens (preferably the low maintenance type), and of course Olde Tools
with a bent towards woodies and strange patented things.
His present career is as a Research Librarian. In past lives, he has
been a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor, Carpenter, Factory
Maintenance Supervisor, Crisis Counselor and has held sundry other
monetarily reimbursing positions.
Unlike most of the other DATAMP participants, Gary is a non-programmer type.
He uses a PC at work purely out of penance for past wrongs and has been on a
Macintosh Platform at home since the enception of the Mac SE. He has moved
to a G4 with OS X and has seen the error of his past ways.
He is presently Stewarding Try Squares, Bevels, Trammels, Rules and Mitre Boxes.
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Stan Schulz |
Stan has a "second hand" interest in old tools. Stan's father, Alfred W. Schulz,
had extensive collections of blacksmith, wheelwright and woodworking tools before
turning his focus to wrenches. Alfred was one of the founders of the Missouri Valley
Wrench Club, and edited the club's newsletter for the club's first decade. Alfred
and his wife Lucille compiled the widely used guide, "Antique and Unusual Wrenches."
Stan absorbed so much wrench history from his dad and while helping prepare the
catalogs for his dad's dispersal sales that he decided to join the hobby. Stan took
on editorship of the Missouri Valley Wrench Club Newsletter in 2000. He also has a
modest web site for the club at http://www.mvwc.org/.
Stan retired in spring 2012 after serving as librarian for nearly four decades.
The librarian's skills of researching, organizing and cataloging information are
suited for projects like DATAMP.
Stan tries to outwit cottontails long enough to enjoy fresh kohlrabi, swiss chard,
and green beans in season.
Stan stewards wrenches, pliers and related tools.
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Mark Woodard |
Mark has been collecting antique corkscrews since 2004. His primary interest is in American-made corkscrews, particularly US patents and figural corkscrews made by SYROCO of Syracuse, NY. He became a DATAMP steward in 2009 and has added hundreds of patents for corkscrews and related household tools.
Mark studied Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia and achieved his dream of becoming a NASA "rocket scientist" in 1985. He has since been employed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He is a specialist in spacecraft navigation, guidance, and trajectory design, and has helped launch more than a dozen satellites into space. |
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Chuck Zitur |
Chuck was a tool collector with a leaning towards drilling devices and screwdrivers. He started actively collecting antique tools in 1990. He maintained his own website with information on boring tools of all sorts, and was a member of EAIA and M-WTCA. During the day he was the customer service manager for a janitorial supply company in Billings, Montana. His hobbies included old tools, computer graphics, and playing his old flat top Lyle guitar. He lost his valiant battle with cancer in November 2005. |
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