I was a carpenter before I was born. My grandfather was a master furniture maker and so was his father. It skipped a generation with my father; he became a doctor. I spent much of my life as a businessman in retail and restaurant management and ownership. I was successful in each endeavor, but left unfullfilled until at 35 years of age I decided to build my dream home. I bought a piece of land, dug the footing by hand, and with not much more than a circular saw, nail pouch and framing square, I found my calling in life. Ten years later I was a general contractor with a dozen subcontactors and over a hundred houses built. Then came the steel beams and metal studs of commercial contracting. Now I contract from the military at Ft. Benning Ga. My specialty is metal doors and frames. Just the other day I installed a prison grade door for an arms room. The First Sargent was more than pleased because he no longer needed to post a 24 hour guard. He laughed when I thanked him for his service and told him installing that door was what I lived for.
A little more than a year ago while searching for some exotic wood online, I came across a site which was offering something called "pen blanks". I had no idea what that was. I got my feet wet on the yahoo penturners page until I found this forum.
What has all this to do with this thread? To use this as a metaphor, as a pen turner, I am back to building my first house. Will I take this all the way to commercial building and structures? Maybe, but I can tell you this, I am more proud of that first house I built than the last strip center.
I've been online since 1997, and have seen instant posting of the net raise it's ugly head before, but never on this site. I am greatfull to all the advanced pen turners who share their knowledge and expertise here, but my heart is with the penturner who gets up the nerve to post a picture of his/her first pen.
Thanks to you all, and I hope one day I will be able to give back in some small way my experiances and advancements in penturning.
