I am from Mechanicville, NY which is located about 20 minutes south of the historic city of Saratoga Springs. Growing up in a family of do-it-yourselfers, my father, a carpenter by trade, was always fixing or repairing something. I spent many hours watching him tinker while holding the flashlight. My interest in antique tools started at a young age when my father gave me a Stanley No. 4 bench plane. That was the start to what has been an enjoyable time of collecting and researching early tools and the industries they were a part of. I have a degree in Technical Education, formerly known as Industrial Arts from the State University of New York at Oswego. I have been teaching now for the past 19 years covering topics from woodworking to robotics and tossing in a few historic industries from time to time. One of my interests is early trade education which was one of my research topics that was published in the December 2019 Chronicle.