Hi there - I thought I had better introduce myself - My name is Charlie and I live in BC Canada.
I just stumbled across this forum by way of Timbre Tonewoods website - I must say Im impressed with the helpful spirit of OLF. I am getting into luthiery now, its a dream thats long overdue, unfortunately.
I had a bad go of it the last few years, which really set me back in this endeavour. In Nov 2001, I returned to my home one day to find a couple young guys robbing my house - when I walked through the door they had my laptop, and all my guitars lined up beside the couch, and were about to cart them out the door.......until I came home and surprised them.
I was 200Lbs then, stomping snorting pissing mad, and I was with a friend who was not a slouch either - we were going to give these young fellows a tuning of thier lifetime, as it were - but sadly, when I approached the guy nearest me he produced a 9mm handgun.
I was almost at him so a struggle ensued and long story short he shot me in the spine point blank, and the shot left me paralysed for life {barring unforesee medical advances}.
I was a carpenter and a cabinet makers apprentice at the time, and I had been amassing a nice collection of tools, and wood in a little shed out back.
Unfortunately the next several months were spent in the hospital and rehab for my injuries, and had to sell most of my tools for money to make ends meet.
Some kind soul helped themselves to most of my wood too!, wood I had been collecting for 10 years. When we finally returned from the hospital all that was left in my woodshed was a couple scraps of yew, and some mountain juniper branches
.
I have much time on my hands now as I cant really work a 9to5 anymore, so I have been stocking up on tools again, and a few pieces of wood for starters, unfortunately I cant get out to the beach or the woods to salvage like I used to, so I find Im buying most of my woods now{which is a real drag because that was one of my favorite things to do}.
Anyhow its nice to see a resource like OLF and there seem to be knowledgeable ppl willing to help - I have woodworking experience and quite a few books and such on luthiery, I have done my share of repairs, but as you know theres no substitute for someone whos been there and knows exactly what to do in any given situation.
I am going to start with a concert size acoustic guitar, and the prospect of finally starting working on an instrument has me pretty excited. Im sure I will have alot of questions for the members here, hopefully I wont be too annoying to you guys - thanks for all the good reads in the archived threads. Looking forward to reading and contributing in the near future.
Cheers
Charlie
helping each other is what we do here. Don't ever be affaid to ask questions. Though you might get several opinions on some topics, but that is what makes this such a great forum. Nobodies hands get held to a fire for having a differnt opinion aroound here. so grab some coffee and jump in the mix. 
