How did I get this Weird Job (Part 2, The Ultimate Acquisition for a Union Collector)

The story through my eyes, continued

Fast forward to 2017. As time passed I became more involved in social media and as a byproduct of that, I became more involved with other collectors and tool makers. Some of these collectors would eventually become the group that not only supported but frankly pushed me HARD as I dove deeper into the unknown. They helped with research through their acquisitions, which in turn taught me things I would have never learned via my own collection. We spent hours at a time studying details of patent planes. We studied castings and contemplated marks and material choices. It was EXHILARATING! I had a group of people around me just as obsessed as I was. Maybe…..

Going to tool shows with friends that think alike is always a blast!

Late one evening while traveling back home from an education conference in DC my wife and I started talking about tools…. Or should I say, I was talking about tools at her. The poor woman was stuck with me in a car for 4 hours, listening to me rambling on about tools. It was late at night. The boys were asleep in the back seat. She was exhausted from the conference. The topic shifted from tools in general to planes specifically. Planes are a subject I had beaten to death for years at this point. She also knew me well enough to know there was little chance I would leave well enough alone until I was able to actually do something with it; the itch had to get scratched. However she said something that would become a truly life changing moment. She said “Just make a plane”.

I guess I talked her to sleep (We were at a tool show in this picture)

At this point I had already made parts for planes and plumb bobs and a few various other things, so it wasn't that crazy to think that would be the next natural step given my obsession with hand planes. My response was simple: “if I do this…. it needs to be an X Plane. And if it’s an X Plane….,  it has to be a Union Mfg Co. X Plane.” To my mind there isn’t another way. 

She said, “Then acquire Union”.

I told her that doing this may break us. She said we've been broke before, do it. I’m thinking to myself at this point, I won’t get her blessing again for something this big. I have to move quickly before she changes her mind, if I’m going to go through with this crazy plan. 

By now I was already “Mr. Union” and had one hell of a Union collection. I thought, wouldn't it be cool to add the actual company to that collection? Only one person can have that. I however  was very naive to think that and the future would make me pay dearly because of it.

Now what do I do? Eva has given her blessing. I want to do this. What's first? I needed to make a solid plan, like I had told her, this could break us. With Eva’s blessing I called a lawyer. He said “This idea is possible, maybe” and he set off to figure that part of it out. 

A couple of weeks passed and I was doing my tool dealer thing. Almost forgetting about the Union and lawyer thing. Until late one evening. He called back and told me yes it is possible, however it’s likely to be complicated, time consuming and expensive. His advice was to keep the process and details under wrap for the time being. At this point I have to make a decision, I’m either all in or all out. I’ve got two very young boys and a tool dealing business that is doing perfectly fine so it’s almost a stupid risk. But I went all in regardless of the inherent risks involved. I paid the retainer and crossed my fingers that it would all work out.

Eva and the boys in 2017

Against counsel’s advice I decided to call two friends that have always acted as a good sounding board for things I’ve done in the past. Their opinions had always been sound and grounded. The first friend I called was Dan Ludwig, who without much thought told me “You’re nuts, it will never work”. 

Hanging out with Dan Ludwig at a tool show

Now this is a guy who was about as close to a father figure as you could get. Hell even my actual father respected and liked him. He treated me as a spare son. Backed my every play. He was known for being extraordinarily blunt and to the point. Something I truly admired about him. He had serious doubts. Did I already screw up? I hoped not. 

The next call was to another friend, Lawrence Freifeld, who lives in Philly. Someone I spent almost more time with than my wife. We travelled together. We hunted tools together. We studied tools together. He is a near and dear friend. He said “Are you sure this is something you want to do?” 

Lawrence doing what he loves, making wood from one shape into another more useful shape!

That's two out of two. Not great odds for something this big. Knowing these two guys and their past support of my efforts, I knew they would back my play even if they thought it was a bit much.

While the lawyer was doing his job I needed to strategize. I wouldn't have the ability to start what I really wanted to start until I was certain there would be no major hurdles, so I started looking through the designs I had developed for the Porter and Sons brand. One tool had caught my attention. A sliding bevel. I felt like it was a much lower risk to start with. I needed some equipment and having very little experience as a machinist, I also needed some advice. I needed to find a master machinist that would be patient enough to teach me the things I didn’t know.

I used to visit Dan Ludwig every week at his antique store. There was an entire group of guys that would show up on the same day and we would all sit and talk about tools for hours on end. We had met like this for years. I got to know the guys and their backgrounds quite well. One of those gentlemen was none other than Bill Clark. He was a retired machinist, a brilliant one at that. He had nearly 60 years experience at the bench at that time. He worked for a DOD jobshop in Philly for most of that career. Some of the work he had done was so complex that making those parts in a cnc would be a challenge today. Weirdly though, he had made most of those parts on manual machines. He was just that good. Bill had only been retired a couple years at this point and at 80 years old I was worried about asking him to help me with my project. That's a big ask for someone who is supposed to enjoy life without working. 

A few of the weekly visits pass and I bring up my idea to Dan. He thinks for a second and says he will personally talk to Bill and get back to me. Another few weeks go by and I get a phone call from an unknown number. It was Bill. He was so excited he wanted to come by the house that day! I was flattered he’d even give me the time of day. I had so little experience in the machine shop I knew I was going to be a hard student because so much needed to be covered in such a short span of time. This however was what made Bill perfect. He was the nicest guy you could ask for. He loved everyone around him. He would have given away the keys to his house to a perfect stranger because they didn't have a place to live. When he stopped by we talked for hours and hours. He missed the rhythm of a machine shop, the smell of oil, the hum of spindles, the challenge of precision. He wanted to build something meaningful again. He didn’t just work as a machinist, he was one. 

Now with Bill at my side I had to start really planning the next move. As a designer I had planned jobs before. I had spec’d equipment, cut lists, process sheets, done the CAD drawings and coordinated the entire job. However, that was wood, this is metal. I had no clue what I needed, no idea where to buy the equipment, no idea where to source the material and tooling. Bill graciously walked through the entire process. Step by step at my dining room table. Day in and day out. He showed up like an employee on a strict schedule. I offered many times to pay him, yet he always refused saying, “you are going to need every penny of the money you have and more, focus on the task at hand”. He wasn’t wrong. I quickly realized woodworking is cheap in comparison. Which is ironic because I had always complained about how expensive the woodworking field had become. After a few months Bill and I had a solid plan to work from. He gave me a list and said give me a call when you have all of the items on this list and we will get to work. 

I excitedly started searching for the items and machines needed. Once I had sourced everything, put it into an excel spreadsheet, and I tallied it all up I could have almost thrown up. This was the BASIC starting list! This small starter list was tens of thousands of dollars! I showed it to Eva, who has always handled our finances. She said “Start selling stuff, we will get the money put together.”; I didn't want to touch our savings or retirement so I started selling off the antique business and my beloved collection. If I’m going to be in, I need to be all the way in. I liquidated everything that wasn’t nailed down. Eva backed every move. Bill, Lawrence and Dan helped with everything they could. I knew that they wanted to smack me to wake me up from this insane mission, but they supported me as they had always done for so many years. Lawrence is still to this day right beside me, even when he thinks I’m nuts. Which is frequently the case!

Then came the biggest news that would alter my life and almost everyone around me: we acquired Union. 

The lawyer called and told me everything had been sorted out and Union was ours. It had been a long complicated process that even I didn’t understand completely. But this is why we hire attorneys, it’s their job to understand the complexities, not ours. I had a goal and he made it work, that's all that really mattered to me.

It was then that I realized what I had put into motion. My first thought was, oh sh*t, this is likely to get pretty crazy. I wasn’t wrong. I truly wasn’t ready either. I thought I was. The level of insanity that ensues from that day forward falls under the expression “sh*t you can’t make up.” Concepts like these should come with warning labels.

This was just the beginning.

This Blog Post is Dedicated to our Dear Friend Bill Clark “The Machine Whisper”

Bill you touched all of our lives deeply, You will be greatly missed. I couldn’t have gotten here without you!