Favorite Links

Tools

I receive requests all the time asking for recommendations on where to purchase tools, woodworking supplies, etc. So, guys and gals, these links are for you!

One of my favorites is Hartville Tool. They carry over 2,000 essential, hard to find, and unusual woodworking products for today's craftsman at great low prices. You just can't go wrong purchasing through them.

As an alternative to Amazon.com and others, especially when they don't have it or say it has to be back ordered, try Tools Plus. This place has great prices and provides great service! I just ordered and received an Excalibur EXBCS-10 Overarm Blade Cover that Amazon has had as "currently unavailable" for months. I got it in just two days from Tools Plus!

Wood

One of the best selections of exotic and domestic hardwoods you will find in the Frederick, MD area is Hardwoods Inc. They have a great showroom with a friendly staff located on Route 355 in Frederick at 2 Worman's Mill Court. I'm particularly fond of their Purpleheart selection!

In Gaithersburg, MD, the best hardwoods shop is Exotic Lumber, Inc located at 7537 Rickenbacker Drive. They too have a great showroom, friendly staff and a wide selection of both exotic and domestic hardwoods. I have purchased some really great Hard Maple and Cherry from them.

If you have a log (or logs) that need to be sawn in the Frederick, MD area, I suggest you contact Keith Schoonover at Wood Eye Wood Products - woodeyewood2@xecu.net. Keith also has a large selection of locally harvested and sawn hardwoods.

Hosting

Who do I use to host my website? One of the best - Startlogic! If you are considering starting a website of your own you can't go wrong hosting it with Startlogic - friendly, helpful people with great prices and fantastic up time.

Miscellaneous

I have a friend who does great hand and custom painted items. She offers refrigerator magnets, ornaments, plaster pedestals, and something very unique, aluminum ceilings. Also free informational tips on home projects is provided - LSC Creations.

Here is a site that has caught my attention. Besides maintaining a great woodworking directory on their links page, they sell woodworking plans for action board games such as table hockey, pin-ball baseball, carom, crokinole, skittles and other wood projects. Check out Vintage Game Woodworking Plans.

My son is into pure stock dirt track racing and maintains the following site, just click the picture -

Fishing

I love to fish and here are some of my favorite places and outfitters:

Scott Schnebly of Lost River Outfitters in Ketchum, Idaho is definitely the most professional guide I ever fished with and having his individual attention one Saturday on the Salmon River near Stanley, Idaho in the Saw Tooth Mountains paid off big time with my fly fishing learning curve and success. I hooked nine Steelheads and landed five of them. Here are a couple of pics of some of the fish.

Click on these thumbnail photos to see the full-size picture, then use your Web browser's Back button to return to this page.

My all time favorite area is the Southern Lakes region in the Yukon Territory. My father and I completed a trip in August 2005, and he didn't let the big ones get away!

The first photo is a 32 1/2 inch Lake Trout (about 17 pounds) and the other is a 35 inch Lake Trout (about 23 pounds). Both fish put a big smile on Dad's face. We also caught four smaller ones between us ranging from 22 to 26 inches. One of them, which Dad caught, was our lunch. Our guide took us immediately ashore and fried it up on the spot - talk about fresh fish! It, some beans and home made baked bread made for a great lunch. Dad and I enjoyed it as much as we did the fishing! All the Lake Trout were caught on Lake Tagish near the Yukon and British Columbia border.

I also fished this region in July 2002 and here are a few fish from that trip.

For both trips I used the guide services of Dave Sawicki at Six Mile River in Tagish, Yukon. He does a fantastic job and he has a nice new boat! You can contact Dave at 867-399-3475 or email him at: southernlakesmarina@yahoo.ca

Here is the guy who servers the best lunch in the Yukon!

Also for the best lodging in the Southern Lakes area, be sure to stay at the Old Screen Door B&B along Marsh Lake. Here, they serve up the best hospitality in the Yukon and spoil you rotten!

Mo and Paul Hartigan, owners of the Old Screen Door B&B.

Not a link, just a point of interest:

Fishing with my bud Joe Green - always a challenge!

Joe and I have been trout fishing "Fishing Creek" near Frederick, MD for well over twenty years together. Like clock work, twice a year, we're up at o'dark early and at the stream before 5 AM. We have taken our share of 15, 16 and 17 inch plus fish from time-to-time. But today (4/28/07), Joe set a new record between us that is going to stand the test of time for many, many years to come. On his first cast of the morning, he caught a 24 1/2- inch rainbow trout on four pound test line using a size 14 hook with power bait and landed it without a net! Not only that, he limited out on five trout (one of which was a golden palomino) within 25 minutes - what a fisherman. Claims his tongue was hanging out the left of his month the whole time!