Hi,
My name is Leldon Maxcy, I'm 17, I live in Cullman, Alabama, and I am a scroll sawyer. For a long time I always watched ''Home Time" and "The New Yankee Workshop". I guess that's what has got in interested in Scrollsawing. About 3 years ago I bought my first scroll saw at "Big Lots" for $40.00, in a way it was money thrown away, because it only lasted a month: but it got interested in scrolling. I took that saw back and went to 'Sears' and bought a Craftmans 16" Variable Speed Scroll saw for $80.00, it was money well spent. I got my first book of patterns and handbook a few days after that. I read it a little bit and learned a lot from it. The patterns were simple and i found them hard to cut at the beginning. A few months after that my mom and I was at Wal-Mart and I seen a magazine called "Creative Woodworks and Crafts", I got the magazine and it was filled with patterns I thought I would never be able to cut out. In that issue I found a pattern for a cowboy silhouette pattern that I cut out and at that time was the hardest pattern I had cut.
In March 1999 my parents went to a home and garden show in Birmingham, Alabama; there was a man selling RBI scroll saws, they put a down payment on one for me, and in November they got it paid for and we went to Jackson, Tennessee, so the man we bought the saw from could show me how to use it. There he showed me how to change the blades and all kinds of stuff. He also gave me lots of patterns.
I've made a lot of friends over the Internet, from the yahoo Scrollsawing club to Wooders. All of them have taught me a great deal of stuff.
In April 2000 I had the opportunity to go to David Sloan's first annual Scrollsawing picnic; I met most of my friends off the net there and enjoyed every minute of the day and a half I spent with them. There I also met Dirk Boelman, and he told me that he had a pattern for me called "Leldon Castle" coming out in his next issue of his newsletter "Scroll Saw Chatter". When my parents and I got home I waited forever it seemed like to see what it was going to look like, and when I finally got it I loved the pattern, I cut it out and it's hanging on my wall now.
Also when I was in Tenn. I met the editors from Creative Woodworks And Crafts, they took my picture of my and some of my projects I took along with me. It was a great opportunity to talk to some of the people I that I would never meet!
UPDATE: May 2001
This year is turning to be one of my best years ever in Scrollsawing. On April 4, 2001 Mrs. Billie Holm came down to my house and visited with me with two of her best friends. I bet I can speak for them in saying that we had a great time!!
When I got home from school that Wednesday it was RAINING hard. So I didn't even notice her van out there. I was sitting down watching TV and i heard a car out side and i thought it might be them but I didn't know? IT WAS!! BJ got out and we talked and talked. And then we went out to my shop. Of course I had my buckets under the leaks so she got to see my building in FULL glory. (LOL). We had a great time and i will be posting pictures soon.
