Darrell Kovar

Craftsman. Pilot. Builder.

Darrell Kovar was born in Dodge, Nebraska in 1936. He served in the Army in the Korean War. Before retiring after more than 40 years at Western Electric, where he was a mechanic, Darrell had a wide variety of other jobs. He worked at the stockyards in Omaha, sorting cattle. When he was a teenager he worked in a grain elevator, an experience that he described as extremely unpleasant. Safety was basically nonexistant and it would have been very easy to get stuck in the bottom of the elevator.

Darrell Kovar with his granddaughter
Darrell Kovar with his granddaughter, Nora. I have hopes she has inherited her grandfather's skills.

Darrell got his pilot's license to get a different perspective than the average person had. He flew out of the South Omaha Airport before it closed, as well as the Millard airport and Eppley Field in Omaha. He enjoyed taking friends up, whether it was just to fly some circles or to check on farmland that had been flooded. One of his favorite flying stories is about a fly-in restaurant he visited. He owned a number of airplanes over the years, but his favorite has always been the Piper Cub.

A Piper Cub airplane
A Piper Cub airplane on display in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

The Piper J-3 Cub was built between 1938 and 1947.

Darrell has a keen interest in woodworking. He has amassed a collection of tools over the years, including a wood lathe, table saws, band saws, and more. He recently acquired a Shopsmith that has been really helpful. It combines a lot of commonly used power tools into one machine including a table saw, sander, lathe, drill press, shaper, and router. In addition to power tools, Darrell enjoys working with simple hand tools. He built a shaving horse, a design that goes back centuries, to make carving walking sticks with hand tools easier.

A shaving horse
The shaving horse is also referred to as a shaving bench. A shave horse is generally used to rough out material in preparation to place in a lathe.

The first known depiction of a shaving horse was in 1556.

Darrell built their current house with his own two hands and has also spent a lot of time making improvements on it. The latest project has been to build a roof over the deck.

The beginning of work on the deck roof
The beginning of work on the deck roof
The roof partially finished
The roof partially finished

Darrell enjoys all kinds of restoration projects. He's worked on a number of Cushman scooters including a Model 50 and several Eagles. He's also in the process of restoring a Ford 8N tractor. Darrell is currently rebuilding the 8N's engine. In addition to restoring vehicles, Darrell enjoys restoring old tools. He took a Sawmaster reciprocating hacksaw from basically scrap iron to like new condition. The saw was built in the 1950's and had been neglected for decades before he got his hands on it.

An unrestored Sawmaster
An unrestored Sawmaster
The Sawmaster after restoration
The Sawmaster after restoration