The moment has finally come: Issue Four is available for pre-order! You can order a Yearly Subscription (#4 & #5) here. or order Issue Four alone here. As always, all subscription and pre-order copies ordered in our store will be wrapped in brown kraft paper affixed with the official Issue Four wax-sealed trade card (which just arrived from the printer today) and will be packed into mailers accompanied by pine plane shavings. The pre-order window will be open through March 21st. After that window closes, the trade cards and wrapping will no longer be available. Issue Four ships out March 23rd and 24th. (Stay tuned for packing party details very soon.) This issue is full of incredible authors: Jim Tolpin,...
This is the last article of the Issue Four table of contents to be announced. Every weekday until the February 1st at 8 a.m. Eastern time (tomorrow!) opening of Issue Four pre-orders, we've been announcing one article from the table of contents here on the blog. If you have yet to sign up for a yearly subscription, you can do so here. We all know there’s something special about handmade furniture. But how can we put it into words? To try to find an answer, Joshua Klein and I set out to study and measure a wide assortment of period pieces, made both by hand (pre-industrial) and by machine (Victorian), in the hopes of better understanding what makes them distinct from one another. Handmade furniture...
Tomorrow the last article of the Issue Four table of contents will be announced. Every weekday until the February 1st opening of Issue Four pre-orders, we've been announcing one article from the table of contents here on the blog. If you have yet to sign up for a yearly subscription, you can do so here. In producing Issue Four, we were privileged to sit down with furniture conservator Christine Thomson to discuss how conservation theory intersects with her daily shop practice. Christine has been involved in the conservation of historic furniture since her days in college. Her background working for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (Now Historic New England) and Robert Mussey Associates, Inc. prepared her open her own private practice...
Every weekday until the February 1st opening of Issue Four pre-orders, we will be announcing one article from the table of contents here on the blog. If you have yet to sign up for a yearly subscription, you can do so here. Axes are often thought of as tools for firewood but I can assure you that they're not just for rough splitting. In my shop, I have three axes that get used often for shaping and material prep. The key to understanding these tools is to have a grasp on how to sharpen and maintain them. Couple this with some simple techniques and a chunk of tree to work on and you will be surprised with the level of work that can be done....
Every weekday until the February 1st opening of Issue Four pre-orders, we will be announcing one article from the table of contents here on the blog. If you have yet to sign up for a yearly subscription, you can do so here. In this issue, we are honored to publish an article written by Charles F. Hummel, one of the premiere furniture scholars in America. This piece, originally published in 1979 in an exhibition book, traces “The Business of Woodworking” in pre-industrial America. Here, Hummel relies on countless primary sources that reveal how craftsmen sourced their lumber and tools, how they interacted with clients, and even how much time they recorded spending on given projects. We are so excited to publish this essay because, frankly,...
Every weekday until the February 1st opening of Issue Four pre-orders, we will be announcing one article from the table of contents here on the blog. If you have yet to sign up for a yearly subscription, you can do so here. We at M&T have found that, although there are many new books that cover the topic of historic craftsmanship, there is a nearly inexhaustible and often untapped well of knowledge to be found in older titles. We want to reopen these pages for our readers and bring this information back into the light so that it can become a part of the conversation again and inform us more deeply about the handcraft heritage we are passionate about. As such, rather than regularly reviewing...
Every weekday until the February 1st opening of Issue Four pre-orders, we will be announcing one article from the table of contents here on the blog. If you have yet to sign up for a yearly subscription, you can do so here. It has become clear to me that the greatest inefficiency in our furniture making has nothing to do with the machines vs. hand tools discussion and everything to do with ill-considered workflow. Because this has proved to be such a valuable insight to my own shop practice, I decided to tackle this topic head on in Issue Four. In this article, I expand on the “Tables” video by breaking table construction down into a logical, systematic order. Consider this a pocket guide intended...
Every weekday until the February 1st opening of Issue Four pre-orders, we will be announcing one article from the table of contents here on the blog. If you have yet to sign up for a yearly subscription, you can do so here. Last fall, I was fortunate to spend some time with Charpentiers Sans Frontières in Romania, hand hewing a roof system from local ash and oak. I found that there are some corners of this nation where one can still experience a cultural landscape mostly unaltered from what much of Europe must have looked like for centuries. Hillsides patchworked with subsistence farming, folks scythe-mowing hay in the high pastures, the knell of the woodcutter’s axe in the woods, the sounds of horses and...
Every weekday until the February 1st opening of Issue Four pre-orders, we will be announcing one article from the table of contents here on the blog. If you have yet to sign up for a yearly subscription, you can do so here. My article titled 'The Quest for Mastery Through Production Work' highlights some of the major events, teachers, and experiences that shaped me during my career as a woodworker and maker/designer of utilitarian objects. I share my ideas of mastery and how it can be cultivated through incorporating 'production work' into the workflow. I hope that sharing my stories about this approach will turn people on to the idea that it’s ok to make lots of things back to back. In fact, there...
Every weekday until the February 1st opening of Issue Four pre-orders, we will be announcing one article from the table of contents here on the blog. If you have yet to sign up for a yearly subscription, you can do so here. From time to time, wonderful anomalies turn up in the furniture record and the corner cupboards from the Swisegood School of cabinetmaking (early 19th c. North Carolina) are no exception. These cabinets are renowned for their peculiar drawer construction, each employing a single board steam bent at oblique angles to form both the sides and back. While kerfed steam bending was ubiquitous among coffin makers of that time, it seems to be unparalleled in cabinetmaking which left me scratching my head a bit....
