Joshua and I had a blast building the dovetailed pine boxes to house our Issue 1-10 commemorative Boxed Sets. Cutting the joinery, planing, gluing up, and branding dozens and dozens of these was a tremendously fun learning experience. I don’t think there is a better way to improve woodworking skills than to practice these kinds of operations over and over again. In fact, so convinced was he of this truth that Joshua decided to write about the benefits of batch production for Issue Eleven. We made a few extra boxes for the last batch, and also had a handful of people drop off the waiting list as the project continued. So we’ve put the remaining few Boxed Sets up for sale in...
Boxed Set Batch #3 is just about complete. We still have a few backs to fit before we carve the wooden pins to fasten them in place. Depending on the task I am doing at the moment, I will tell you the one I am currently working on is my favorite of the whole project, because each step has its own idiosyncrasies and joys. It’s hard to choose just one. But today, making and fitting the backs is my favorite. A heavily set fore plane driving down a white pine board lets out the most distinct zipper sound: R-R-R-R-I-I-I-P-P-P! And then the meaty shavings thud on the floor. One time at our booth at Fine Woodworking Live, Mike and I...
The backs of these Boxed Sets we’re making are tapered and slid into a groove in the same way that drawer bottoms were often done in 18th-century cabinet shops. We plowed the 1/4" groove on the sides with a 7/8" groove plane (which was originally made to match a tongue plane). I prefer this tool for this task over the adjustable plow plane because fixed fences make the work consistent – all of my drawer bottoms are set 1/4" from the edge without ever setting a fence. The complication to backs being paneled into a groove is that the groove in the top board would be seen in the dovetails if it ran all the way through. In this case...
As we were packaging up this first batch of Boxed Sets, we remarked at how cool it is to see Issues 1-10 all together. Wrapping copies of Issue One, we shared stories about those early days and the in-over-our-head-but-loving-it feeling that pervaded every step we took. Mike and I have gotten to be the closest of friends over the past five years of this adventure, so for us, this project brings back so many memories: working side-by-side in my 14' x 17' first conservation studio space, taking road trips to woodworking shows in my stuffed-to-the-gills Caravan, learning how to film our own instructional videos, constructing our M&T timber-frame woodshop, our summer workshop, publishing our own books, the Carpenters Without...
Today, Joshua and I put the finishing touches on our first batch of pine boxes for the M&T Boxed Set – we burned our logo into the box sides. This was, I have to say, the most stressful part in the whole operation. Joshua purchased the brand from Gearheart some time ago. Due to supply shortages (which seem common in many areas these days), one necessary part for the electric brand we’d wanted was backordered, but the company owner himself reached out and offered to send us a torch-heated branding iron at no charge while we wait. We took him up on this extremely generous offer so the box project could move forward. Getting the brand just right is a bit tricky....
We are still reeling after the crazy launch of our Boxed Set waitlist last week. As soon as we announced the opening, emails started pouring in to sign up. Thank you all so much. We are making progress on batch number one and will be contacting the first folks on the list when it is 100% complete. Today, Mike and I assembled the first few boxes of this batch. We cut and chopped the pins, fitted the bottoms, and put the glue to them. Working in 9"-wide, 1/2"-thick white pine makes seating dovetails a bit trickier. This material is so flexible that just because one tail is tight, doesn’t at all mean the others are. The best (and easiest) way...
This is the announcement Mike and I have been anticipating for several years. This morning, we opened slots for a waitlist to purchase our Issues 1-10 Boxed Set. The list has already been filling fast, so act now if you want in. These boxes are handmade (i.e. without machinery) by Mike and me in the Mortise & Tenon woodshop with antique and shop-made tools. The boxes are constructed of fore-planed eastern white pine with through dovetails on top, rabbets and vintage cut nails on bottom, and a beveled back panel slid into a groove. This is the authentic pre-industrial workmanship we’ve been promoting in M&T. The stock has characteristic fore-plane tracks, periodic tear-out, and layout lines all over. If you’re looking for cold and pristine studio furniture perfection, you will not find it here. This...
This blog post should have been titled “In the Groove” but I just couldn’t quite get myself to do it. But in the groove, we are. Mike and I have been plugging away at the first batch of these Issues 1-10 Boxed Sets, and now have all the stock worked out and the joinery underway. We’ll be busy dovetailing and rabbeting tomorrow. I’m curious to see how far we get in one day’s work. Batch work is good for growing in patience because everything in me wants to get the thing assembled as soon as possible. But batch work is lots of the same and success is incremental. Then, before we know it, we’ll have finished boxes stacking up all...
When Mike and I started discussing the potential of M&T Boxed Sets, we joked about making a pile of boxes completely by hand with traditional joinery. We laughed to ourselves and began looking into other options. Cardboard sleeves? Machine-made custom boxes? Hmmm. None of it seemed like something that would reflect the M&T vision. As we approached the production of Issue Ten, we knew we had exhausted every other option and our time to find an alternative was running out. After we closed off every other path, we knew these boxes needed to be handmade. We decided that since we were going to be doing this ourselves, we might as well design them to be the embodiment of the...
Mike and I recently decided to begin a little YouTube series dedicated to the key considerations in setting up a hand tool shop. We plan to walk through the basic kit tool by tool, discussing essential bench features, etc. The first of the series was posted this afternoon – Mike begins with a look at the shop space itself. You’ll notice in the background some of the white pine stock for our first batch of the Issues 1-10 Boxed Sets, all planed and clamped flat. This week, Mike and I have been working out the stock in preparation for joinery. There will be lots of tails, dadoes, and grooves to cut. Can’t wait. We’ve already been fielding emails from...