Born in the early 18th century, Cesar Chelor lived in Wrentham, Massachusetts, working as the enslaved apprentice to the first documented planemaker in the colonies, Francis Nicholson. In that time of immense civil and cultural upheaval, Chelor’s skill and ingenuity at the trade elevated him into the upper echelon of period toolmakers.
This is part of a blog series revealing the table of contents of upcoming Issue Nine. As is our custom, we’ll be discussing one article per weekday in order to give you a taste of what is come. Please note that the subscription window which includes Issue Nine is open now through August 28th. ___________________________________ “Making an Icon Panel” – Symeon van Donkelaar How do you embody the sacred with common, everyday elements? Using carefully gathered materials – pigments of various hues from the earth, winter-harvested lumber long dried in the attic – author and iconographer Symeon van Donkelaar brings us through the process of creating religious icons, in a tradition that has been passed down through millennia. “Traditional icons are...
In 2019, U.K.-based studio craftsman and author Abdollah Nafisi joined 5 other artisans in exploring the ideologies and innovations of the Arts & Crafts Movement for a BBC television series. For Issue Nine, Nafisi recounts his experience of recreating William Morris’ iconic Sussex chair for the series, utilizing only hand tools.
Yeeesss!!! Mike’s new instructional video Apprenticeship: Greenwood is now in our store for immediate streaming and download! We are also offering a DVD version, but please note that those are still in production and will not be shipping for at least a few weeks. Mike’s been working his tail off on the production of this third installment in our Apprenticeship series for the past couple months, and the filming has taken place over the past few years. (We wanted to cover all four seasons.) He’s made an incredible film that we are delighted to be offering to you all. It’s not only a totally new type of content from us (working outdoors, bucksaws, shaving horses, using carving knives, steam bending,...
The new t-shirts have just arrived, and this might be our favorite design yet! The front features a large ripsaw in action taken from Joseph Park’s 1908 book Educational Wood Working for School and Home. The back has a detail of the saw’s teeth and our long-standing motto, “We Plane. We Saw. We Conquer.” The last time we had a shirt with that phrase on it was a long time ago, and we’ve gotten numerous requests for it. We think it fits perfectly with this design. These unisex shirts are screen printed with water-based ink by Triple Stamp Press. They have a wonderfully soft vintage feel. The shirts are $25.00. Order yours here. This time, we’re going out on a limb in...
This spring and summer, it’s been all about windows around here. Mike spent several weeks dedicated to reglazing our woodshop sashes so that we can (finally) get those installed. We’ve already replaced the clear plastic over the openings on the south side once – don’t want to do that again! This month I dove headfirst into reglazing a pile of sashes for the cottage my wife and I are working to complete. The restoration process is pretty straightforward, but there are a lot to do. First, we gently chip out loose glazing with a putty knife, and use an infrared heat gun (a Speedheater Cobra) to soften stubborn bits. Once the glazing is removed, we pry out the glazing points...
After numerous requests for a poster of this axe photo, we’ve finally decided to do one small run. This is a powerful depiction of an assortment of European and American axes used at the Carpenters Without Borders timber-frame project at the M&T headquarters in 2019.
This 15" tall x 20" wide poster is printed on heavyweight, matte-coated paper in the United States.
Please note that there is limited availability on these as we will only be doing one print run. If you might want one, order now before it’s too late.
This is a pre-order. We expect to ship these out during the last week of June.
For those of you who have followed along here for a while, you’ve probably picked up on my interest in a few topics that occasionally emerge. I have spent a good amount of time in the past few years especially studying the history and nature of technology in society and its implications for humanity. Because I am a Christian, I have also been exploring the way this research intersects with biblical theology. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these thoughts have deeply influenced the way my family has been developing our homestead activities (garden, goats, chickens, ducks, etc.). All of these things are a huge part of my life, but I rarely write about them in detail for M&T readers. After sitting on it...
Woodworker and podcaster, Ray Deftereos, of the podcast “Hand Tool Book Review” has just released a thoughtful and thorough review of my first book Hands Employed Aright: The Furniture Making of Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847). He clearly took a lot of time assessing the book and distilling its contents for listeners, because I have never heard a more complete and concise description of the book anywhere else. Ray nailed it. I appreciated hearing his perspective on the practical benefits of this book which fits only by technicality on the dry and dusty “historical monograph” shelf. He talked about how he was delighted to see something different in such a work – something more personal. This was exactly my intention with the...
A short trailer for those who would like to know more about my new book, Another Work is Possible.
You can order your copy of this book here.
Remember, as an effort to help those financially strained by COVID, we are offering store-wide free domestic shipping for one more week (through Thursday, April 23rd).
Hope you all are enjoying this book!
– Joshua
