“The habit of thinking about work as something one does to make money is so ingrained in us that we can scarcely imagine what a revolutionary change it would be to think about it instead in terms of the work done. To do so would mean taking the attitude of mind we reserve for our unpaid work – our hobbies, our leisure interests, the things we make and do for pleasure – and making that the standard of all our judgments about things and people. We should ask of an enterprise, not “will it pay?” but “is it good?”; of a man, not “what does he make?” but “what is his work worth?”; of goods, not “Can we induce people...
This Saturday, Kyle Barton and Sean Wisniewski of the Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast published a new podcast episode of a conversation I had with them last week. We talked about why I believe pre-industrial woodworking is valuable in the 21st-century, my upcoming presentation at the Fine Woodworking Live event, my book “Hands Employed Aright,” and new things on the horizon for M&T.
Listening to recordings of myself talk is always weird. I tried not to step on any toes, and think I was mostly successful reining it in when it comes to my views on hand tools and power tools, advertising, and the industrial consumer economy. But you be the judge.
Link here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/modern-woodworkers-association-podcast-conversations/id502349432&ls=1
- Joshua
We have just finalized the selection of students for our 2019 workshop, and are over-the-moon excited about each of one of them. When we announced our vision for the workshop last month, we hoped that we would get at least six applications so that we could fill every slot. As it turns out, we received over 10 times that many – all of them incredible. It was hard selecting from this heap of letters because it wasn’t like we were sorting the good from the bad. There was nothing to cull. As we started reading through them, we decided to focus on discerning where the candidates were in their lives and the goals they hoped this workshop might help...
This weekend was incredible. We had a full house of close to 30 people in the shop, wrapping and shipping out Issue Six. We had people from all over New England, New York, and even as far as Minnesota. There was, as always, an abundance of incredible food (thank you, Julia and Andrea) and life-changing conversation. Even though I have experienced it with each issue, I was again in awe that most everyone that comes to these things seems to be deeply moved. During the week leading up to the event, Mike and I had several interactions with folks in town explaining what exactly it was we were doing over the weekend. We explained that we spend weeks preparing...
Today is the last day to get in your pre-order for Issue Six. After tomorrow, Issue Six will no longer have free domestic shipping and come wrapped in brown paper and wax-sealed trade card. If you don’t want to miss this pre-order window, You can subscribe today. or You can order Issue Six by itself. We are so excited about how this issue has turned out. There is such a rich diversity of content spanning conversations about slöjd, William Morris, George Nakashima, Revolutionary War chairmaking, German tradition painted decoration, making your own woodworking tools, and so much more. Despite the breadth, though, this issue has the strongest cohesiveness yet. There must have been something in the air, because each author seems...
In this episode of our podcast, Mike discusses his article “A Tale of Two Trees: The Radical Efficiency of Green Woodworking” in upcoming Issue Six. Mike presents a big picture view of procuring lumber by comparing industrial logging and milling with harvesting your own with hand tools. He makes the startling (and compelling) case that green woodworking is more efficient in the big picture than highly developed industrial processing. We discuss the value of curved branches, the genius of coppicing, and working the material before it dries.
Items Mentioned in this Podcast:
Issue Six
Dawson Moore – Michigan Sloyd
Look at what we’ve got: Issue Six has arrived at our storage facility! This means we’re now getting close to shipment to customers – we’ve got one week, in fact, to get ready for the big packing party. Monday, April 1st, after the weekend-long packing, we will be driving a full truck to the Post Office. (Joel, our awesome Postmaster, here at our tiny Blue Hill Post Office arranges for a special truck to be ready to receive our massive deliveries. Joel’s the best.) Our printer has been dialing in the printing of each issue better and better and this one is the best yet. I won’t get into the technical details, but basically, the premium uncoated paper (70# Finch...
Over the past year I’ve begun to reclaim my life. As I’ve progressively backed away from social media consumption these 12 months, I’ve finally started to regain control of the technology in my life. Before long, I worked myself down to enough time to post one Instagram picture per day and a few minutes to respond to comments from the past 24 hours. And I cannot tell you how good it feels. Digital tools are great at instantly connecting us with folks from all around the world, but the flip side of that blessing is that my attention and affection were getting spread pretty thin. This, in spite of the fact that I’ve always valued my family and working with...
Mike and I have been making and installing a few more vises on our Nicholson benches lately. As we’ve been fitting and adjusting them, I’ve been reminded of one the most significant revelations in my exploration of hand-tool woodworking: the power of toothed surfaces. In my view, one of the most overlooked features of workholding is a grippy surface. Think about it: if you’re trying to hold a board as securely as possible, why would you try to use a silky smooth vise to do so? A rough texture makes a major difference in holding power. Here’s where the toothing plane comes in. A toothing plane is a scraping plane that has an iron filed with tiny teeth. It’s useful...
We are now taking applications for our Summer Workshop taking place June 17-21. After writing all week about the philosophy behind this five-day workshop, we are finally posting the application here. As explained in Wednesday’s post, the reason we are taking applications is because there will be no charge to students. Instead, we have set up a work exchange arrangement in which our six students will spend two days helping Mike and me work on our projects around/on the shop followed by three days of instruction and bench time. Before filling out the application, please make sure you read each of the posts about the workshop linked below: M&T SUMMER WORKSHOP: JUNE 17-21, 2019 DEMOCRATIC WOODWORKINGA PRE-INDUSTRIAL WOODWORKING IMMERSION AN EXPERIENCE MONEY CAN’T...
