We’ve got a brand new book in our store! Although we don’t typically carry other publishers’ books, Zach Dillinger’s “With Saw, Plane & Chisel” is so in line with the vision of M&T, that it would be crazy for us to not to stock it. Many of you read our interview with Zach in Issue Two in which we discussed period furniture reproduction and authenticity of craft process. This guy’s approach to woodworking is uncannily close to our own. Every time I think about writing another book I imagine how I’d describe period techniques and tolerances. I would show what amount of tear-out is acceptable and in which areas. I’d walk through the construction of different forms to show how they...
Click, drag, cut, ripple delete, cross dissolve, fade to black. Look out the window, let your eyes focus on the horizon. Get another cup of coffee. Stretch that mouse arm. As I've been wrapping up the editing of our upcoming Apprenticeship: Tables video, a few observations have jumped out repeatedly. First and foremost is the irony of the fact that I can split firewood for hours with an axe, or rough out carving projects with a hatchet, and feel no ill effects - but a few days of making subtle little gestures with a mouse and keyboard can cause the most excruciating elbow pain. Lesson learned - workspace ergonomics are important! Shavings, shavings everywhere. A project like the table Joshua...
As someone with a few completed pieces of functional furniture under my belt, I've found that I've developed a chronic condition that causes me to look underneath every dining room table, and around the back of every sideboard to see how they're made. The other day at a wedding I even found myself waiting for an old lady to vacate her ladder-back chair just so I could turn it over and look for tool marks. Maybe madness is setting in, but even this madness has its method. I do this (compulsively now) because I find that I'll often learn a thing or two about how another craftsperson came up with an ingenious solution to the same problems I encounter. Sometimes,...
In a recent blog post I mentioned how our content editor, Jim McConnell, and I have agreed to engage in a friendly discussion on the blog about metal-bodied and wooden hand planes. In that post, Jim explained some of the reasons that he prefers metal-bodied planes. We aren’t here to make this topic controversial and adversarial. That’s the stupid kind of stuff that happens on forums. This is just plain ol’ honest discussion. Here's my take: I was trained on metal-bodies planes at the luthiery school I attended. We learned the setup, adjustment, and use of these high-performance tools. Even though my introduction to planing was with new high-end examples, after I graduated from the program, I fixed up a few...
This afternoon, Luke and his partner, Sara, came up from Vermont to deliver the 200-year-old 1-1/4” thick wall sheathing. About half of the load was from this frame originally but Luke threw in a bunch more of the same vintage and region to fill out the rest of our sheathing needs. We hauled the boards into the frame and loosely organized them by length and width. We have a whole pile of boards that are up to 20” in width and other piles in the 12”-14” range. They are between 7 and 12 feet in length and all the boards have sash saw mill marks and beautiful patina. These will be applied to the outside of the frame as...
Editor's Note: Jim and I have been discussing metal-bodied vs. wooden hand planes and agreed to have an open discussion on the matter here on the blog. Here's Jim's take. One of the driving passions behind Mortise & Tenon Magazine is the exploration of efficient pre-industrial woodworking techniques in the hope that we can share that information with others. We realize that we sometimes sound like evangelists and we’re ok with that. We really are trying to share the good news of rough secondary surfaces and set people free from the law of machine tolerances. With that in mind I sometimes feel like a bit of a hypocrite when I admit that the planes I choose for my own personal work...
This past weekend my family participated in the Maine Forest and Logging Museum’s Living History Days event. The museum, located in Bradley, Maine, was founded in the 1960s as a living history site in which the lifeways and crafts of the late 18th-century Maine frontier is demonstrated. The site is known as “Leonard’s Mills” because of an archaeological discovery of five sawmills on Blackman Stream. My wife and I have been volunteering at Leonard’s Mills for years. All the interpreters dress in period clothing, cook period food, and demonstrate many other aspects of 18th-century frontier life (including the use of a recreated water-powered sash mill). My family looks forward to this weekend every year. We’re usually stationed at the...
Mike and I met the freight driver this afternoon to receive our Issue Three delivery! After unloading and stacking thousands upon thousands of copies into our storage facility, Mike and I plopped down on the ground and silently flipped through our copies. After a few minutes of quiet, we turned to each other and asked the obvious question, “What do you think?” We discussed the elements we spent time fussing over during the designing process. We nitpicked here and there but rejoiced to find no surprises. It turned out exactly as we envisioned it would. The nature of uncoated paper always seems a bit unpredictable so when it turns out as you’d hoped, it brings a sigh of relief. This...
Tomorrow is the last day to pre-order Issue Three so if you haven’t yet ordered consider this the last call for free (US) domestic shipping and the special pre-order wrapping with wax-sealed trade card. All magazine orders submitted after Tuesday will be mailed naked in our rigid mailer. This includes Issues One and Two. If you want any of these three issues wrapped, it’s now or never. You can get: A yearly subscription (#3 & #4) here. Issue One here. Issue Two here. Issue Three here. Mike and I have poured ourselves into this issue and we are super excited about how it turned out. One of my favorite pieces in this issue is about the passing of the craft...
Friday morning was the first day of fall and, boy, did it feel like it. The characteristic crisp nip in the air, the breeze, and even geese migrating overhead: All of it was right on cue. John had to head back to Vermont and Mike went to the Common Ground Fair with his family so Luke, Isaac, Matt, and I attached the roof sheathing to the rafters. We spent all day nailing these gorgeous 200-year-old hemlock boards in place. Because they had already cut, fit, and labeled the boards before bringing them up, the process went smoothly. The patina in these boards is sacred to this crew. Because they’ve worked so hard to de-nail, power wash, repair, straighten edges, and lay...
