When contemplating materials for any project, I always first assess what I have on hand and use it if possible. I feel that this is an historically accurate way to think about vernacular projects. "Making do" is an art form that has been preserved in many pieces that we've seen, including workbenches. We've come across some pretty funky workholding devices lately, whether looking over Jonathan Fisher creations, digging through the Old Sturbridge Village collection, or flipping through Woodworking in Estonia. It is wonderful to see natural crooks, bent knobby knees, or giant hewn slabs incorporated organically into useful and (yes) beautiful forms. We have a pile of tree-length firewood at home that is currently sitting under several feet of snow,...
The Roman bench build is underway! Mike and I met this morning, gathered our tools and material (read: planks and firewood) and discussed features on period examples. We were primarily looking through Woodworking in Estonia for inspiration and design guidance. There are so many creative workholding solutions in there that we haven’t seen anywhere else. We can’t resist trying some of them out. If you haven’t ordered a copy of that book yet, what are you waiting for? Go order it now. We each chose different versions based on our intended uses and materials available. I have a 200-year-old 2.75” thick pine plank that I am using for a benchtop. It’s 10.5” wide and cut to 5.5’ long. The...
Starting today, Mike and I will be building our Roman workbenches and blogging and posting to Instagram along the way. If you are one of the other folks who will be building along with us, make sure to tag your pictures with #romanbenchbuildalong so that we can follow along your progress. This bench could easily be built in one day but because Mike and I are documenting it (and have other responsibilities) it will be at least a couple days of building followed by a bit of playing around using it. There are a few features and variations that I will be incorporating that Chris didn’t in his low Roman bench so we’ll see what happens with those. This will...
I’ve always loved seeing period depictions of woodworkers at work. To see the way their tools are stored, their posture while working, and even shop conditions brings these makers to life for me. I have for years been downloading images I found online when they were particularly interesting. It’s been helpful but I often lost track of where I got them. When I recently did a Google image search for an old painting, I realized upon clicking on it that it was hosted on Pinterest. I had never signed up for Pinterest because it seemed like there wasn’t much of interest to me. Lots of knitting and home décor stuff. But this time when I clicked to the “board” that...
Inspired by Chris Schwarz’s article in Issue Two “Decoding the Roman Workbench”, Mike and I have decided to build our own Roman (i.e. staked) benches. I’ve been doubly curious about this form because Jonathan Fisher’s bench of this type survives in his house (now a museum) and I’ve really wanted to get some time working at one before finishing off my book on him this winter. The week of February 20th, Mike and I will each be building a bench. I will be basing mine largely on Fisher’s bench, which is a 12.5” wide by 7’ long rough-sawn board with four riven and hatcheted legs. His is a little less than 2” thick but the plank I have set...
There is nothing like being able to tune-up an antique hand plane to put it work like it was meant to but sometimes folks are unsure about how to properly and carefully restore them without ruining their value and character. In this new YouTube video above, I share my minimalistic and pragmatic approach to restoring the hand planes found in second hand stores. I deal with general cleaning, restoring the finish on the wooden handles, sharpening the iron, and basic setup for planing. This 20-minute video is aimed at giving a good introduction without overwhelming you with minutia. Enjoy! Subscribe to our YouTube channel if you would like to see more of this kind of content! For more info on...
If you haven’t yet seen Peter Follansbee’s latest post about the wrap-up class for the five month long joined chest build, you should check it out here. It’s full of inspiring and beautiful work from all his students. His anecdotes and casual writing tone are simply wonderful – it’s exactly what we worked so hard to preserve in the editing of Issue Two. His article titled “Everybody Who Knows Why is Dead” has generated a great response from readers. People loved hearing the veteran craftsman/scholar reflect on the years of unfounded scholarly opinions. It was a favorite in Issue Two. I’m not sure if you’ve recognized this but Peter’s work and teaching is courageous in this day and age....
One of the most consistent requests we’ve received since the launch of Mortise & Tenon is the ability to ship internationally. We regularly get requests from all over the globe for t-shirts, DVDs, and especially the brown-paper-wrapped and wax-sealed magazines. It took us a while to get things lined up be able to handle international fulfillment, but we finally feel ready to give it a shot. So… we are now receiving international orders for anything sold in our store. Were you one of those folks that wrote us looking for a wrapped magazine? Now you can get your own copy. Wish you had the new shirt (or almost discontinued one) and new sticker? It’s yours. Even though we are...
The new sticker just arrived in the mail yesterday. This 4.25” x 2.75” sticker features the same Roman woodworker that is on our new t-shirt (which is still being shipped for free through this Friday, by the way). The sticker is $3 in our store. It seems to be an item folks like throwing into the cart with DVDs or mags that they order. If you’re not looking to order anything else, we’ll still take orders for just a sticker. But what does “Craftsmanship is Risk” mean, exactly? It’s not news that the term “workmanship of risk” has made David Pye famous in woodworking circles. The term was coined by Pye in the mid 20th century to describe workmanship that depends...
This past weekend I attended the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour as it came through Ellsworth, ME. The guys I’ve gone with for years always choose the ‘extreme sports’ night over the ‘culture’ night. Every year, we watch people climb rock faces in snowstorms, kayak off of waterfalls, and trek across barren wilderness just for the thrill of it. It’s wild stuff. I can appreciate it from a distance but it’s hard for me to relate to because I spent most of my childhood in art classes when everyone else was playing football. Every year, though, I can’t help but think about what it is that motivates a person to push themselves that hard and take that much...
