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...
We’ve just posted our first “Ask M&T” video on our YouTube channel. We had a reader ask us, “As a novice woodworker, I struggle to determine the best joints for my projects. What’s the best method of determining the most appropriate joint for any given project?” The above is our “Ask M&T” answer to that very question. We’re excited about this new series because it enables us to give time to give full answers to our readers’ questions. Since our number one goal with M&T is to celebrate historic craftsmanship by empowering readers to work efficiently with plane and saw, we thought it would be a good idea to film our answers for you. So consider this a start....
We just launched our new “Craftsmanship is Risk” t-shirts in the store. We are offering this design in 3 new colors. Check all the colors out here. As a thank you for your support, we are offering free shipping on these shirts for the first week. Also note that we have now discounted our previous “Artisan” shirt to $18. We don’t have every size in stock but if you want one of these, just know we will not be doing another run. All our designs are a one-time deal. They will only be in our store as long as we have them in stock. FREE SHIPPING ON THE NEW SHIRT UNTIL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11th! It’s not news that the term...
Regular readers know my work philosophy is pretty laid back. I don’t sweat tear out on secondary surfaces, I think knots are fine for drawer parts and back boards, etc… That’s why when it comes to axe edge maintenance, some might be surprised at how fastidious I am about keeping it tip top. Some folks don’t feel a need to keep up on their coarser tools but I don’t buy that distinction. When your coarse prep relies on human muscle rather than machines, a keen edge is your best friend. I’ve wasted too much time straining myself working with dull tools. Saving two minutes of sharpening only to grunt through 20 minutes of miserable work is dumb. It’s simply...
The month is almost over, folks, and that means that the purchasing window for the “Craftsmanship is Risk” hoodies is just about up. First thing Saturday morning I am emailing the total number of orders to Shannon and he is going to order only enough to fulfill these pre-orders. Then no one else will ever get one of these sweatshirts. That’s right… This is a one-time pre-order-only deal because Mike and I don’t want to keep boxes of hoodies around. (We may order a few more just in case of mistakes, but no promises.) If you are on the fence as to whether you were going to order one or not, you’ve got until Friday night to decide. In...
My wife, Julia, and I have been baking our own sourdough bread for ten years now. Early on in our marriage, we began learning the building blocks of using different flours, kneading methods, and how to accommodate for temperature and humidity changes. For years, our bread was not much more than passable. We loved doing it but the books we read and videos we watched online could only take us so far. We needed someone to show us. Fortunately, when we moved back to Maine eight years ago, some of Julia’s old friends generously taught us the way they make the sourdough in their incredible wood-fired bakery. Spending that day with them revolutionized our baking. They taught us little new...
