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...
I can't even tell you how incredible Wednesday and Thursday was for Mike and I. We were invited down to Old Sturbridge Village by assistant curator Shelley Cathcart to spend the day exploring the collections of many thousands of tools and furniture in storage. We, of course, leapt at the opportunity. After an early morning departure and five hours on the road, we spent the entire day digging through shelves of artifacts from New England cabinetmakers' shops working between 1790 and 1840. There were many moments crouched under tables with flashlights and times with objects laid out on blankets for closer examination. Besides the standard tools made by established toolmakers, there were so many that were shop made. It is...
It has been a delight to see social media filled with snapshots of readers’ wrapped copies of M&T Issue Two. Although I thought this extra effort would be appreciated by at least a few of our readers, I didn’t expect to see this much enthusiasm for the wrapping alone. The trade cards attached to the wrapping are based off of 18th and 19th century cards tradesmen used for advertising to their communities. They usually featured drawings of furniture or tools and had verbose descriptions of the superiority of their wares or services. The text we use on our M&T cards is pulled straight out of these advertisements and cards. We’ve borrowed their sentences and applied them to our publication (complete with...
When we brought this Victorian mirror into the studio last year, we had to handle it very carefully. It had been heavily damaged in a fire to the point that the top third of the frame had essentially converted to charcoal. We were very glad that the owners wished to restore the mirror as much as possible to its former glory, so we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. First, we had to stabilize everything structurally. After removing the old, broken glass, the upper ornamentation was sealed with multiple coats of shellac to lock in the pervasive smoke smell. We brushed on several applications of wood hardener, then carefully repaired the trim with various formulations of epoxy. Several...
This is the kind of blog post I hate writing. I try hard to make sure all the i's are dotted and t's crossed when getting this publication together to go out the door to the printer. I have to do so much communication with the editorial team, authors, interviewees, sponsors, stockists, our printer, and the owners of certain images we’d like to publish. Then there’s a whole list of folks I am in contact with about merchandise and supplies ordering, taxes, bookkeeping, etc. Then the packing party adds a whole new dimension to the communication demands. It’s usually just when I feel like I might finally have all things afloat that I realize I’ve dropped the ball somewhere....
We get a lot of questions through social media and email about all sorts of stuff that we can’t necessarily fully address. Also, we naturally get a lot of repeat questions from readers. In order to help answer these questions as well as encourage others to ask more, we have decided to begin an “Ask M&T” video series. These will be concise answers to direct questions from you all. Ask whatever you want about what we got going on here… We’re pretty transparent folks. “What’s your favorite tool?” “What’s the most essential hand plane to have?” “What power tool do you secretly wish you had?” “Why don’t you guys publish the magazine more frequently?” “Why don’t you make a digital...
Front Design To celebrate the release of Issue Two, we are announcing new M&T apparel. One design. Two items. The hooded sweatshirt is a pre-order only item. From now until February 4th (three weeks), we will be taking these pre-orders ($50) for hoodies. We will order a few more of each size just in case there are issues but after February 4th, there is no guarantee of getting this hoodie. If you want one, it’s now or never. It’s not marketing hype… we just don’t want to store boxes of hoodies. The t-shirt will be a regular in-stock item for the foreseeable future (just like our last shirt) They’ll be available to purchase when they arrive in February. Back...
As we think about our woodworking influences during National Mentoring Month, I’ve been pondering my roundabout journey so far. I suspect that my story isn’t terribly uncommon in that the most formative teachers I have had are folks I’ve never met. My grandpa was a strong influence on me in regards to fixing things, pounding nails, getting cars running, and the like. He helped me to see that the materials that you have on hand or can scrounge up from the basement are often enough to get the job done effectively. Because of what I learned from watching him, I have never been afraid to tear into a project, to disassemble a complicated doohickey just to see what’s going...
What if you could build furniture efficiently without relying on power tools? Ever wish you could “cut the cord” completely, finally freeing yourself from the dust and scream of machines? This summer I will be teaching a weekend workshop at Lie-Nielsen which lays the foundation of pre-industrial (read: efficient hand-tool-only) woodworking by building a small pine worktable with hand tools. The emphasis of the workshop is the rediscovery of the efficiencies of hand tool woodworking that have been lost since the industrialization of furniture making. Students will be able to examine and handle a few different disassembled 18th and 19th-century pieces to see period tolerances and the difference between “show” surfaces and “non-show” surfaces for themselves. Students will learn to...
This past Friday and Saturday, Mike and I had the big Issue Two packing party. We are still so stunned at how incredible it turned out. Readers came up to help from all around Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, and even Maryland. We had just shy of 20 people wrapping a few thousand copies in brown paper and string and attach the wax-sealed tradecards. Every copy was shipped in a rigid mailer with a few pine shavings for an extra touch. Check out the full video for the event above! I would definitely say it was a success. All the pre-orders are in the mail and we have a pile ready for future fulfillment. Everyone worked so hard and really seemed...
