Wow. Thank you, readers. So many of you have clearly been excited about this next installment of M&T. Some of you were even crazy enough to stay up late or set your alarm to put in your order at midnight - the moment Issue Two came up for sale! What dedication! Thank you for your enthusiasm. Then, all day as I’ve been finishing up my last day teaching the SAPFM group in Atlanta, orders have been pouring in. There truly is a growing desire for understanding better and celebrating woodworking handcraft. I will be getting on a plane tomorrow morning to head out of Atlanta to kiss my wife and boys and sit down to dinner with them. The trip...
I’ve just opened pre-orders for Issue Two! Get free shipping by putting your order in here:
http://mortiseandtenonmag.com/collections/magazine/products/issue-two
Check out the Table of Contents here.
Everything is all lined up to begin taking pre-orders starting tonight at midnight (Eastern time). As I’ve been editing through the material for months now, I have been getting more and more excited to get this issue in your hands. The table of contents, frankly, blows me away. How in the world was I able get such top-drawer folks to write such unique and enlightening material for this issue? I never thought I’d be part of a publication along with the names Don Williams, George Walker, Chris Schwarz, Peter Follansbee, Tim Garland, Zach Dillinger, Dave and George Sawyer, Skip Brack, and Michael Updegraff. As I’ve said before, M&T is simply the magazine I always wanted to read: No ads,...
It’s been really rewarding being able to spend a few days with the Peach State SAPFM crowd. These guys are highly skilled and very passionate about period furniture and have been doing it longer than I’ve been alive. This fact is obviously humbling to me and so I am grateful to be invited to come down here. The whole time these kind gentlemen have received me as one of their own. I’ve heard several times this weekend that seeing a younger generation taking interest in our woodworking heritage is an encouragement to them. They’re excited to see that Mortise & Tenon Magazine and all my rambling about period tolerances and hand tools has struck a chord with folks outside of...
Late last night I arrived in Atlanta, Georgia to present to the Society of American Period Furniture Makers Peach State Chapter for four days. I was hired to come out to talk about and demonstrate furniture conservation theory and practice. Saturday and Sunday have been reserved for lecture while Monday and Tuesday will be lab time. Today’s presentations went well and mostly according to plan. I talked about the history of the conservation discipline, definitions of restoration and conservation and basic conservation principals. The principals were then worked out by showing how shellac can be manipulated and worked to facilitate long term finish survival. I demonstrated some of this on pieces in need of a little TLC that a few...
Before I started working with Joshua in the studio doing conservation work, I spent over 10 years with some very pretty and very expensive boats. My primary gig was marine varnish, a seasonal process of sanding off last year's gloss, touching up, taping, cleaning, brushing on a coat of varnish, letting it dry, then sanding again and getting even more fussy about cleanliness in preparation for a final coat. Typically, the cleaning process involved thoroughly vacuuming the boat, washing with water, a wipedown with mineral spirits or alcohol (depending on my mood that day), then hitting everything with a tack cloth before finally beginning to coat. For new boats, this process is repeated 8 or more times over a period...
While Mike has been hard at work giving a face lift to various pieces in the studio, I've been working hard to polish things up here on the website. See, when I migrated my blogging from the Workbench Diary to here back in March, it took a little getting used to. Not only did I already have my writing and photo editing process down but I also had slowly developed a sidebar to have the features I felt were most helpful to my readers. I always like an “About” section. Being able to search the blog for keywords is helpful. Then I had a blogroll which I loved because it served as a one stop shop resource to check in on all...
I just finished making some red oak battens for the bottom of my tool chest. They came from some scrap that has been kicking around my woodpile for a year and they are by no means fancy, but they are essential. They support the chest, protect it against abrasion and strengthen the carcase. They’re also the first line of defense against the damp cement floor of the garage and if they do their job correctly I’ll never have to think about them again. I confess that making them might just be my favorite part of building the whole chest. My work with Mortise & Tenon magazine is very much like those battens. If I do my job well, you will...
Over the past few weeks I’ve been photographing the furniture and tools of 19th-century Maine furniture maker Jonathan Fisher. This is part of a four or so year long research project I have been working on to tell the story of this rural polymathic Harvard-trained minster/artisan. For more information about this fascinating research, you read about it here or refer to my piece in American Period Furniture in 2014. The book is under contract to be published by Lost Art Press in 2017 and thanks to grants from both the Early American Industries Association and the Society of American Period Furniture Makers, I have been able to dig deep examining the numerous surviving objects as well as research the broader historical context in which...
I spent most of today on the couch. Because my wife and kids were out for the day (rare for homeschoolers like us), I had the whole house to myself for quiet editing work. Solitude is important for me because my assessment of writing is so much focused on cadence and flow. Sometimes I can make-do by silently mouthing along as I reread and edit. Most times, however, I’ve got to read it out loud to know if it’s working. Every writer’s got their own bag of tricks but this one is my go-to method. So today I finished off a number of various pieces of editing for Issue Two. I combed through Peter Follansbee’s manuscript one last time, polished...
