I stopped by the legendary Liberty Tool Co. the other day when my family was passing through town. It’s always a delight to dig through the bins and shelves on a kind of treasure hunt for pre-industrial tools. It is difficult to leave empty-handed. The shelves were packed full for our visit, and I was glad to have the assistance of my kids in carrying out the afternoon’s haul. There’s always a spectrum of tools to dig through, and two that I found illustrate that spectrum well. First is this sad bevel-edged chisel. Socket chisels often show damage from hammering without a handle in place, but I have never before seen one so abused. After this one lost its handle,...
Recently, dozens of coopered vessels from three museums in Austria were analyzed for their growth-ring secrets. Wooden vessels, ubiquitous items a century ago, were often fashioned from staves rived from a single tree. Even though each individual stave might be small, featuring just a few growth rings, researchers found that they could visualize a model of the original chunk of wood by virtually plotting out the growth rings – kind of like putting together a complex puzzle. About half of the vessels studied were successfully dated (ranging from 1612-1940), but even more information was gathered on the methods of early coopers. Especially notable was the lack of wasted material when the craftsman split out staves – even after shaping with...
OK… that’s an ambiguous title. But, be assured that the guys recorded this episode to make it all come clear. In this next installment, Joshua and Mike expound Chapter 9 of David Pye’s The Nature and Art of Workmanship. This chapter is the culmination of his argument about why surface qualities are so important. Get ready to dive into the weeds – no aspect of craftwork is too small to consider carefully.
SHOW NOTES
Order your copy of the book here: The Nature and Art of Workmanship
Joshua Klein’s article in Issue Seven: ”A Fresh & Unexpected Beauty: Understanding David Pye’s ‘Workmanship of Risk’”
