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“The Dignity of Craft”

  A little while back, Front Porch Republic published a piece on Mortise & Tenon called “The Dignity of Craft”. The author, Will Lyon, seems to be more than a superficial reader – he’s quite attentive to the contours of our undergirding emphasis. I love reading such thoughtful interaction with our work. It’s by no means the case that all thoughtful interaction is wholly sympathetic to our vision, but Lyon’s is. If you’re not familiar with Front Porch Republic, I highly recommend you explore their site. They write on themes such as “place, localism, community, decentralism, and conservation.” I’ve been a fan for years, and if you’re here on this blog for more than the woodworking tips, I bet you’ll...

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Making Birch Tar

  Birch trees are among the most versatile trees of the North Woods. Besides being extremely resilient (they are the last hardwoods standing before the Arctic tundra), their wood is valuable for handcraft, their leaves make a wonderful yellow dye for textiles (See Brendan Gaffney’s article in Issue Thirteen), and they can be tapped in the spring to produce birch syrup (cooked down, it tastes like molasses). One of the most useful parts of the tree is the bark – it has been utilized for everything from canoes to shelter to watertight containers to clothing (yes, birchbark clothes were all the rage back in the day). But most importantly, it is highly flammable. A piece of birchbark that has been...

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Coming Soon: “Skills Over Jigs”

This week, Mike and I have made significant progress on the filming of our new online course focused on hand-tool skill building, which we’re calling “Skills Over Jigs.” Mike has been editing the cuts between recording sessions, and at this rate, we’re hopeful to have the course live and available for purchase before the end of next week.  Besides a wayward board incident the other day, the production has gone off without a hitch. (It pays to plan all the details ahead of time.)  We’re excited about releasing this new material, because we’ve seen over the years that many woodworkers are insecure about their skill level and don’t know how to improve. They make up for this by purchasing the...

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Measuring Variations

We measured a range of objects, pre-industrial and machine-made, in areas not heavily subjected to wear: tabletop thicknesses, turning diameters, drawer-side thicknesses, etc. Using digital calipers, measurements were made at multiple points on each part and catalogued.  The goal was not just to generate pages of numbers, but rather to establish some general guidelines – surface tolerances, variations in pre-industrial versus industrial pieces. We sought to define how irregular hand-prepped surfaces were, on average, and how this compares to those made using machines. To minimize the potentially confounding factor of warpage in our handmade test pieces, we also drew from a selection of Victorian and late Federal furniture to represent the machine-made pool. All wooden objects naturally fluctuate to some...

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