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From the M&T Daily Dispatch 

If any of M&T’s work is worth pausing to reflect on at the close of the year, this year’s would be a prime candidate. Not only has the House By Hand project occupied the bulk of Joshua and Mike’s time in 2022, but M&T also published a new book (Worked: A Bench Guide to Hand-Tool Efficiency), ran several Apprenticeship terms, hosted a Summit gathering, and more. Before blindly setting out on the next 12 months of hurried activity, Joshua and Mike take this episode to recap this season of work in order to resolve to make the most of the next steps.  SHOW NOTES: The House By Hand Project Issue Fourteen

From the M&T Daily Dispatch 

From the M&T Daily Dispatch 

With a bit more understanding, and an awful lot of gusto, I set to work restoring the loom. My internal archaeologist told me that I needed to take detailed photos with scales in black-and-white, medium-format film in order to properly record the state of each piece before I irrevocably changed it. With this done, I separated the pieces that were sound from those that needed serious work, and at random chose the most difficult piece of the whole restoration: the right-hand cape. Its ends were fine, but insects had chewed and bored through the wane present in the middle of the piece on two faces. I cut a 1/4"-deep grave (recess for a patch) from one face and a 1/2"-deep...

Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, Caspar David Friedrich, 1818. This is an admittedly heady title for a little blog post. And while I can’t possibly write anything remotely worthy of that title here (in a thousand words or less), the topic itself is one that will keep coming back. Our vision at M&T is “to cultivate reverence for the dignity of humanity and the natural world through the celebration of handcraft.” While there’s a lot to unpack in that statement, it basically means we’re going to talk about more than just how to make nice furniture by hand. So for example, when society starts down a slippery slope of creative self-immolation, Joshua or I might casually bring it up....

From the M&T Daily Dispatch 

From the M&T Daily Dispatch 

The fluting engine is a simple device. Pull on the lever, and the cutter – attached to a short arm at a right angle to the lever – moves in an arc and cuts a path through the wood. Rotate the turntable a bit and repeat – somewhere between 50 and 100 times to complete one pass around. Raise the table, and make another pass. Then repeat, perhaps carving 1/32" to 1/16" at a time until you’ve carved out a bowl.  This is what happens, but the description completely misses the wonder of carving a bowl this way. The sound of a sharp cutter slicing through the wood is amazingly satisfying. The cuts come out glistening from the sharp edge...

From the M&T Daily Dispatch