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From the M&T Daily Dispatch 

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...

From the M&T Daily Dispatch 

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...

From the M&T Daily Dispatch 

Mike and I spent today shooting footage for our new video course. We got off to a slow start because we’re wading into new teaching territory. This course is, as I’ve mentioned before, essentially designed to be rehab for the jig dependent. It is a series of exercises (that leads to a final project) focused on skill building. It’s about developing dexterity instead leaning on devices. Today, we shot a lesson that involved knife carving in the round and I’m telling you… this exercise is worth practicing. My first attempt was pretty pathetic, I have to confess. The next exercise, which involved precise layout and chopping with a chisel, went a lot better. And that’s the way practice goes: You...

From the M&T Daily Dispatch 

“The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter, and is about as ample at one season as at another. It is as well for cheerfulness as for warmth and dryness.” – Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods (1864) My family hiked to a remote, backcountry lean-to in early October, at the peak of fall foliage. We spent a few days exploring, canoeing, talking to squirrels, and soaking in the solace of the wilderness – doing all of our cooking (and coffee making) over a wood fire. And keeping that fire going required some work. Baxter State Park allows the gathering of dead and downed wood to burn, so I brought along that quintessential tool...

From the M&T Daily Dispatch