The first challenge both men experienced was the exponential development of machine technology which began in earnest during Morris’ generation and continued on through Nakashima’s. Nakashima, Morris, and Ruskin before them, recognized that handwork, especially when undertaken with creativity and individuality, infused the work with both a tangible sense of human input and with a level of detail and quality that distinguished it from mass-produced machine work. That unique human quality went missing from machine-produced furniture because the latter relied on standardized dimensioning; repeatability; and mass-produced, surface-mounted ornamentation. Morris saw no future in these processes. In his 1884 lecture, “Useful Work versus Useless Toil,” he optimistically predicted the demise of machinery, which “would probably, after a time, be somewhat restricted...
There’s always something under the floorboards. Or in the walls. Of all the different bones stitched together to make up a building, writers have perhaps gotten the most mileage out of the romantic—and horrific—possibilities of those sunless spaces between joists, beneath the planks. Arthur Rackham, “Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination” (1935) The one you probably remember from school is Edgar Allen Poe’s perennially unnerving short story from 1843, “The Tell-Tale Heart”: the story’s unhinged narrator struts around, confident that he’s gotten away with murder, having Tetris’ed away the grisly, dismembered evidence of his crime “between the scantlings” underneath the floor. That is, until some cops show up… as does the ghostly sound of his victim’s heart, “a low,...
Fisher’s only surviving cabinetmaker’s bench has a system of 5/8" peg holes that I have found effective for planing stock. This method of face planing is illustrated in a 1425 portrait of a Nuremberg joiner. The system has two parts: two stops at the end and the rows of holes 2" apart spaced every 6" down the length of the bench. The board can be held in place with four pegs installed, locking it in from two directions. The two pegs supporting the back of the board prevent lateral movement and the two at the end prevent it from moving forward. The result is stability in both directions for whatever kind of planing is necessary. This workholding system might be...
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the value of pushing back against our growing inability to handle the maintenance and production of our own stuff. The increasingly complex nature of the technology we rely upon is an obvious factor – we can’t all debug lines of code, right? But there have been numerous surveys done recently that show a dwindling ability to tackle very basic tasks, such as cooking a meal or even changing a light bulb. The question of why these trends exist is a matter of debate (and future blog posts), but today I want to look at, with exceptional brevity, the economics of doing stuff for yourself. In short, what’s it worth? Mechanics-in-training. No clue why they...
Lately, I’ve been reading through a 12th-century book called Didascalicon which was written by Hugh of St. Victor. Hugh was a theologian who lived at the Abbey in Saint Victor of Paris and became influential to many thinkers throughout the centuries, though his name is largely unknown to the average reader today. The Didascalicon is somewhat of an encyclopedic manual for spiritual and intellectual growth. It not only covers the classical “liberal arts” (Quadrivium: arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy), but it also surprisingly includes the “mechanical arts,” of which he lists seven umbrella categories: fabric making, armament, commerce, agriculture, hunting, medicine, and theatrics. Woodworking and carpentry fall under his classification “armament” because “[s]ometimes any tools whatever are called ‘arms’…meaning implements.”...
The number of tools necessary for a woodworker to conduct his business varied of course with his occupation and with the size of the craftsman’s establishment. It is difficult to make a precise determination of how much of an investment was represented by a woodworker’s tools. Inventories are of some help but these must be used with caution because monetary standards varied from colony to colony and from state to state. Moreover, the age of tools listed in estates is not given and the depreciation factor is difficult to compute. Then, too, there can be no guarantee that the appraisers of an estate were familiar with tools and their value. Despite these precautions, useful information can be gleaned from estate...
Power tools are dangerous. This should not be a controversial statement, but somehow the observation always incites vigorous debate. In this podcast episode, Joshua and Mike discuss Mike’s article in Issue Twelve titled “Risk & Reward: Skill as a Safety Net,” in which he tackles this delicate issue. Rather than falling back on tired clichés, Mike seeks to reframe the discussion in a way that can deal honestly with the injury statistics and enable makers to make tooling choices personally catered to their objectives. If you are operating on the assumption that true woodworkers really ought to power up, you really ought to hear Mike out… before it’s too late. SHOW NOTES Issue Twelve Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew Crawford...
Every once in a while, a book is written that, while not explicitly focused on woodworking or furniture, manages to perfectly encapsulate the core essence of why we (as woodworkers) do what we do. The bestselling Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work is that kind of book. Its insights have been illuminating for us here at M&T, and we’re thrilled to now be stocking it in our store. Author Matthew Crawford has a unique perspective. He has a Ph.D. in political philosophy and runs his own motorcycle repair shop. Early on in his career, he landed every intellectual’s dream job as director of a Washington think tank. But he soon left that position, disillusioned by...
In this new video in our “Setting Up Shop” series, Joshua shows his shopmade wooden squares, straightedges, and winding sticks. These tools are always at hand when working wood by hand and Joshua tells us that it’s valuable to be able to make your own.
And how, it will be asked, are these products to be recognized, and this demand to be regulated? Easily: by the observance of three broad and simple rules: 1. Never encourage the manufacture of any article not absolutely necessary, in the production of which Invention has no share. 2. Never demand an exact finish for its own sake, but only for some practical or noble end. 3. Never encourage imitation or copying of any kind, except for the sake of preserving record of great works. I shall perhaps press this law farther elsewhere, but our immediate concern is chiefly with the second, namely, never to demand an exact finish, when it does not lead to a noble end. For observe,...
