My grandparents had a couple volumes of the Foxfire series on their bookshelf, and I was captivated by them from a young age. I remember thumbing through Foxfire 2 again and again, amazed at the knowledge captured in those pages that seemed so outside of my own experience. Spinning wool into yarn, wild plants as food and medicine, and a spring-pole lathe, of all things! Who ever heard of that? And this knowledge seemed alive, because it was often conveyed through direct quotes from the skilled individuals who still practiced those arts. Rather than a dry historical treatise, this information had vitality. There was magic here, and I was entranced. Fast forward an odd number of decades, when I found...
You might have to take a seat for this one; chairmaking, as it turns out, is quite a controversial thing. The recent issue of M&T (#11) features several authors holding up different takes on this ancient craft. How does an artisan work efficiently to be able to compete in the chair market? How does the use of a lathe open a can of worms that has led some to an industrial mentality? What does 20th-century management theory have to do with the way we pick up tools in our own shops today? All these questions and more are explored in this episode. SHOW NOTES: Issue Eleven Fredrick Taylor, Principles of Scientific Management Jögge Sundqvist in Issue Six Amy Umbel...
Our tools are extensions of our hands, and we would do well to choose them carefully. Without a finely tuned standard to employ in developing our skills, we are destined to flounder and to fail – never discovering the quality of work that is possible. Every craftsperson needs quality tools. And in a world that seems more and more obsessed with saving a few bucks and finagling free shipping, it would do us well to meet the people behind our purchases. Craftspeople especially long to see the faces behind their tools. Saws, Planes, and Scorps: Exceptional Woodworking Tools and Their Makers by David Heim features many of the makers who we are blessed to say are our personal friends. We’ve...
My wife Julia and I always wanted to build our own home with our own hands. From the beginning of our marriage we talked about raising and homeschooling our kids in the midst of the construction so that they would have the most practical and rich education possible. We hadn’t settled on style or details, but we knew we wanted a handmade home. As our life and interests developed, our vision crystallized to restore an old house that had fallen into disrepair. By that point, we had already purchased wooded land that we had fallen in love with (with a small manufactured home already on it), so we were in the market for a house that needed to move from...
Besides providing wood for making things and keeping warm, forests offer food. But these resources typically go unnoticed by human visitors today. This was not the case in centuries past, when many people relied on the regular, seasonal varieties of wild foods for nutrition. In fact, indigenous populations in North America utilized some 300 different species for food (compared with the 20 to 30 that the typical modern American eats). One of the most recognizable is the acorn. This part of New England primarily features the Northern red oak (Quercus rubra) as we’re at or beyond the northern limit of the white oaks. Red oaks typically have especially bountiful mast production every other year. Last year was productive, even with...
For those of you who haven’t been spending your evenings flipping through the latest issue, we thought we’d share a brief look inside. Issue Eleven is full of rich and interesting spreads. Between all the chairmakers (and their drawknives) and the constant emphasis on the ‘folk’ in folk craft, we’ve got lots of humanized woodworking going on. This issue truly is a celebration of human creativity over against the sterility of mass manufacture. The premium ($$$) paper we use is currently in short supply (what isn’t these days?), and so we had to purchase it in advance of the printing. Yes, this up-front cost stings a bit, but we’re resolved to keep with this stock because the final quality...
“Coopering is a harsh mistress,” my master would always say. If you step away from the trade for any length of time, it takes a while to “get your hand back into it.” Coopering exacts a physical toll on its practitioners as well. A 19th-century London sociologist wrote, “Coopers become prematurely old, suffering greatly from pains in the chest, and across the back, attributable to their bending over their hot work. A cooper at large work is an old man, sir, at forty…his physical energies then are nearly exhausted.” But at the same time, Mr. Pettengell often compares the act of coopering to an elegant dance. Producing stout oak casks requires brute strength, but also a dancer’s grace, efficient movements,...
What is “craft?” And why do we love handmade things? What is the difference between a “tool” and a “machine?” What kinds of work can ground us in the tactility of the world in which we live? And how might our technologies be derailing us from this aspiration? I have spent the last several years deeply exploring these questions, aided by the work of scholars from several fields: philosophers, historians, and anthropologists, as well as observations and anecdotes gathered from woodworkers throughout the ages, right up to the present day. There are many ideas floating around out there about what “craft” or “technology” are and what value it is to be a “maker.” These notions vary in degrees of...
At looong last, The First Three Issues, our hardbound republication of Issues 1-3 has arrived from the printer, and holy smokes is it gorgeous. This thing is hefty… heftier than we even envisioned. And in a totally glorious way. The title and wax seal on the dustjacket are embossed (raised) and glossy and pop right off the cover photograph. But Mike C swears the die stamp on the cloth is even more beautiful. In my mind, it’s a toss-up. Either way, this thing is impressive. The book is nearly 500 pages in length and flipping through it is quite an experience. I have to confess that it overwhelmed me to see all that we were able to publish in...
It’s been a wet summer around here – between above-average rainfall and plenty of damp, foggy mornings (it is dark and rainy as I write this), the ducks in the pond are happy and the wild blackberries are productive. But the most unique (to me) evidence of the year’s trends has been the explosion of mushrooms in the woods. They’re everywhere – bursts of weird, vivid colors and shapes that turn the forest floor into a micro version of an old 50’s sci-fi film. Even though several varieties have popped up this year that I’ve never seen before, they’ve always been there, hiding just beneath the soil. Fungi are fascinating things, still little-understood. The mushrooms we see are just the...
