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Mike and I have been thinking all year about the ways people learn woodworking. This video covers some of the problems we’ve seen with the conventional routes.  

While Colorado’s high desert climate is more tool-friendly than others, over the past few years I’ve found myself wiping off more flash rust and blowing off my metal planes more than I’d like, so I decided a plane till with doors to keep dust at bay was in order. And, because I try to tackle a new technique or operation with each new project, I wanted to see if I could make some tambour doors by hand. The word “tambour” comes from the French word for a small drum (á la “tambourine”), a fact of which I was uncomfortably reminded when I first tried feeding my door into the cabinet and it produced a terrifying, percussive grinding noise before shuddering...

Our good friend, Marshall Scheetz, published an excellent video last year showing the process of riving oak stock for buckets and barrels. It is 15 minutes of super crisp videography without any commentary. Its vibe is akin to the famous “Primitive Technology” YouTube channel. Marshall shows the use of a variety of steel and wooden wedges, a froe, and a hatchet to break down this massive log into primo stock. It is well worth watching. Marshall’s video is a great compliment to Peter Follansbee’s in-depth video of splitting stock published earlier this year. Peter provides some great commentary, especially for those who haven’t done this kind of work before. Thanks to Daniel, Peter’s son, for his production of these films. In...

Of the Hatchet. The Hatchet marked L, in Plate 4. Its use is so well known (even to the most un-intelligent) that I need not use many Words on it, yet thus much I will say, Its use is to Hew the Irregularities off such pieces of Stuff which may be sooner Hewn than Sawn.  When the Edge is downwards, and the Handle towards you, the right side of its Edge must be Ground to a Bevil, so as to make an Angle of about 12 Degrees with the left side of it: And afterwards set with the Whetstone, as the Irons of Planes, &c. – Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises: or, The Doctrine of Handy-works (1703)   Recently reading Mechanick...

  Ever had one of those “Eureka” moments in the shop? Maybe while using a new tool or facing a workholding conundrum, you all of the sudden realize why artisans did things the way they did? In this episode, Joshua and Mike were joined by archaeologist-in-training Nevan Carling to talk about specific tool epiphanies they’ve had over the years. They discuss various workholding methods, styles of hand planes, and even touch on controversial saw nib theories. Join the guys in the M&T workshop, with the recorder on the bench, for this let-it-all-hang-out woodworking conversation. ITEMS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Issue Eleven – Subscription 2021 Grant Program Recipients New “Build For Ever” T-shirt

Have you ever experienced those unique moments when sounds or movements in your immediate environment randomly fall into sync and create a rhythm? Like that iconic Volkswagen commercial from 20 years ago, your car’s windshield wipers start swiping to the beat of the song on the radio, or two friends’ strides fall into step on a long walk. Hand tools are particularly rhythmic, and workers have forever played percussion with their tools. Here’s one example that boatbuilder and author Douglas Brooks shared with us, from a traditional Japanese boatbuilder. The other day, I noticed essentially the opposite of this synchronizing effect in the shop. Joshua and I were doing identical tasks (chopping out waste between dovetails with a chisel) at opposite ends...

  I know you were hoping that the new “Build For Ever” sticker we just came out with would be our new T-shirt design. It is. And it is the most intense shirt we’ve made to date. This vintage-black tee features a rigorously bearded Joseph, patron saint of hand hewing (among other things), swinging an axe next to a handful barely clothed woodchip-collecting cherubs. Framing the scene are a few words – “Build For Ever” – from one of our favorite quotes from John Ruskin in which he exhorts artisans to build in a way that will outlast them. The shirt’s back features the entire quote: “When we build, let us think that we build for ever.” We LOVE this...

  We live in an era of specialization – a time in which there exists a dedicated doodad for every conceivable circumstance one might find themselves in. We have special shorts just for running, hats for gardening (as opposed to any other outdoor sunny-day activities), and knives designed specifically for marking one side of a joint to another. In the English joinery tradition, artisans used combination knife/awl “striking knives.” These tools would make a great addition to a horror film, because they are wicked sharp on both sides! I picked up this one secondhand somewhere along the way, and the first time I used it, I bent over to closely inspect my work… and then… I jumped back before it...

M&T activity has been ramping up steadily over the past year with daily blog posts and regular podcasts and videos. We’ve also finally been able to get some of our favorite books in stock. And we’ve got a lot more we’ve been working on behind the scenes that is yet to be announced. (I’ve been working on another book and we have a new program currently in the final stages of development.) All of this has been possible because we hired our friend Grace Cox a couple years ago. Grace has been tackling more and more as time goes on and this has meant Mike and I have been able to focus on creating loads more content. It’s been wind...

This is a chestnut tree. It is a loner, a survivor, a hybrid that is resistant to the fungus that killed four billion of its kin in the first decades of the 20th century. The American chestnut, Castanea dentata, once comprised one of every four trees in the eastern United States. The trees were massive and beautiful – a mature chestnut crown contained an acre of leaves. The wood was renowned for its beauty, rot-resistance, and strength, and most barns and homes east of the Mississippi River utilized it. The fruit of the tree, an indigenous staple for millennia, became a favorite American food – we even still sing about roasting them over an open fire at Christmastime. But a blight introduced...