The Mortise & Tenon Podcast

In this episode, Joshua and Mike kick off a mini-series chapter-by-chapter walkthrough of David Pye’s classic book The Nature and Art of Workmanship. Lots of craftspeople have heard of Pye, but few today understand (or have ever even read) his illuminating book. In this episode, the guys discuss the introduction which charts the course to dispelling myths and misunderstandings. Craft matters. And because of this, Pye invites us to engage in it thoughtfully.

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.

Clear distinctions reveal new things about the world. And in a handcraft context, thinking clearly about what exactly a “tool” is or a “machine” or a “jig” enables woodworkers to maximize their shop satisfaction and efficiency. Some folks seem to think that theory and practice are intrinsically antithetical to each other, but Joshua and Mike have found clear-headedness to be tremendously helpful in the workshop. Think along with the guys as they tackle some thorny questions.

In this episode, the guys give an update on the House By Hand project (http://housebyhand.com) – the granite foundation was constructed, the sill system is in place, the ell is raised and sheathing is underway, and things are getting buttoned up for winter. Joshua and Mike discuss the ins and outs of repairing old timbers with both structural and aesthetic considerations. There’s a fine line between “patina” and crud, and a major element of the art of restoration is knowing and respecting the difference.

This episode was recorded on the heels of the first annual Apprenticeship Program Summit gathering. Alumni from the first four terms were invited to the M&T headquarters to share ideas, feast, and make shavings together. In this episode, Joshua and Mike reflect on the weekend-long happenings: the antiques examinations, the woods walk, the house timber restoration, and even the campfire songs. Countless memories were made over this weekend, and the convivial nature of craft was at the heart of it all.

In this new episode of the podcast, Joshua and Mike take up the topic of portable woodworking. They argue that even though modern woodworkers tend to feel safe “within the box” of their workshops, we would all do well to get out a little. Try taking up carving around the campfire or make a simple tool tote to bring around the yard for home repairs. In their conversation, Joshua and Mike discuss how putting yourself in new work scenarios invites learning new ways to work effectively. The “way they did it” in the past was never uniform, nor does it need to be in the present.

The pre-industrial emphasis of M&T never fails to generate puzzlement and questions in an age driven by technology, jigs, and devices. And as Joshua and Mike continue to interact with students and readers, they find they get the same sorts of questions over and over. This recurrence illustrates the gap between the conventional approach to woodworking and the one they spend their energies promoting. In this episode, Joshua and Mike tackle these common questions to try to fill out the bigger picture of what hand-tool work can look like in the 21st century.

In this episode, Joshua and Mike talk about how it is that we learn new skills. They contend that we have to get over a reductive and mechanical way of looking at human life and action. We are not machines and we don’t learn new skills by “downloading” information. Instead, we practice. Through sustained work, we begin to embody these new skills in a way that make it look easy – because, in a sense, it actually becomes easy. In this episode, Joshua and Mike bring together several things that rarely appear in the same conversation: downhill skiing, hand skills in relation to intellectual comprehension, Aristotelian ethics, ancient Hebrew cosmology, parenting, and installing a kitchen sink, for starters.

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.

Many woodworkers get into hand tools because they are drawn in by the joinery: dovetails, mortises and tenons, etc. As they continue building pieces in their shops, some begin to wonder if it’s possible to “cut the cord” even further. What would it be like to build from scratch without any machinery whatsoever? How would one start with rough boards and end with a beautiful drop-leaf table without ever firing up the dust collector? In this latest episode, Joshua and Mike discuss these questions in light of Joshua’s forthcoming book, Worked: A Bench Guide to Hand-Tool Efficiency. Joshua makes the argument that “engineer” woodworkers and “monastic” hand-tool-only woodworkers operate on the same strange assumption: that hand tools are supposed to produce machine-like results. Joshua and Mike discuss another way.