the case against motherhood
(this was written as the answer to a question from a dear friend and i thought it was worth sharing because there’s so much talk about the other side of this argument and the other side is relatively silly if looked at anything but hormonally. please enjoy.) children are a disaster. the world has too many of them. too many by several orders of magnitude. let’s start there and see…
start with finish
perhaps the most confusing set of questions most beginners have when they decide to adopt the woodworking obsession (or craft if you prefer) is about what to do with the wood when the project is ready from a physical perspective to make it look its best and protect it from its environment. of course, trees aren’t temporary objects and they’re already going to stick around a while even if they’re…
thinking with words and images
we think. it’s something humans do. most of us in the modern world think nearly constantly and the vast majority do all they can to avoid it. but thinking — truly thinking — is the hallmark of humanity. there is nothing more human than thought. while there are other lifeforms that may be capable of it, organic or potentially others, we are the only ones we know of who have…
trim goes unplugged
there are various major moments in modern woodworking tool development, times that have shifted the whole framework of what it means to do woodworking. let’s take a look at a few (in no particular order) that i think were particularly significant. stanley’s popularization (not invention but definitely popularization) of the metal-body almost-maintenance-free plane. the adoption of japanese saws as an alternative to traditional western saws in the west. the development…
