We’re coming up on the deadline to order a copy of our special Tenth Anniversary Issue, and we’ve begun announcing the entire Table of Contents. The first four can be read here, and the next five articles be read about below. The third and final installment will come next week.
“In Defense of ‘Mechanicks & Ignorant Wretches’: A Life in Woodworking” Steve Latta
There are many ways to make a living working with your hands, but not all have been as accessible or even respectable throughout history. Recently retired furniture maker and woodworking instructor, Steve Latta, has written a heartfelt reflection on his years raising up the next generation of artisans in the trades. This essay seamless weaves his own background and history together with the landscape of craft in America today. While Latta is concerned that the opportunities to make a good living are on a trajectory of becoming more and more rare, he also finds hope in the emerging professionals who have gone forward from his program. This is a Steve Latta you’ve never read before. With a lifetime of teaching and building fresh in his mind, Latta lays his cards on the table. This is a man who loves the craft, but even more deeply loves passing it onto others who haven’t yet gotten the credit they deserve.
“Finding Wholeness: Slöjd & the AI Era” with Jögge Sundqvist
What does handcraft have to offer in a world where artistic vision can be realized with a simple string of prompt words? As AI becomes ever more ubiquitous, many are searching for something real. In M&T’s Tenth-Anniversary Issue, editors Joshua A. Klein and Michael Updegraff sit down with teacher, slöjd practitioner, and author Jögge Sundqvist to discuss making things by hand in a throwaway age. With joy and candor, Sundqvist shares what the years since the pandemic have taught him – how he has seen his students change as the digital world moves ever faster towards an uncertain future, how attention and focus have drifted dangerously afield, and how handcraft and the relationships that emerge from it can change everything. Sundqvist believes that working creatively is an integral part of what makes us human – that no novel devices or programs can ever replace this basic need. “Even if technology pushes us hard,” he says, “we will always go back to making things.”
“The State of the Craft: Woodworking in 2025” Sally Bernstein and Joel Moskowitz
The original iteration of Tools for Working Wood opened its digital doors back in 1999 as an online museum of tools and their social contexts. A labor of love by tool aficionados Joel Moskowitz and Sally Bernstein, that business soon rode the wave of resurgence in hand tools in the early 2000s to become the iconic woodworker’s supply store that it is today. Based in New York City, they ship internationally and develop their own tool designs for meeting the needs of makers in all corners of the globe. Having their fingers on the pulse of hand-tool woodworking for a quarter-century, they are uniquely positioned to offer an appraisal of the craft in today’s world. Most hand-tool novices make their first tool purchases in big-box stores or through cheap internet retailers, and frustration is often the result. However, even from this disadvantaged starting point, Bernstein and Moskowitz have found that guidance, support, and real community can make all the difference in turning a curious inquirer into a lifelong maker.
“Secondary Concerns: Highlights from the Yale Furniture Study”
Every issue of Mortise & Tenon Magazine features an in-depth examination of a piece of antique furniture. Through careful photography, measurements, and commentary, each piece reveals its secrets: tool marks, layout lines, and remnants of original construction. These examinations offer a great deal of insight into the thought process of the maker. For the special Tenth-Anniversary Issue of M&T, we are pulling out all the stops. With the assistance of collection manager Eric Litke at the Yale University Art Gallery, many of the most noteworthy pieces from the Gallery’s Furniture Study will be featured in an eye-opening examination survey. Polished, high-style masterpieces showcasing the pinnacle of pre-industrial craftsmanship will be viewed from angles not typically seen in museums. It is on those secondary surfaces that the stories of the construction of each piece can be read. Extraordinary details and – at times – a shocking degree of coarseness are often revealed. This appropriate degree of finish typifies handmade furniture across the centuries, speaking of the pragmatic and efficient work of even the most highly sought cabinetmakers.
“Tolle Lege: 50 Books for Disenchanted Woodworkers” Joshua A. Klein
Reading is a transformative experience. By cracking a book’s cover, you enter the author’s world. And as you engage the text, you are given a new vantage point to assess and appreciate the things in your own life. Over the years, M&T readers have requested a master reading list as a way of going deeper into the subjects of craft, technology, and non-industrial patterns of life. Finally, after several years of promises, Joshua Klein has delivered. Combing through his personal library, Klein selected 50 of the most profound and helpful books he’s read on the subjects of craftsmanship, technology criticism, pre-industrial woodworking techniques, and ways to connect those dots into an integrated life. This reading guide was written for woodworkers who have become disenchanted with our technological mode of life and are looking for change. Klein believes these books will get you well on your way.
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The last day that the Tenth Anniversary Issue will be available to purchase is April 27. After that, we will close orders, and the printer will make enough to fulfill our pre-orders. Because this is an unusual way to release a book, we’ve been fielding lots of questions, so here are the key things you need to know:
- This is available only by pre-order, and the ordering window will close after April 27.
- The book is scheduled to ship in June.
- We will not do another print run.
So, if you’re a fan of M&T, you will not want to miss out on this one-time-opportunity edition. As you can already see from the article descriptions, the Tenth Anniversary Issue is an extra-special volume that will be referenced for years to come. Pre-order your copy now, before it’s too late.
-Joshua