The Instrument Maker Who Sources Wood from Fallen Trees Only
Luthier William Cumpiano, based in Northampton, Massachusetts, builds guitars exclusively from wood salvaged from naturally fallen trees.
2026-05-30
DH
Daniel Hurst
120 articles
Showing 61–80 of 120 articles
What Aerospace Engineering Taught a New Generation of Knifemakers
When aerospace engineer Sal Glesser founded Spyderco in 1981, he introduced innovations the knife industry had never considered: a round hole in the blade for one-handed opening, a pocket clip for tip-up carry, and a focus on steel metallurgy that treated blade material as an engineering variable rather than a tradition to be preserved unchanged.
2026-05-29
The Engraver Who Spends a Month on a Single Watch Dial
In the upper workshops of Jaeger-LeCoultre's manufacture in Le Sentier, Switzerland, engraver Micheline Hintzy bends over a dial blank measuring thirty-two millimetres in diameter.
2026-05-28
Inside a Workshop That Makes Bespoke Umbrella Frames
Francesco Maglia, founded in Milan in 1854, is one of the last umbrella makers in Europe manufacturing its own frames from raw materials.
2026-05-28
The Stone Carver Commissioned by Architects Who Build for Eternity
Simon Verity, the Anglo-American stone carver responsible for the carved tympanum above the west portal of the Cathedral of St.
2026-05-28
The Ceramic Glazes That Take Six Months to Perfect
At his studio in Mashiko, Japan, potter Shoji Yamaguchi maintains a glaze notebook spanning thirty-seven years and over four thousand test tiles.
2026-05-27
How a Defunct Railway Workshop Became a Furniture Atelier
When the Great Western Railway works at Swindon closed in 1986, it left behind a cathedral of industrial space: soaring iron-framed buildings with clerestory windows, concrete floors scored by decades of heavy machinery, and an overhead crane system capable of lifting steam locomotives.
2026-05-27
The Last Saddlemaker in the Rhône Valley
In Hauterives in the Drome department of southeastern France, Jean-Pierre Marchand operates the last traditional saddlery in the Rhone Valley.
2026-05-26
How a Florentine Workshop Keeps the Art of Gold Leaf Alive
Beneath the shadow of the Duomo, the Manetti family has been beating gold into leaf since 1820.
2026-05-26
Why Hand-Stitched Leather Outlasts Machine-Sewn
The saddle stitch uses two needles passing through the same hole from opposite directions.
2026-05-25
How to Tell Real Craftsmanship from Marketing Copy
The word handcrafted appears on products from seven-thousand-pound watches to seven-pound candles.
2026-05-24
Why Heritage Brands Survive While Trends Disappear
Barbour has been making waxed cotton jackets in South Shields since 1894.
2026-05-23
Inside a Tuscan Tannery: How Vegetable-Tanned Leather Is Made
At the Badalassi Carlo tannery in San Miniato, Tuscany, raw cowhides hang in pits filled with chestnut bark liquor dark as espresso.
2026-05-23
The Architecture of Marrakech's Riads
From a narrow, windowless medina alley, a riad reveals nothing.
2026-05-22
The 30-Year Razor: What Makes It Worth It
A Muhle R89 safety razor consists of three pieces of chrome-plated zamak alloy machined to ensure consistent blade gap and exposure angle.
2026-05-21
What the Great Libraries of the Islamic Golden Age Preserved for Us
In the ninth century, Caliph al-Mamun established the Bayt al-Hikma, the House of Wisdom, in Baghdad.
2026-05-19
The Art Dealers Who Bet on Unknown Painters
In 1905, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler opened a tiny gallery on Rue Vignon in Paris and began buying paintings by an unknown Spanish artist named Pablo Picasso.
2026-05-18
Why the Piano Bar Refuses to Die
The piano bar — that stubbornly analogue institution where a musician plays requests for a room of strangers who may or may not sing along — has survived the death of the cocktail lounge, the rise and fall of the nightclub, the karaoke revolution, and the pandemic.
2026-05-17
On the Pleasures of Reading Biographies of People You Dislike
Robert Caro's The Power Broker, a 1,344-page biography of Robert Moses — the urban planner who reshaped New York City through highways, bridges, and parks while destroying neighbourhoods and displacing hundreds of thousands of residents — is riveting precisely because its subject is detestable.
2026-05-17
The Photographers Who Shoot Only in Black and White, Still
Sebastiao Salgado spent six years photographing the world's last untouched ecosystems for his project Genesis, and he shot every frame in black and white.
2026-05-17