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Tinkering with the recipe for gingerbread cake until it's right, adjusting to the variability of local grains, and cherishing the quiet mornings when the sun fills the bakery windows with Sophie Williams, a baker in Bellingham, Washington.

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The Art of Taking It Slow
24 Aug 2025
newyorker.com

Anna Wiener interviews Grant Petersen, the owner of Rivendell Bicycle Works, who has amassed an ardent following by urging people to abandon the spandex and personal bests, get a comfortable bike, and go easy.

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The Wizard of Vinyl Is in Kansas
7 Mar 2025
nytimes.com

Chad Kassem is on a mission — saving listeners “from bad sound” — at the rural factory where he pores over LPs from some of music’s most important artists.

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The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils, 1952-1967
5 Mar 2025
notes.stlartsupply.com

It was the summer of 1952, and the executives of Tombow Pencil were about to revolutionize the Japanese pencil industry—or, possibly, fall flat on their faces. Hachiro Ogawa, the son of founder Harunosuke Ogawa, was Tombow's managing director, and he had just finished a years-long project, at enormous cost,

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When I was a kid, I was fascinated by a traditional katana my grandfather had brought home from Japan in 1945. Years later, I decided it was time to find the heirloom’s rightful owner.

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We made sand think: this phrase is used from time to time to evoke the particular technological wonders of our age, especially since artificial intelligence seems to be back on the slate of possibilities.

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A Knife Forged in Fire
19 Dec 2024
chicagomag.com

The author wanted a Japanese-style kitchen blade made for him by hand. What he witnessed was a combination of artistry and atomic magic.

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‘A good knife is not only about the steel’
16 Jun 2024
japantimes.co.jp

Founded in 2022, the knife-making process at Isamitsu Knives differs from industrial manufacturers in small but significant ways.

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About Us
13 Jun 2024
calamityware.com
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archived 22 Jul 2023 03:08:13 UTC

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The family-owned facility in Tennessee produces more than 70 million pencils annually

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When fire engulfed the Paris landmark in 2019, the intricate maze of medieval beams supporting the roof fell to the cathedral floor. Experts are working to restore the church by the end of 2024.

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Not every Phillips head fastener is a Phillips head fastener. If you don't know about Japanese Industrial Standard, now you'll know.

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He’s trusted to repair some of the world’s most fabled — and expensive — instruments. How does John Becker manage to unlock the sound of a Stradivarius?

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The Antico Setificio Fiorentino, which relies on looms from the 18th and 19th centuries, has been producing precious textiles since 1786.

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The Dark Art of Mastering Music
5 Jul 2022
pitchfork.com

Shedding light on the elusive studio practice that’s all but necessary to make music sound great.

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Shop Class as Soulcraft
27 Jun 2022
thenewatlantis.com

Our rejection of craftsmanship wrongly ignores the cognitive, social, and remunerative rewards of skilled manual work, and wrongly assumes that white-collar work always engages the mind. Matthew B. Crawford recounts life as a motorcycle mechanic and makes a case for the manual trades.

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Toledo’s Last Swordmakers
26 Aug 2021
theguardian.com

Famed since Roman times, the Spanish city’s artisans are all but extinct. But a reprieve is at hand from the TV and film industry

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Paper, books, wooden joints, tea whisks — Japanese culture has, for seemingly all of its long recorded history, greatly esteemed the making of objects.