This is TMAP

TMAP has been making the metal bases for Graypants' TILT table lamps. Today I finished the first floor lamp base in an attempt to earn the work for their floor lamps.

I thought it would be nice to share the process, so people can see the kind of work I do.

The floor lamp design calls for 1 1/4" x 1 1/4" x 1/8" angle, which I cut to length. This photo shows the coping work done to allow for the bend at the top of the lamp. Detail work here is very important.

I drill all the holes where they need to go, and then tap the two holes for the M6 knurled thumbscrews by hand to ensure they're sharp and perpendicular to the material.

The Hossfeld bender we have at Metalworks & Design is a miracle. It comes with dozens of dies and has worked extremely well for over fifty years.

Bending is a challenge. Slight variations in the material can result in slightly over- or under-bent results.

A little bit of gentle cold forging over Jonathan's anvil horn to spread it back out.

Now the angle's good, so I move on to the base.

Angle grinding is more like painting than like hammering. A gentle touch is required to smooth out the rough edges. Pressing too hard will dig into the material and potentially ruin the piece. The sparks are awesome, but while you're working you have to focus on where the abrasive just was, and think about where your hands should be.

A pneumatic orbital sander polishes the top layer, removing any dirt or small scratches and imparts a random texture which will take the finish well.

Now that each piece is finished, they're joined with a plug weld on the bottom. The fitting is so precise that I have to tap the vertical into the base with a hammer.

When these two pieces are together, the lamp is in its final shape. This is when the finisher uses a remarkable level of attention to detail to give a final touch to the entire lamp.

I am amazed by my finisher's work. Having attempted to do similar work, I can't tell you how much skill it takes to get the results he gets. I can't tell you because I'm not even close.

In this condition it's delivered to Graypants to see if it suits their expectations and wins TMAP the work.

Before I was fully sentient I'm told there was an expectation of quality in the products people bought. It may have been a result of the wars, the extremely strong and balanced economy, or a national pride in manufacturing. It was probably a combination - it usually is. When someone paid for something, they knew that it would do its job perfectly and thousands of times, unless its job was to do it once, and then it would do that with memorable grace.

Insofar as this was ever actually true, things have since changed. I won't say the sky is falling. It's not falling. The sky is fine. There's a good reason that cheap products have ruled the last three decades. It's what people want. If you can make something cheaply enough that replacing it is easier than fixing it, and the buyer feels good about this mutual expectation, then why not? Both parties win. (Ignoring, of course, the third party - the maker.)

Actually, no. Let's not ignore the maker. The maker is the only other person in the world who has had a personal relationship with what you're about to buy, and that's an incredibly powerful relationship. In fact, this is what this whole post is about.

For any given product, the only people who can ensure that it's built with pride are the people who built it. In that mystical time period I ignorantly and nostalgically described in the first paragraph, makers were not divorced from the customers. This is the time period that generated the shop crane in my shop that hasn't been oiled in ten years and can still tear a wall out of the ground. They made Steelcase desks. Their milk bottles are still in circulation. These people were completely serious.

Most such companies have fallen away, but they're not all gone. What's really interesting to me, though, is that recently there's been something in the air: new companies are starting with these same principles as their focus.

Somebody, somewhere, will sell you the best shop crane in the world. You can buy a guitar that will sound like angels even after you drive a railroad tie with it. You can get a case for your iPad that is made with more passion than the tablet it holds. There's a sweatshirt for sale that comes with a ten year guarantee, and another that will last a lifetime. Shinola is way ahead of me on the subject of watches and bicycles.

I don't think this shift toward quality is happening in spite of our brutalized economy but because of it. We've all buckled down. We've been buckled down. We're not all fearless about money yet; we may never be. But we've also become reacquainted with the experience of products that last. Maybe they're the only ones we still have.

In the last year the conversation seems to have changed from how much we don't have to how great it feels to use and cherish truly exceptional things. Just a few of them - nothing gawdy - it's not like we're rich yet. Just sometimes.. for the things that matter.

I feel very lucky to be around right now. I'm excited to see what my generation will do with our era. I'll continue my efforts to improve as a designer and maker of things, and will strive to be a member in it.

I just found this article thanks to the precision-controlled curiosity machine called Facebook.

This man, named Rutherford Chang, buys people's original vinyl editions of the white album by The Beatles. He's fascinated by the story that each of them tells. Kids wrote on them with crayons. They were melted in a fire. They rotted in the basement. They were played thousands of times with no other significant events. In all cases, the owners still had them until they sold them to Chang.

http://www.wired.com/design/2013/02/we-buy-white-albums/

The article is incredibly sparse on details, but there is so much buried beneath it. What fascinates me is what I imagine happening in the mind of the readers of this article. Everyone who reads it will think of the white album - where they first heard it, maybe; where their copy is; what that one object's story is.

Virtually everyone of several generations has owned it at some point or another yet each person, when prompted, can recall parts of their copy's unique story. It was yours and it changed your life, and that means that it existed for you. But it also earned itself a story when you weren't around, which means that it existed without you.

New partnerships

Right now we're working on a few partnerships:

Hosford & Co

The newest partnership is with the metalworkers at Hosford & Co.

Thomas and I are connected by a mutual friend in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We met there briefly a few years ago when I was working as a journeyman with the brilliant blacksmith Mike Wolfe.

Our discussion began with the shape of the business arrangement and we got talking design on a few products he's been developing. We hope to have some launched soon, so stay posted!

Filson

Another partnership in the works is with with Filson. TMAP will choose a few of their products to make available from the site.

You

If you're a fabricator or wholesaler of excellent products, and are interested in selling through TMAP, please get in touch! We're always interested in working with makers of fine goods. As yet our store offers mostly gifts for men, but our broader goal is to offer all kinds of legacy-grade products with a purpose. So, if you think you have a product that suits us, please get in touch using the contact link above.

Also: semi-incorporation achieved!

As of February 14, 2013, These Men Are Professionals, LLC is officially registered with the Washington Secretary of State.

That's pretty exciting to me. Soon I will be paying taxes on time, winning credit applications from manufacturers and wholesalers, and writing ongoing operational agreement admendments.

A friend of mine, on discovery of this site, compared our design philosophy with that of Dieter Rams.

Reading it confirmed a similarity although, of course, his list was generated by true brilliance and then refined by several high profile decades. The comparison was extremely flattering.

Here it is. The ten design principles of Dieter Rams.

Design...

..is innovative

..makes a product useful

..is aesthetic

..makes a product understandable

..is unobtrusive

..is honest

..is long-lasting

..is thorough down to the last detail

..is environmentally friendly

..is as little design as possible