Kaufmann Mercantile | We believe good design means beautiful aesthetics and well-chosen materials for products that are built for functionality and durability.

Care For Copper

subtitle: Advice from America's Only Copper Cookware Manufacturer

By Jennifer S. Li | How-To | 14 Comments

Copper has many uses and benefits, and on top of it all, it boasts a gleaming amber surface and a patriotic history. But being owners of copper wares, fully versed in its sensitive surface, we were really concerned with the best way to clean and take care of it.

Equal Parts Ketchup and Salt Make Smudged Copper Shiny.

Kaufmann Mercantile spoke with the erudite Mac Kohler, founder of Brooklyn Copper Cookware, the sole manufacturer of copper cookware in the United States, who explained.

14 Comments

The Growler

subtitle: A Rebuttal for the Naysayers

By Nic Denholm | Product Design | 2 Comments

Growler Community Table. Image by Andrew Lamberson.

Beer enthusiasts can be a touchy bunch. The inexorable rise of the microbrewery, and selling craft drafts to discerning drinkers, has spawned an industry of self-styled ‘beer sommeliers’, always quick to point out the rich complexities of the latest brews to anyone who will listen. They tend towards an air of defensiveness that wine experts shed many vintages ago.

So it’s no surprise that the latest squabble within the beer community has not only come to a head, but threatened to froth over completely and make a mess of the bar.

2 Comments

The Stapler

subtitle: What Makes A Great One

By Autumn Giles | Product Design | 1 Comment

Staplers are all too often saddled with the trappings of the mundane. We think of them—inaccurately, I’d now argue—as standardized tools for monotonous tasks.

Image courtesy of History of the Heart.

I turned to Chad Lemke, stapler enthusiast and collector, to learn about the rich history and design quirks of paper staplers. Although he eschews the word “expert,” since 2007, Lemke has maintained Stapler of the Week, a site that “examines the memories and histories associated with” a single stapler from his collection each week. The site has been on hiatus for the past year, since as Lemke says “my one-year-old gets most of my waking attention these days,” but, as a childhood collector or erasers, I was delighted that he sat down with me via email to share a little of the vast world of staplers.

1 Comment

Irish Linen

subtitle: The Oldest Textile Known to Man

By Cass Daubenspeck | Materials | 8 Comments

By sight, it’s hard to tell what differentiates “Irish” linen from any other common cloth. By touch, it immediately becomes distinct, but how is hard to explain. So I tracked down one of a handful of remaining Irish linen weavers to spell out what makes Irish linen what it is, and how to tell it from imposters.

8 Comments

Rabbit Hunting

subtitle: Author Rohan Anderson Lives Off The Land

By Rohan Anderson | Outdoors | 5 Comments

Rohan Anderson is a modern-day hunter-gatherer and all around DIY-er. He provides food for his family purely from what he can grow in his garden, hunt in the forests and streams of Australia, or trade from his neighbors. Here, he takes us out on a typical day looking for the evening meal in the middle of a Southern Hemisphere heat wave.

Bacon-wrapped rabbit, the bounty of the hunt.

The cool breeze snuck in through the old fly screen window and broke my deep slumber. It had been a very hot few days here in Australia. Sometime in the night a cool change had come in from the south, and it was very much welcome. It’s been a hot summer, dry too with a handful of local bush fires and dangerously fast grassfires. Thankfully the old school house has got away unscathed with most of the fires being far away enough not to be a concern. But it is a sign that things are dry.

5 Comments

Fold a Pocket Square

subtitle: Experts on How & Why To Wear One

By Jessie Kwak | How-To | Comment

How to Fold a Pocket Square in Two Points

Folding a pocket square with two points

Jay Arem and business partner Jack Fischman founded their men’s accessory line, the Knottery, over a shared love of telling jokes and menswear. Their designs include ties, belts, and that oldie-but goodie: pocket squares. “When I was wearing a pocket square eight years ago, my friends would look at me like I was crazy,” Arem said. The pocket square, developed originally as a handkerchief during Grecian times, “isn’t functional. I mean, I wasn’t wiping a woman’s tears with it.” He paused. “Not that I go around making women cry.”

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We believe good design means beautiful aesthetics and well-chosen materials for products that are built for functionality and durability.

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Care For Copper

The Growler

The Stapler

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