A Statement of Purpose

The craft of the disciplinary cane has largely been abandoned to indifference. Most of what the market offers has not been made so much as sourced, graded, and dispatched — and what passes for quality is frequently little more than the absence of obvious defect. I hold a different standard. I did not arrive at this craft by accident, and I have not remained in it without conviction. There is a difference between a cane that has been made and a cane that has merely been cut to length, and everything that leaves my studio reflects which side of that distinction I am on.
Both shops — Stripewell Canes and Englishvice Canes — are mine. Same studio, same hands, same standard. I do not employ finishers or delegate selection. Every piece of rattan that becomes an instrument under either name has passed through my hands and met a standard I set for myself at the beginning and have not since revised downward.

Stripewell Canes is the house of discipline — institutional in character, precise in execution, rooted in the English tradition of correction as it was seriously understood and seriously practised. If you come to the craft through that tradition, Stripewell is where you belong.

Englishvice Canes is the house of the craft itself — its history, its materials, its long and underappreciated place in English artisan tradition. If what draws you is the object as much as its purpose, the making as much as the result, Englishvice is where you belong.
They are different houses. They are not different standards.

I keep production limited because the work demands it. One maker, working properly, cannot produce at volume without producing worse. I have no interest in producing worse. What leaves my studio represents a significant portion of my time and judgment, and I would rather make fewer things well than more things adequately.

This is not a hobby and it is not a business in the ordinary sense. It is a practice — one I take seriously, have always taken seriously, and expect my patrons to take seriously too.

If that is what you are looking for, welcome.