Reference
True Your Mind
Essays on reference points, grief, discipline, and the work of getting honest before the next cut is made.
DATUM / by Thomas Craft
Check Your Datum.
Precision in the shop.Clarity in the mind.Truth in the work.
Everything starts from a reference. DATUM is writing, tools, and shop-born thinking for measuring from something true before building the next thing.
The work
A system of measured attention.
Shop
Trade Lessons
Shop-floor notes on machining, craft, mistakes, tolerances, and what the bench teaches when the part does not care about opinion.
Field Notes
The Dispatch
Field notes from the work, the yard, the tools, and the life around them.
Utilities
CADVANTAGE / Tools
Practical shop utilities and CADVANTAGE work kept close to the bench, secondary to the writing and built from real use.
Book project
True Your Mind
The deeper book project behind DATUM: a plainspoken study of reference, discipline, grief, and the slow work of coming back into alignment.
It treats clarity like setup work. Find the datum, check the reading, and stop pretending a bad reference can make a true part.
Read about the bookBench Notes
Join the list.
Short dispatches on craft, clarity, tools, and the work of checking your datum.