A couple of years ago, in a small tailor shop in Little Italy, Montreal, I tried on a shirt. The shirt was an ordinary-looking blue herringbone, and yet something about it was different. The fabric was softer, the body was tapered, the collar was spread, the arms were...

The best axes in the world cost around $200.  That’s right, for $200 you can acquire something that Gransfors Bruks, a small Swedish company, has been producing with the utmost care since 1902.  A blacksmith has hand-forged each axe, after which he or she stamps their...