From whittling to knitting, how modern men craft

Crafts for men have come a long way since the days when "Popular Mechanics" advised returning World War II soldiers in the rustic arts of whittling and leather tooling.

A compendium from the magazine's postwar archives, "Man Crafts" (Hearst Books, 2009), celebrates male-geared hobbies of yesteryear. It reads like last year's cheeky book by Amy Sedaris, "Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People" (Grand Central Publishing).

"It's meant more as an amusement and a fond look back, more than anything else," says Jacqueline Deval, a Hearst Books vice president, although the instructions in "Man Crafts" are legitimate.

The book throws into contrast how different things are today. Some of its nostalgic hobbies remain popular among women and men, although there might no longer be a market for tin-can candle holders and tin serving trays.

But a quick glance at Etsy.com, an online avenue where people sell handmade goods and old-timey collectibles, also turns up men making soap, glass works and knitwear. Men designing T-shirts and other clothing. Men creating electrical gadgets and making art journals.

And men brewing beer. According to the American Homebrewers Association, based in Boulder, Colo., nearly 750,000 people brew beer at home at least once a year in the United States.

One of them is Mitch Larsen, of Lincoln, Neb., who likes the challenge of crafting a great-tasting beer.

"It's science-y," says Larsen, 41. "There's a lot that goes into making good beer. You can make beer with a kit at the store, but it's not going to be good beer."

Good beer, according to Larsen, requires reading and research, talking with other home brewers, lots of taste testing and making unfortunate mistakes.

"It's a creative outlet for me because I formulate my own recipes," says Larsen.

Joshua Zimmerman's creative outlet is tinkering with small electrical projects. The 28-year-old, fourth-grade teacher in Milwaukee makes Altoid tin USB chargers and flashlights, and small robots from toothbrush heads and solar battery chargers. His creations usually can be made with a few bucks and a few parts, often from recycling old electronics.

"I spend way too much time on researching this stuff for my own amusement," Zimmerman says.

He simplifies ideas he finds online, assembles them in kits, and sells them from his online shop, Brown Dog Gadgets, and at Etsy. He also posts the instructions for all of his projects, most of which take under an hour for a novice and require a little metal soldering.