The Lost Art Press bricks-and-mortar store will be closed this Friday (Nov. 13), because we have collective paraskevidekatriaphobia. Or because we are short-staffed due to vacations, out-of-town classed, teaching obligations and the like. One of those two. Apologies for the short notice. (But we are open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. today, Tuesday and Wednesday).
And upcoming closing for the holidays are Nov. 27 (the day after Thanksgiving), as well as Dec. 25 and Jan. 1, 2027.
– Fitz
If I could write 10 more books like “Ingenious Mechanicks,” I would be a happy guy. The book is exactly what I thought I would be doing as a writer and woodworker:
That is the script for “Ingenious Mechanicks.” But there’s more. We flushed thousands of dollars away trying to translate a 1505 Germanic codex on early workbenches. I went into a volcano (the one that destroyed the earliest known workbenches). And I got to sort through thousands of old paintings to gather the clues for how these old benches were used.
“Ingenious Mechanicks” is one part travelogue and one part experimental archaeology. Add to that the fact that the low Roman workbench has never gone extinct – it has just become invisible to our modern eyes.
During the last decade I’ve built dozens of these low benches for our shop and for other woodworkers. They are, in many ways, the perfect workbench for the modern era.
They are low, portable and fit anywhere. If you don’t have room for a workshop, a low workbench can serve as a coffee table during the day and a workbench at night. They are portable – you can throw one in the back of a car and take it on vacation.
And they open the world of woodworking to people who struggle with tall workbenches. Since writing the book, I’ve seen lots of woodworkers with mobility limitations embrace the form.
But most of all, you get to sit down when you use them. These benches change the ergonomics for many operations. They allow you to conserve your energy. And they are great for sawing up stock – or even eating your lunch.
“Ingenious Mechanicks” is the slowest-selling book of my career. But it is my favorite. And based on all the Roman workbenches I now see popping up in shops all over the world, I know that the book’s time is coming.
And every day that I sit on my Roman bench and start to work, I know that time is soon.
— Christopher Schwarz
I grew up with campaign furniture. My grandparents collected it. And my dad was fond of building it. We had stacking campaign chests (and, weirdly, side tables) in our house in Arkansas.
I didn’t think anything was odd about it. It was simple and rugged stuff. Nothing fancy.
But when I started working at Popular Woodworking Magazine, I found that none of the editors had any interest in the style. After surveying 200,000 readers, they had data on their side. Here’s what readers wanted to read about:
Readers never even mentioned “campaign furniture” when asked what furniture styles they liked. Instead of kowtowing to the data, I decided that readers needed to be exposed to campaign furniture. And then they would like it.
So in 2014, I wrote “Campaign Furniture,” a book I spent almost a decade researching. The book has nine projects that offer a fair look at this important furniture style. There are campaign chests, folding desks, collapsible bookshelves and Roorkhee chairs – folding leather armchairs you can carry under your arm.
My family and friends have been living with the furniture for 12 years now. We’ve moved houses. I’ve taken the Roorkhee chairs all over the country (and built more than 100 of them for customers). And the campaign chests have been moved up and down the stairs over and over.
Movers love campaign furniture. The stuff breaks down easily. And you can drop it (a lot).
I love working at my campaign secretary. I fold it open and have everything I need to be a writer. In the drawers below, I have my small collection of handplanes plus all the demos my college band recorded in the 1990s.
My campaign chest (in reclaimed teak) is a personal favorite. I keep my collection of Kurt Vonnegut novels on top. And the skeletonized brass hardware makes me think everytime I use it. Why don’t we make hardware like this anymore?
The joinery on campaign furniture is faultless. The full-blind dovetails on campaign chests are the best of both worlds. They are incredibly strong and incredibly forgiving to saw and chisel.
The officers’ chest offers a joint you won’t find outside of campaign furniture: a rabbeted and screwed joint where the proud screw heads are leveled with a file.
When I finished writing the book, I had at least 50 other projects that I wanted to build for a second book on the style. But I have never found the time.
Fingers crossed I can get back to it.
— Christopher Schwarz
Special offer: We are reducing the price of “The Essential Woodworker” by Robert Wearing to $23 – that’s the price we charged in 2010 when we released our version of this important hand-tool book. This special offer lasts until Christmas Day. After that, the book will return to its normal price of $33 (still a very good deal on a U.S.-made hardcover book with a sewn binding).
If you know someone who needs a little push into the hand-tool world, this is a great gift. “The Essential Woodworker” ties together all the little disparate hand-tool skills we pick up at the bench to show you how to make a table, a cabinet, a door or a dovetailed drawer.
Order a copy at the special price here.
— Christopher Schwarz
With a trip to London planned, I decided to fly to the U.K. a few days early last month to visit Belfast in Northern Ireland to meet Heritage Carpenter Peter Sloan and Curator of History Fiona Byrne at the Ulster Folk Museum. They are working together to document and photograph all the many chairs and other seating in the museum’s collection, and kindly pulled some for me from storage so that I could take a closer look. Then Peter showed me around the open-air living history museum.
Located just outside of Belfast, the museum, which opened in 1964, is currently undergoing a £50 million “Reawakening Project.” It includes 60 historic buildings that have been moved to the site from across Ulster and reconstructed in town and country settings to allow visitors to experience life in the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Below are just some of the chairs that are currently in storage.
And here are some scenes from buildings in the living history museum:
And of course I found some cats, basking under a heat lamp in a hay-filled wooden wagon.
If you find yourself in Belfast or thereabouts, the Ulster Folk Museum is well worth a visit. And you might find Peter Sloan in the joiner’s shop, dressed in period clothing.
