“The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” is now at the printer and we, like some of you, are tapping our toes as we wait.
So to pass the time, we are offering a free download of the prologue and first chapter of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” in .pdf format. This is a small sample – the book is 480 pages. I didn’t mean to write that much. It just happened.
Here’s a link to download the file:
Also, I know that many of you enjoyed the quotations that I posted here on the blog while I was building the chest. Many of them are from Charles H. Hayward when he was editor of The Woodworker magazine. As I came across those quotes I typed them into a document.
I only managed to use a few of the quotes in the book. But all of them are in the file below – including some that weren’t even posted on the blog – for you to download and enjoy.
And finally, we are now taking pre-orders for “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” If you order before the book ships – we hope by early June – then you will receive free domestic shipping. The book is $37 and all copies that we sell through our store will be signed. You can read more details and place your order here in our store.
Note that we are planning on issuing a hand-bound leather edition of this book. There will only be 26 of those, and each will be lettered and signed. Details are to come, but we expect the leather edition will be available in July and will be about $200.
Thanks to all of you who have written encouraging notes during the last 14 months as I worked on this book during nights and weekends. I hope that the result doesn’t disappoint.
— Christopher Schwarz
Ordered!
Ordered
Any chance of your books become Kindle editions?
Probably not. Amazon is not a friend to the small publisher. Sorry.
We might experiment with a PDF version of the book.
Done. Ordered. How many is that so far?
Chris– are you going to have these for sale at the tool chest class in Germany?
My plan is to see how many students want the book and ship a box of them ahead of my flight. Last year I carried so many books with me I almost didn’t have room for undergarments.
Well, count me in, then.
Ben
Aaarghh… reading that chapter made me want to go out to the shop. Don’t know if I can wait to order it. Maybe you should contact me when you get around to making a tally of the students.
Ordered. Can’t wait to read it.
Done and Done.
I just finished the sample, and I am hooked.
Please, hurry up and send me the book so I can resolve the cliff hanger.
You’re an absolute bastard (and I mean that in the best of terms) for ending the sample with the following:
“Let’s begin by making a list of the tools you really need.”
I shake my fist at you sir, and eagerly await the book.
badger
Well I just read the first chapter, looks great and I’m looking forward to reading the rest. With an early June shipping date I assume the Schwarz effect will cause 40-some-odd tolls to go up in price. Happily there should be a few hundred that go down.
Ordered. Any chance of getting the PDF with a preorder? I really liked that with Robert Wearings book. thanks and can’t wait to read.
Unfortunately no. The Wearing book showed up on many bit torrent sites. It was disappointing and sad for us.
Understood. Chapter 1&2 are great. FYI – I predict that you will have more luck convincing people to buy a 47 bit gage than to sell any tools 🙂 selling tools is just less natural than buying them.
I just read the first chapter,looks great and i’m looking forward to reading the book.
I live in Sweden, can i preorder the book as i did with The Essential Woodworker? Or will it be available thru Lee Valley soon?
Lee Valley, Lie-Nielsen and Tools for Working Wood all will be carrying the book. And all are much better equipped to send books overseas than we are.
When these retailers have the book in stock, we will mention that here and provide links.
Sorry for the trouble. We are such a small company (two people) that shipping internationally is impossible.
Chris
Looking forward to another limited edition book. Love my copy of the Joiner and Cabinet Maker. When can i put my name on that list!
How about a tool a day countdown?
You no longer ship to Canada.
I can understand the resource problems, but still a bummer. 🙁 No siggie on the bookie at Lee Valley.
Rainer
Rainer,
Well I am coming to Canada (Waterloo) in September with the Anarchist’s Tool Chest and to sign books for Canadian readers.
That’s something, I hope.
Chris
What’s the deal on Waterloo? More information please.
Opening of the new LV store perhaps?
Yup. The opening of the new store.
After reading the sample I ran to abe and discovered two Grimshaw books about saws.
Care to offer any guidance on the fuller title?
As much as I’m looking forward to ACT, my wife is really looking forward to it.
48 tools? She may actually learn what some of them are to help me weed them out.
Chuck
Grimshaw on Saws, 1882
http://www.wkfinetools.com/hUS/z-USRead/onTools/1882-gOnSaws-grimshaw/1882-grimshaw.asp
Mr Schwarz,
I too am ordering as soon as the Mrs confirms I have allowance money in my account! I found several ideas in your intro particularly interesting, and those had to do with the philosophy of the creation of “value” (both fiduciary and aestetic) from one’s own mind and effort. That alone makes your new book something way outside the woodworking norm!
Your premises fit in nicely with some ideas I have been mulling over while passing countless hours here in Afghanistan. I have decided that I am going to learn to work wood in a manner that a 18th or 19th craftsman would appreciate. If the introduction you have shared with us is any indication of the rest of the book, I am certain it will become a standard reference for not only me but many others as well.
I’m looking forward to reading it, though as Saw Miester Matt of The Saw Blog said, the “Schwartz Effect” is certainly going to make some things very pricey on eBay. I hope I own enough junk I can sell off to complete my own Anarchist’s Tool Chest when I get back!
Best regards,
Albert “I’m Lost Somewhere in Afghanistan…Again!” Rasch
Well, I really don’t like anarchists, especially the urban hipster doofus sorts, but after reading your free chapter, your choice of that word made a lot more sense. I also like the dedication to Roy Underhill – he is the man. I built the lathe with which I make my living after seeing him build two lathes on his show. I thought “Hey, Roy’s not that much smarter than I am, if he can do it, so can I!” Turns out he is a very smart and well educated man, but not knowing my own limits, I went ahead and built my lathe. I was like a bumble bee who didn’t know he couldn’t fly.
Anyway, 6 years later, I am still turning, still making things every day, still enjoying it, and still pushing ahead and educating customers on why buying something made from local trees, by a local garden-gnome-clone is a good thing, and still learning and enjoying every minute of it.
Best of luck with your book. I really like what I have seen, although I have no idea how to build a portable lathe that fits in a tool chest.
Mr S,
The Mrs confirmed, and I ordered! It will be waiting for me when I get home!
Best regards,
Albert Rasch
24 hours to go until the end of my last round of eBay auctions. Several trips to Goodwill, scads of swap and sell posts on the internet, and feeding the Great Online Auction Satan, and I am about done with my tool purge. It has been going steady for nearly 2 years, but I got rid of a dozen tools for each one I bought over that time period. Probably cut my number of handtools in half. I took it as good karma that I had been paring down my tools before I heard about the book. I will have another round of house cleaning after I get through the book I bet.
Chris, can you tell us the rough dimensions of the carcass? I am guessing 22 inches tall. I am planning on repurposing some old pine shelving, and hope it will fill the bill.
The chest is about 24″ high, 24″ deep and 40″ long.
Very traditional measurements.
Any chance we could get a preview of that tool list. It would be nice to buy some of the tools before the “Schwarzonomics” effect kicks in. If anything you could offer the list to those who preorder the book, in fact I am preordering…NOW!
James
James,
Ah, you are obviously not a subscriber to our newsletter. They received that chapter already…..
Here’s the link:
http://lostartpress.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/atc_sample2.pdf
Awesome, thanks! Can’t wait for the book.
Ordered. Can’t wait to read it Chris!
Is a #51 Chute Board Plane on the list of needed tools?
No David, it’s not.
I purchased that tool for a review for the Fine Tool Journal and will be selling it, as nice as it is.
Chris
Ordered, and Holy Crap! I have to admit that I was considering giving this book a pass because, well, I hang my tools on the wall….Wait, who am I kidding? They just form a dense layer of clutter on my workbench. But I do have a nice, well-thought-out pattern of nails sticking out of the walls where they could stay for a brief period of time if I had the inclination.
But reading that first chapter, I started reading slower as I approached the end because I didn’t want it to be over. I am now eagerly awaiting my copy (and eagerly awaiting the return home from my in-laws this weekend, so I can stand in the shop and fondle my tools without guilt :D)