We are in the final stages of editing two books and getting them ready for press by the end of February.
“Ingenious Mechanicks: Early Workbenches & Workholding” is being indexed right now by Suzanne Ellison. Megan Fitzpatrick and Kara Gebhart Uhl are giving it a final edit for typographical problems.
This will be my first book with a dust jacket (see above). I hope this book justifies it. The gorgeous photos from Narayan Nayar and the paintings from the last 2,000 of human history make this book visually interesting – as well as educational (I hope). The book will be 172 pages, hardbound, on heavy and coated 8-1/2” x 11” paper. Full color throughout.
I don’t have any information on pricing, yet. My guess is it will be about $45 retail. This book was crazy expensive to write thanks to all the expense of acquiring permissions to reprint images from all over the world, trips to Italy and Germany to inspect artifacts and the professional illustrations. Heck, the wood to make the workbenches was the cheapest part of the endeavor.
The second book at the ready is “Cut & Dried: A Woodworker’s Guide to Timber Technology” by Richard Jones. I finished my edit of the book this week. Megan, Kara and Suzanne are now making a final sweep through the book for errors and consistency.
We spent a long time coming up with the title for this book and are quite pleased with it. While Richard’s text covers every aspect of how the world of trees and woodworkers intersect, just about every detail that is important to woodworkers is how the wood was cut and how it was dried. This influences its appearance, its stability, the defects and even whether it will be susceptible to attack by pests or mold.
I am working on the cover for this book right now, and it involves a little woodworking, a little fire and some hand-printing. I’ll be covering the process here on the blog in the coming week.
“Cut & Dried” will be a sizable hardbound book at 320 pages on heavy 9” x 12” paper. I suspect the price will be about $50 to $60. We are waiting on quotes from the printer.
We will open the ordering process later this month and both books should ship from the printer in early April. More details on pricing and who will be carrying these books will come soon.
Waiting in the Womb
Soon after the above books go to press, we’ll have two more almost immediately. It’s going to be a busy year. Joshua Klein’s book “With Hands Employed Aright” will be back from the designer shortly. And Jögge Sundqvist’s “Slöjd in Wood” is almost ready to go to press.
And shortly behind those two books are new titles from Christian Becksvoort and Marc Adams. Oh, and Peter Follansbee.
— Christopher Schwarz
Looking forward to Ingenious Mechanicks especially.
Super exciting Chris! You’re obviously in a “sloth and torpor” lazy spell in your career. The dust jacket looks beautiful.
Good thing I created a book budget
That’s quite a pipeline of excellent books. I’m most interested in Ingenious Mechanicks and With Hands Employed Aright. I don’t know much about the book publishing industry, but that’s an interesting comment on the dust jacket. I always throw away dust jackets because I prefer the simple quality hardback underneath. Keep up the good work!
LAP has become a Juggernaut.
Not a fan of dust covers, myself. They’re seem to slide off the book and get wrinkled or otherwise damaged if I am reading in any other position other than with the book on a flat surface. Mary Mary and Don Williams’ books give me fits for this reason. Of course, there’s a simple solution- I remove the dust jacket while I read. So, this isn’t a complaint as much as it is a tip: If you don’t like dust jackets, you may take them off. *BOOM!* Enjoy that Saturday morning life hack!
If you all don’t slow down, I’m going to end up broke with a huge library of woodworking books! I want a copy of all of the books you’ve listed.
You clearly aren’t one for dillydallying, lollygagging, faffing about, resting upon your laurels, or dawdling, that’s for sure.
This is going to be an incredible year for books from LAP. Thanks for the exciting news!
Any news on the updated version of the Roman Workbench book and its printing on a regular press?
That book is now called “Ingenious Mechanicks.”
I’m curious what would be on a list of the best books for a beginning wood worker.
The Woodworker – the Charles H. Hayward years I-IV are imho a good bet. Lots of others too, so these are definitely not the only ones, but they cover a lot of ground, in depth and meticulously with great illustrations.
I’m partial to Wearing. Really got a lot out of The Essential Woodworker when I started.
https://lostartpress.com/collections/books/products/the-essential-woodworker
– Plus 1 on Wearing book
– A book on Sharpening. Ron Hock’s or Leonard Lee’s
– Chris’ The Anarchist a Toolchest is a very good reference on hand tools and he mentions his power tool recommendations. Plus it’s a good read.
The above would keep you busy and give you a good foundation.
-If you want a good video, download The Naked Woodworker also available through Lost Art Press. See the description on the Lost Art Press site.
Any timetable on the book on kitchen design with Nancy Hiller? I’m holding off on a remodel here . . .
Wow, this is going to be a good bookbuying year for me. $45 for Ingenious Mechanicks is a steal.
Every woodworker, from beginner to advanced, needs to know the characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of wood. Having followed Richard Jones on woodworking forums for decades now, I am confident his book will be a tremendous foundation to every woodworker’s knowledge and understanding. Yes, the other coming book sounds very interesting, but without knowledge and understanding of wood, our projects have unnecessary risk of “issues” and “problems” during and after construction.
Very cool, I’ve been a fan of Joshua for a few years.
What’s Marc Adams’ book going to be about?
I’m clearly not the only one who’s been anxiously awaiting Joshua Klein’s book since the first blogs about it here.
Any update on “Make a Chair from a Tree”?
Both books sound interesting to me….I actually prefer dense, encyclopedic reference woodworking books. I can’t name more than 2 woodworking youtubers but I can name a long list of my favorite authors….. (and the youtube woodworking crowd is going more the way of crafty/maker/rustic/kreg jig thing anyhow. which is cool but not my thing)…
I actually don’t own books on workbenches, because I just could never fetish workbenches like most woodworkers. I am happy with an MFT and a sturdy assembly table (and I’d probably buy one from Lie Nielsen before I’d spend the time to build one). But I like history and photos so it sounds like something I might like.
I own Hoadley’s book, and it is my go-to source on wood science, but I am always open to looking at another author’s insight and approach.
Can you give me date on the release of “CUT and DRIED” by Richard Jones?
Would like to give as a gift no later than May 1.
Many thanks
Dick Wilhelm
850-294-7963