We saved so much money with our A.J. Roubo Plate 11 poster download, that we decided to offer another discontinued poster.
The Anarchist’s Tool Chest poster was a letterpress project we did with the now-defunct Steam Whistle Letterpress and Randall Wilkins. Randy drew the image, and Steam Whistle printed the image on its proofing press. We’ve long sold out of the posters, and Steam Whistle has dissolved.
So now you can download a high-resolution image here and get it printed out at any print shop that can handle poster-sized jobs. This poster is 18” x 24”, a standard poster size and the size of the original.
Here’s the link.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ATC_poster-18×24-1.jpg
If your local print shop is concerned about copyright violations, bless them. Print out this blog entry and show it to the employees. Lost Art Press is the copyright holder, and we grant you permission to print this out for your personal use.
The 10-year Anniversary of ATC
It dawned on me recently that we are coming up on the 10th anniversary of the publication of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” You can be sure that we are planning on making a bunch of worthless trinkets for you to buy to commemorate the meaningless passage of time going to do very little to mark the occasion.
We are thinking about making a special baseball cap – something handmade in the USA – with an old-fashioned felt patch featuring the cover logo. But honestly, we might skip that.
What I am doing to mark the occasion is something I would encourage you to do as well: I am packing up tools that I don’t need and finding new homes for them. Recently I gave away an old tool chest, a dust collector and a thickness planer. I now have another box of tools ready and have several people in mind for them. (Hint: No need to pester me for free tools.)
Excess tools are a scourge. Taking care of them takes time away from my furniture making. And leaving tools idle keeps them out of the hands of people who could use them.
Where do my excess tools come from? Good question. Sometimes they are given to the shop as gifts. Sometimes when someone leaves the craft, they give us their tools to give to others. Sometimes locals find tools in the cellar and drop them off. And occasionally I need to buy a tool for an article or book or photo shoot I’m working on.
If you’ve never given away your excess tools, I recommend it. It’s cathartic.
Anyway, in the coming months we’ll soon have many more pieces of plastic junk from Oriental Trading Company branded with the ATC logo for you to buy and throw away we might have some news about that hat.
— Christopher Schwarz
Can’t wait for my ATC branded marital aide to arrive
That’s awesome. I missed the poster when it first came out as I arrived late to the party. It’s great to be able to get it now. At the risk of stretching the friendship, it would be terrific if the Studley toolchest poster also made a comeback (happy to pay of course!). Looking forward to the commemorative trinkets.
Is that really a twin-handed backsaw sticking out of that crate?
Yup
Robert Lang had one of those when he was at P/W
It’s to prevent you from looking like a tennis player.
Happy Anarchiversary!
It’s good to see you are rescuing orphans from the Island of Misfit Tools.
“Hey, that’s a nice old chisel.”
“Thanks. She’s a rescue.”
Thanks again! Another nice’un, this! LAP, the publishers that keep on givin’ …
And I completely agree about it being a good thing to do to re-home one’s excess tools.There’s not yet a box full in my shop of such tools (for a start I haven’t been at it anyway near as long as you), but there’s already some stuff I’d be happy to see in hands that would put them to use, which I’m not likely to do as they’ve been superseded by later acquisitions.
At least some of them, I think I would have to do some fettling on first, though – as they are now, they’re not quite ready to go to work, and I don’t like the idea of foisting that fettling on to a recipient, even if one could say it’d be fair p(l)ay for free stuff.
To be a little more precise, my thinking is that decent but basic quality tools are more likely to made welcome by and be of real help to someone who is more of a beginner – which’d also most likely be someone to whom a not-quite tool could form a hard-to-solve problem, because they’re a beginner. So I think I shall first practice my own fettling skills on these tools and rehome them later, once I get them working more or less as they should.
Cheers,
Mattias
Thank you again!
I have that poster on the wall. and the tool chest from the loved book ATC. Thanks for all you do for us.
You are right about the relief you feel after giving away tools. Left mine at a local tool store that sent them to Africa to help workers over there. Thank you for the ATC poster!
Chris,
I agree with giving tools away, it’s good for the soul.
Yeas back I met a young fellow who’s is now my best friend and I gave him a 100 year old Bailey plane and instructed him how to restore it. His eye lit up and in two days it was a masterpiece. Since, I believe I’ve furnished half his shop from which wonderful things have risen.
rok
If it wasn’t for this awful pandemic, I’d have gotten rid of some power tools that have only been gathering dust myself. Remarkable how much space they take up, mentally as well as physically, and I’ll be glad when they’re gone as I’ve rather grown to resent them and much rather see them go to someone who’d actually them.
Thanks for this poster with its high resolution and measurements. I had started building a downsized version to store a combination plane in, and this will help with the finer details.
Great idea on the spring clean/tool donation, will have a look through the shed this weekend.
And holding out hope that the next poster for download is “By Hammer and Hand”, still kicking myself for snoozing on that one.
That poster was not produced digitally. It was 100 percent letterpress. I’d love to do it again, but the shop and the press are gone.
Just shifted on a bunch of stuff to my sister in law which came to me through my Dad and my own tool upgrades over the years hence some double ups.I know she will put the tools to good use and it helps her. There was a bit of excitement when the Moravian bench was seen however so I might have created a bit more work for myself than intended. Feed the fire!
True beauty is not the point where there is nothing left to add but when there is nothing left to take away…. I feel the same about tools, it is about doing more and better with less….
I have that poster and a first edition ATC, love them both…
I have been passing down some of my father’s tools to my daughter and my nephews.
Time to pass them on, along with a story or two. Only two were old enough to remember him before he passed.
And now that my daughter is buying a house, I think I will be able to cull down a few more.
I would absolutely purchase and proudly wear a ATC baseball cap. Please do make a run if you find other interest.