This fall, we will hold a chairmaking class at Lost Art Press the likes of which I’ve never seen. Six students will be taught by three instructors – Rudy Everts, Klaus Skrudland and me – in a way that will allow students to explore stick chairs on their own terms.
Students will design and make stick chairs using a full range of methods available today, from entirely hand-powered all the way up to full-on electrified. (To be fair, we cannot offer the full gamut of techniques. We don’t have a CNC router, and we will not teach cutting tenons with buck teeth.)
Put another way, we will help you develop a stick chair of your own design using the library of templates at our shop or new shapes. Then you can build the chair using the techniques that you want to learn. Want to split out your parts with a froe and shape them with an ax? Rudy and Klaus have you covered. Want to use a band saw to speed things along? Klaus or Chris will help. Want to batch process hundreds of legs for a production run? Chris will show you how.
Want to learn lathe work? We have you covered. Shaving with a drawknife and spokeshave? Yup. Saddling with an angle grinder? Adze? Scorp? Travisher? Yes, yes and yes. If we know it, we will show you how to do it.
The class should be a bit chaotic, intense and exhausting. Oh, and it will be Rated PG-13. If you have ever read Chair Chat™, then you know that salty potatoes are always on the menu. I also suspect it will be the most fun you’ve ever had while woodworking. Klaus and Rudy are both insanely talented and hilarious. Plus I know lots of jokes about the Tax Act of 1894.
If you are interested, here are the details. The class will be held Oct. 10-14 at the Lost Art Press storefront in Covington, Ky. The tuition will be $1,300 per student plus materials (you can bring your own or we can provide them for a fee).
We have room for six students. You must be fully vaccinated against COVID to attend (this building is my home and my business). To make things as equitable as possible, we will fill those six slots via a random drawing. In July, we will open up registration for the class. After registration closes, we will select six students at random. We will post more details about the drawing and the class in the coming months.
But for now, just make sure that you don’t schedule any elective surgeries, weddings or “me time” for that week in October.
Klaus, Rudy and I are very excited about this class. I hope you will consider joining us.
— Christopher Schwarz
Chris,
This seems like a brilliant opportunity. Unfortunately, I teach in the Fall. If you decide to do again (hopefully), any chance it might be in the Spring? …. or I will have to figure out how to call in sick for a week. 🙂
Morgan
This is amazing news. I will be liable to get my name in the drawing. What a cool idea.
Lor-bloomin’-lumme!
I can see so, so many reasons (starting with the Atlantic not planning to go anywhere else soon that I’m aware of) why this would not be feasible, but crikey, will I tempted to throw my name in the hat anyway!?!
Eeek!
Sounds fun. It would be great just to attend to meet the other two guys teaching the class. In my mind, I picture them as the two old hecklers in the balcony on the Muppet Show.
Wow, that sounds amazing! Like taking an engine rebuilding class with Click and Clack. Have fun whoever is able to make it out there
“… we will not teach cutting tenons with buck teeth” I can gladly offer up one or more of the furry cretons that keep digging house holes in my earthen dam for teachers.
As a person of bucktoothed persuasion I feel discriminated against, however I fully intend to apply for this amazing opportunity.
This seems very exciting. Tons of fun. And the Wilson-Gorman jokes are icing on the cake.
Can you add some songs about the IMF?
I’ve been waiting for a re-schedule of the July 2020 stick chair class that was canceled due to Covid so I guess this is it. I will definitely sign up.
Sounds like a hoot!
Thank you for making this a random drawing. I think I will throw my name in the hat and let the universe decide. Would you be ok with someone who is basically beginner still?
The class is open to all skill levels. People who have never built a chair will be warmly welcomed. And students who are better than I am will be asked to teach the class.
Sweet! It’s blocked off on the calendar. Hopefully I’ll be seeing you in October.
Nice! Fingers crossed that we’ll meet!
That would be TFA (totally f’ing awesome). I wish all of those who enter the draw good luck (and I envy those who actually go). Couldn’t you do that in Norway? I’m broke at the moment, though, so not this year anyways. This gives you some time to organise it and me some time to put some money to the side 😉
Chair Chat live! That will be good. Hopefully there will be some footage of the event to view later.
We plan to do a Chair Chat Live™ during the event. And we will broadcast the result.
We do????
Oh, geez, just livestream it. We can all use the yucks.
Taking a chair building class is money well spent! I took a chair class here in Bellingham Washington last year with a local craftsmen it was great! I will be taking more furniture building classes in the future.
Totally agree!
Go Vikings!
Hell yea!!
This sounds awesome!
Maybe make a video of the course. I will not be able to attend this exciting event, but I would like to see how it goes
There was a young women who knew the 1894 Tax Act
When challenged she said “that’s a fact”
I use it each day
In a surprisingly common way
Let just say i have a very clean ass…. the last word eludes me … 🙂
Sounds great, maybe Klaus can bring an Akerblom chair to reverse engineer the geometry.
I’ll be throwing my name in the hat. Would be a fun way to celebrate my 40th. Even if my family doesn’t agree.
Hey Chris, just wanted to say that I’ve greatly appreciated all the knowledge pertaining to woodworking that I’ve garnered through your writing and videos over the past two years. I consider you to be one of the finest and historically informed woodworkers in America. I’ve been wanting to drive over to Kentucky to participate in one of the classes you offer for sometime now. Unfortunately, there are two things which bar me from realizing that dream during this present moment.
The first would be finances. I’ve been living in what some would call destitution for a number of years now so shelling out something like $1,000 for a class is just not doable for me unfortunately as I’m currently living from paycheck to paycheck. I’ve been working hard to lift myself up out of poverty and get my own business off the ground this year but it’s been tough with how bad the economy has been.
The second thing which may be hard to hear and it’s probably something you don’t want to hear is that I am unvaccinated and not planning to get vaccinated anytime soon. Now before you delete this comment for the sacrilege which I have committed to refuse the jab I would first ask that you hear me out so you can understand my reasons for why that is the case.
Firstly, I already had Coivd. I got sick and I recovered. The antibodies which I now have are arguably superior to the immunity a vaccine would give me so it wouldnt make sense to get the jab at this point.
Secondly, I am ethnically Jewish. You may immediately be thinking what on Earth does being a Jew have to do with being vaccinated. To which I would answer a lot actually. Did you know that the Nazis tested vaccines on Gypsies and Jews against their will in the concentration camps during the Holocaust? One of the reasons we signed the Nuremberg Charter was to prevent future governments from ever being allowed to perform medical intervention on any individual if that individual was unwilling to give their consent to it. What is happening globally now? Do you not sense the disturbing parallels to the very thing which was responsible for the extermination of the Jews. The extermination of my people? What about all this policing that’s been going on? The policing by one fellow citizen an another for the crime of supposedly being a (menace) to society. My Jewish great- great grandfather was policed as well. Ratted out by his neighbors sent to a death camp and exterminated. These are important considerations that you should not be dismissing Chris. You are an intelligent human being. I suggest deep reflection. I personally want to trust the science but if the companies which are touting the science have such a sinister background and history why should I trust them?
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-largest-health-care-fraud-settlement-its-history