Lost Art Press

Now Printing: ‘Euclid’s Door’

Posted on by fitz

We are delighted to announce that “Euclid’s Door: Building the Tools of ‘By Hand & Eye’“ – the latest artisan geometry offering from George Walker and Jim Tolpin – is now at the printer. We’ve made the order page live in our store so that you can sign up to be notified when it’s available. (Just click the “notify me” button on the book’s page – Christopher Schwarz has written more about that new feature here, should you wish to read more about it.)

“Euclid’s Door” is an illustrated how-to journey through building eight wooden tools (tools that have been around since ancient times) that should be in every furniture maker’s toolbox. As you work your way through the making, you’ll also learn how to tune each tool to an incredibly high level – lessons that will be useful in all your work. (And the geometry really is easy to follow – even I, a mathphobic – had no trouble with it.)

As are all Lost Art Press books, “Euclid’s Door” is being printed in the United States. It will be a cloth-covered hardbound 115-page book, with a sewn and glued binding for durability.

— Fitz

19 thoughts on “Now Printing: ‘Euclid’s Door’”

    1. Bargain! I’ll read anything with Jim Tolpin’s name attached. He changed my thinking entirely when he introduced me to the sector years ago.

  4. Is there a way to see a table of contents? The Download an excerpt from this book here, isn’t an actual link.

    1. Oh drat. My fault…I meant to take that line out for now. I’ll add the TOC above; give me a few minutes!

  7. Do these fit in the Anarchist’s tool chest😆? Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

  8. Link error? Same link for “book” as for blog post about notify feature.

  9. Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare.
    Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace,
    And lay them prone upon the earth and cease
    To ponder on themselves, the while they stare
    At nothing, intricately drawn nowhere
    In shapes of shifting lineage;

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

  10. We had one of them as a virtual guest speaker a year or so ago at our woodworking club. Question was asked at the time what book they were working on at the time. There was a bit of discussion about this book. Been looking forward to it ever since. Making tools when you don’t have tools using fundamental geometry is something I find very interesting. In high school, I vividly recall taking geometry and how I initially struggled to understand it as it was so different than algebra the year before. At some point, after much study and hard work, it started clicking. Was a lot of fun what you could do with a compass and a straight edge. How does one make a straight edge when one has no tools and then I’m guessing it goes from there. To get a straight edge, I’m guessing it will involve a board, string, chalk and a rock to act as a plumb bob. We shall see.

    A complete aside. When I studied chemistry in the mid 80s in college, I absolutely fell in love with organic chemistry. So much so I went to get a Ph.D. in it and I still 35ish years later and am nerdy excited about it. Lots of students struggle with organic chemistry. I never really did as I was so passionate about it that I spend hours upon hours working on problems, talking to the professor (to the point where he figured out I just dug o-chem and I basically became his apprentice). I now teach college chemistry for fun in the evenings (work in biotech during the day). I tell my students that organic chemistry is like the geometry of math and requires a different mindset than does algebra.

    1. We had a saying at school : “There are two kinds of people in the world . Those who struggle with organic chemistry, and those who haven’t taken it yet.”

      I struggled.

      1. Lol. I completely understand. To help reduce anxiety of my students, I tell them I am abnormal in that I really liked it So much so that I went on to get a Ph.D. in it. I then tell them despite my oddness, I do understand it can be a challenge. It really is tough for folks as traditional math, plug and chug formulas won’t help you in o-chem. I found physical chemistry and differential equations to be the two really tough classes for me.

  11. What are the physical dimensions of this book? Does it match their other books you have published?

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