With the publication of Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises or the Doctrine of Handy-Works” we now have two books with significant overlap in their content.
“The Art of Joinery” contains Moxon’s chapters on joinery, plus modern commentary. “Mechanick Exercises” contains all of Moxon’s chapters on handcrafts (including the joinery chapters). But no modern commentary.
To reduce confusion and make our lives simpler, here is what we are going to do. We are taking “The Art of Joinery” out of print and giving away its content for free via pdf (much like “The Anarchist’s Workbench”) to everyone. You can download “The Art of Joinery” pdf free via this link. You don’t have to register or give up your email or anything. Just click and the pdf will download to your computer.
We have also reduced the price of the hardcover “The Art of Joinery” book to $20 (it was $31). When we sell out of the current stock, we will not reprint it. So if you ever wanted a physical copy of this book, this is the last chance to get it from us.
We hope this reduces any confusion about which book to buy. It makes us happier because we don’t want to sell you the same content twice. Plus it is one fewer SKU for us to manage in our warehouse.
— Christopher Schwarz
I just ordered this book several days ago—I hope you’ll give me the sale price!
Send a note to help@lostartpress.com
Thanks you for the free PDF. I ordered another hard copy to give to a young woodworker friend.
Cheers
What are you guys thinking? First you should have announced that “The Art of Joinery” was out of print. Waited six months and then sell remaining inventory on eBay for a hundred bucks apiece. Then waited another six months to release “Mechanick Exercises”. On a serious note, thanks. I bought “The Art of Joinery” back when you first released it. I appreciate your approach to business.
Thank you for this great public service. You are scholars and gentle-people all!
You guys are great
This was the first book for LAP, wasn’t it? That’s a milestone. I have both editions of your . . . translation(??). For the life of me, I can’t remember how they are different.
It was a great help to have you translate Moxon for us. I generally prefer the original, but English writing from that era can be hard to follow.
It’s great of you to give away the pdf.
I’m guessing the best way to contact you with some information is through these comments.
I’ve run into issues in getting straight grain dowels for stick chairs. Out of a box of dowels from the box stores I can find only 10% that were acceptable let alone only two species of wood available. Hence I found a company in Farmington, Maine that you might want to check out for your journal readers.
WOOD-DOWEL
contact@wood-dowel.com
I’ve purchased 20 to 30 each of Maple, Pine and Mahogany for various chairs and found only 2 questionable. These are straight grained and round within 1/64”. Very impressed with their current prices and service.
Thanks! Will check them out.
Thanks for the free pdf, much appreciated. I find this style of books quite enticing to read – a series of annotations that not only clarify the text, but also actually debate or challenge the ideas/thoughts presented. Critical reading/thinking at its best.