Lost Art Press

New Video With the Wood Whisperer Guild

Posted on by Lost Art Press
Look ma, I’m on TV (not really).

I am happy to announce that we have a new video with the Wood Whisperer Guild that will launch next Friday (Sept. 15). The video “American Welsh Stick Chair” can be purchased with a pre-release discount. The video is $79 until it is released next Friday. (After that date, the video will be $99.)

You also can purchase laser-cut templates for the chair to simplify the construction process.

This long-form video serves as an introduction to chairmaking for woodworkers who have no chairmaking tools but would like to build a chair. The chair shown in the video is a modified version of the comb-back stick chair shown in “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” It’s a proven design – I am sitting in it right now while drinking my morning coffee. It is comfortable, stout and (if I do say) nice to look at.

This video with the Wood Whisperer Guild differs from our two videos on chairmaking in many ways. First, it is a professional production that was filmed by a crew with lights, professional sound and multiple high-definition cameras. My dorkiness has been captured like never before.

Thanks to the production values and outstanding editing, the video is a pleasure to watch – even entertaining (and I hate to watch myself on screen).

Second, the approach I take with this video is to show you how to build a chair without chairmaking tools. All the little tricks, dodges and wheezes I’ve developed over the years to try to democratize and simplify the process. Don’t get me wrong, I love my chairmaking tools. But I understand that there are a lot of barriers to make the jump from making cabinets to chairs.

This video is me setting the bar to make a chair to the lowest position.

As a bonus, we include a chapter on how to saddle the seat with only one chairmaking tool – plus standard bench tools.

One more thing – the money. The proceeds from this video won’t go to me. Instead, they will help fund the restoration of the Anthe building (our new headquarters). We got the green light from Kenton County to occupy the first floor and basement. We now have got to get the second-floor storage area ready to get our fulfillment operation fully on its feet. So any purchase of this video helps our headquarters.

Many thanks to Marc Spagnuolo, Todd Tidwell and the rest of The Wood Whisperer Guild for agreeing to work with us on this video. I hope we get to do it again sometime soon.

You can order the video here.

— Christopher Schwarz

12 thoughts on “New Video With the Wood Whisperer Guild”

  1. Making a chair is way too difficult. Well, I can say it’s not, I am on my 6th and 7th chair. This set will be walnut. Chriss thanks for making chairs not so scary.

  2. Congrats on the new release.

    As someone who just purchased your LAP stick chair video this weekend, can you share any more about the differences between these two videos? I just purchased (and I’m happy with) the LAP video, but would have loved to see you demonstrate the Mursell travisher, as you appear to in this series.

    Maybe that could be a separate blog post or piece for a future stick chair journal (I think that was a plan at some point).

      1. The American Welsh Stick Chair in the new video is designed to be an ideal first chair for a woodworker who has made some casework but has never attempted compound-angle joinery.
      2. You can build this chair with bench tools and machines found in almost any garage/basement woodworking shop. No specialty chairmaking tools are required. We show you how to saddle the seat with one specialty tool (a travisher). But the chair doesn’t have to be saddled to be comfortable.
      3. The American Welsh Stick Chair doesn’t require stretchers or the complex tapered mortise-and-tenon joint found in Windsor chairs. It uses a simple drill bit to make all the mortises. Tenons are made with a plug cutter in a handheld drill.
      4. All the stick are dowels from the home center.
      5. All the wood is kiln-dried stuff you can find at any lumberyard – or even a home center.
      6. What is most important is what you DON’T need: a lathe, green wood, a steambox, a drawknife, shave horse, froe, beetle, drying kiln, spokeshaves etc. Literally almost any home woodworker can make this chair – it even uses a pocket-hole jig.
      7. The other videos I’ve produced on chairmaking are the next step into the craft. Once you’ve decided that chairmaking is something you want to specialize in. They feature special tools (tapered tenon cutters, reamers, travishers, inshaves and on and on). You don’t need this stuff to make the American Welsh Stick Chair.
      8. And, of course, the video quality is worlds better than what I’ve been able to achieve. We shoot our videos on iPhones and edit them on laptops. This video is slick, insanely well-edited and designed to give you all the information you need without wasting your time.

  4. Awesome, big fan of Marc as well. You are right, the tools seem to be a bit daunting. Curious what the “one chairmaking tool” is for the saddle.

  5. The “+ What will I learn” button on the website contains no information when you click the plus sign to expand it. Not sure if this was a joke but thought I would let you know in case you intended to write something there.

  6. Unable to buy because their billing address doesn’t include the place I live! Wish I can place order in LAP site as usual.

  7. Speaking of laser cut templates–any idea if/when the ones for the SCB will be back in stock? I’m like a drunken sailor trying to cut out templates myself!

    1. We haven’t done laser templates for the stick chair book. The only templates we’ve done are for the four-stick chair shown in the Design book and this video.

      We offer printed templates that you can affix to plywood….?

      1. My mistake! Yes, I have the printed ones and have used them extensively (thank you!). I just like the precision of the laser cut templates–it lets me mess up less, I think 🙂

        Jake

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