We’re having one last sale to get our inventory under control. We have put seven books on sale from now until June 14 – some of them deeply discounted. You can see all the titles on sale here.
We don’t like to put things on sale, so why do this? Last year we bought a historic warehouse in downtown Covington and have fixed it up so we have full control over our fulfillment operations. This is why we can now offer books that have been signed by authors, and it allows us to throw a wooden bookmark or sticker into your order as well.
It’s also why we now ship books faster than ever.
The downside to owning a warehouse is it holds a finite number of books. We had far more books and tools than our inventory numbers suggested. So it’s been a challenge to get everything into the circa 1896 building.
Two weeks ago, however, we reached a milestone. Every single product we sell is now under one roof. I can finally see how much floor space some titles gobble up (it was surprising). This sale will make room for new books, plus books that we are sold out of. I estimate that if we can free up space for a dozen pallets or so, we should be in good shape for a long time.
The seven books now on sale are not stinkers. They are just taking up more than their fair share of space. If you aren’t familiar with Lost Art Press, know that every one of our books requires years of editorial work to produce. Our books return more than twice the royalties to our authors compared to the publishing industry as a whole. And all of our books are printed in the United States using high-quality materials. These are permanent books.
“The Stick Chair Book” by Christopher Schwarz. Regular price: $47. Sale price: $29. This book represents my life’s work from 1996 to present. It felt weird to put it on sale, but the book takes up tons of space in our warehouse.
“Vol. III of The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years: Joinery.” Regular price: $42. Sale price $21. These Hayward books are huge in size. That’s one of the reasons they are great – there is a ton of information in them. But they also gobble up floor space.
“Vol. IV of The Woodworker, The Charles H. Hayward Years, The Shop & Furniture.” Regular price: $44. Sale price $22. It might seem weird this book is $1 more than Vol. III, but the manufacturing price of this book went loco a couple years ago.
“Mechanic’s Companion” by Peter Nicholson. Regular price: $27. Sale price: $17. This is one of our historical reprints. This book is one of the foundations of Western hand-tool woodworking. When I reordered it in 2021, I ordered way too many.
“Leave Fingerprints” by Brendan Gaffney. Regular price: $49. Sale price: $25. One of my favorite titles. Brendan did a fantastic job of demythologizing James Krenov and painting a true portrait of Krenov’s incredible life. Gaffney distilled more than 150 interviews into a biography of one of the 20th century’s most important woodworkers.
“Make a Joint Stool From a Tree” by Jennie Alexander and Peter Follansbee. Regular price: $31. Sale price: $17. One of our earliest titles, and one of the most difficult to get to press. The book took 20 years for the authors to finish. And thanks only to the absolute doggedness of Follansbee, the book was completed. It’s a great book about green woodworking, joinery and carving from two of the modern architects of green woodworking’s renaissance.
“Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!” by Roy Underhill. Regular price: $41. Sale price: $19. This is the world’s first-ever woodworking novel with measured drawings. Another labor of love that took years of work and tons of money to complete. The book is great fun to read. And the book’s manufacturing details, such as the diestamp, ridiculously expensive dust jacket and endsheets, create a book you don’t see much in modern times.
Thank you for enduring this awkward time with Lost Art Press. I hope this sale helps you complete your collection of the Charles Hayward books or garners you some good gifts for the woodworkers in your life.
Barring that, shredded book paper can give you an R-value of 3.6 when insulating your home – or warehouse.
— Christopher Schwarz
Those are all fantastic books. And the prices are insane. If people don’t have these already, I have to conclude they just took up woodworking yesterday.
1 question and feedback on the new email updates.
1) i already own MACFAT and Follansbee’s joiners work. both are excellent. what will i learn from make a joint stool that’s not covered in the other 2 books?
2) i like the new email blog post updates. i got notice for this post but did not get anything for the Hayward post. it would be nice if the new email updates include a link to the actual post to make it easy to comment.
Thanks. We will include links to the posts in the future. We are still getting that system running.
The Joint Stool book focuses on the joint stool. If that’s not a piece you are interested in, skip it. I love the history in the book and the relationship between Peter and JA playing out as they research this form and learn to build it traditionally.
Tangential question: I’ve been looking forward to the celebration of the Anthe building project and was wondering if you are still planning on having that in June? I just need to know which weekend to block off. Thanks!
It’s looking like August. I promise we will provide lots of notice.
I’d love to grab some if you shipped abroad!
All of our wholesale customers have been notified of the sale and are welcome to also put the books on sale during this period. I’m afraid we don’t ship overseas.
Got my books today. Thank You!
Speaking of R value, there is now a lot of paper in there and it looks like it is up against exterior walls. Is there a noticeable temp difference between a full and empty building just with pallets of books?
The building is so drafty, I doubt anything could change the temperature in there.
Glad to do my part, just made an order.
Also, like the other poster above, I did not get an email about the post re:cabinet backs. I got this post email notification, and previous to this the “End of our blog troubles” post.