One of the rewards for running a publishing company is getting to say “yes” when other people wouldn’t even know to say “no.” Two summers ago, chairmaker Chris Williams and I visited Drew and Louise Langsner in their home outside Marshall, North Carolina.
And as we were sitting there, being feasted upon by bugs (as we ate a delicious meal from Louise’s hands), I was overcome by gratitude for the work these two people had done their entire lives for the craft.
Drew’s book “The Chairmaker’s Workshop” (Lark, 1997) was a constant guide as I made my first steps into chairmaking in the early 2000s. I carried the book around like a lost puppy. And in time it fell apart. I bought another. It wasn’t made particularly well, but I have kept it in decent shape.
Why, I wondered, can I not buy a library-quality copy of this book that steered my life?
I blinked and sat up a little straighter. Chris shot a look at me, concerned.
I said, “I’d like to republish ‘The Chairmaker’s Workshop.’”
Drew agreed.
And after a fair amount of work on everyone’s part, we did just that. And it is finally a version that will last for at least a century.
We did everything we could to make this archival-quality edition of “The Chairmaker’s Workshop” a joy to read and use. The print job is better than the original (thanks to a Japanese sheet-fed press and excellent paper).
This book has all the details we love. A bookmark ribbon, contrasting headbands and footbands, heavy endsheets, casebound binding, sewn signatures, and on and on. Oh, and we made special letterpress bookplates that Drew signed individually. As I write this, we’re affixing them to the endsheets.
This is an expensive endeavor. So we’re printing only 750 copies. If this book is important to you – like it is to me – here is your best chance. It’s $78. I know that’s a lot of money, but if we’d priced it like we normally price books it would be $95.
Way more information on the book can be found here.
— Christopher Schwarz
I’ve owned that book for decades. I made a set of windsor chairs with it. Great book!
Very happy to order this. The Langsner’s contributions to chairmaking have been monumental. And the reprint copy I own of this book is abysmal.
Ordered!! I feel the same way about Richard Starr’s Woodworking with Your Kids. I’ve gone through 2 paperbacks and 1 hardcover. I really appreciate the work you have done with this Langsner book and also the new Country Woodcraft book.
Will it be available in Canada?
Sorry for a tactless question, but as a public school teacher with two kids I have to ask.
I’d like to buy the book. I’m poor. It is absolutely worth more than what you are asking.
Will you be making a later edition without the bells and whistles (letter press autographed bookplates, for example) at a lesser cost, or is this 750 run the only run you are planning to make?
This is the only edition we’ll be printing. We can’t compete with the used book market I’m afraid.
Is this sold out, or not yet available? It says none in stock on the order page, and I can be notified when available, but I know you said there would not be another run…
We’re waiting on some more signed bookplates (we were short), then will have a small number available. So do sign up to be notified.
Fitz, I couldn’t figure out any other way to contact you, so…I’m trying to duplicate a Roentgen Tea Box, and I’m trying to find info on creating a Thumb Moulding, which caps the lid edge of some of their boxes. I found your article in FWW. Do you have other sources for creating this profile?
Kevin
That’s a lot more delicate than the moulding on a Dutch tool chest (which is where I use the method I wrote about for FWW). That looks like a job for hollows and rounds, and the best source I know of for info on those planes (and I’m not just saying this because we publish it!) is Matt Bickford’s “Mouldings in Practice” (https://lostartpress.com/products/mouldings-in-practice?_pos=1&_sid=11f31bfd8&_ss=r)
The book is beautiful. From layout to production, material choice, image quality – superb. Thank you.
Hi there
Will this be available in the UK?
Nope. This is available only through us, not our retailers.