Yes, I do overcut my pins when cutting half-blind dovetails. (An answer to a question I am sometimes asked.)
Just a gentle reminder – or announcement for those of you who are new here – that six Saturdays a year, we hold “Open Wire” hours from 8 a.m.-5 pm. That’s the place to post any and all woodworking questions to get them answered by us and by your fellow readers. I’m afraid we don’t have time to answer questions that come in via other channels – if we did that, it would leave no time for editing and writing, much less woodworking!
So if you send a question via email (to any of my emails…I got woodworking questions at more than one email today!), Facebook, Instagram etc., you’ll get my standard response to please ask at our next Open Wire – and check out past Open Wires for lots of answers to lots of good questions. (And odds are good that if you have a question, someone else has or has had the same question – so the Q&A helps everyone.)
The next Open Wire is on August 9, starting at 8 a.m. Eastern. (Then October 25 and December 13.)
Get two classic chairmaking books – “Welsh Stick Chairs” and “Good Work” – for one special price. Together, they’re just $ 49 – but only through August 7. The regular price for both is $87 – you save 44 percent.
If you’re wondering where stick chairs came from, these two books will tell you the whole amazing story – and get you started in building them.
Stick chairs have been around for centuries – but they’ve mostly been ignored by museums. In the 1990s, Welshman John Brown wrote and published the landmark book “Welsh Stick Chairs.” This book inspired hundreds of people all over the world to begin researching and making these vernacular chairs.
One of those people who was inspired by “Welsh Stick Chairs” was Welshman Chris Williams. He worked with John Brown for more than a decade making these chairs. Through the years, John Brown’s chairs became more wild and true to the old Welsh character, and Chris was there the whole time.
After John Brown died, Chris wrote the book “Good Work” about his mentor. This biography explores John Brown’s creative genius and his tumultuous character. And it explains how John and Chris built these chairs almost entirely by hand.
There is no better place to learn about the spirit of these chairs and how they were made than with these two books. So we are offering them at a special price until August 7.
Technical Details
“Welsh Stick Chairs”: Using first-edition examples of “Welsh Stick Chairs,” we reset the entire book in the original font to ensure the text was crisp. We rescanned and processed the photos and drawings and cleaned them up. And we spent weeks researching the paper stock of the original to capture the same earthiness and perfection of the first edition. We also made a small but invisible improvement – we sewed the signatures together to ensure the book will last for lifetimes. The book is a softcover, covered in heavy card stock like the original. The book measures 7-1/4″ x 9-5/8″. Our version includes John Brown’s original introduction to the book, plus the additional introduction he wrote for the third edition and an updated essay on John Brown by Nick Gibbs.
“Good Work”: The 208-page full-color book is also filled with historical photographs (many never published before) and beautiful linocut illustrations by Molly Brown, one of JB’s daughters. The book is printed on heavy coated paper with a matte finish to make it easy to read. The book’s pages are sewn, glued and taped – then covered in heavy boards and cotton cloth – to create a book that will last for generations. And the whole package is wrapped in a durable tear-resistant laminated dust jacket, which features linocut illustrations by Molly Brown.
Both books are produced and printed in the United States.
One of our local treasures, the Baker Hunt Art and Cultural Center, hosts a free lecture series in its Scudder House ballroom, and the speaker on August 13 is Christopher Schwarz. His subject? Chairmaking, of course!
“Not long ago, most households in Kentucky had the basic tools and skills to build their own furniture. If you raised crops or animals, you needed a few tools to keep things working. Plus you had time during the winter to make a table or a few chairs.
“Today, a skill like chairmaking seems entirely too difficult to do without special training. Chairs have a lot of crazy angles and difficult joints. But we know that farmers and laborers made them all the time. How?
“For the last 22 years, furniture maker Christoper Schwarz has studied the furniture made by everyday people – what academics call “vernacular furniture – which is ignored by most museums. By studying older pieces and building new versions of them, Chris has found the clever ways in which farmers and other non-professionals did complex trigonometry and precise joinery using basic tools.
“In this presentation, Chris will show off a 300-year-old chair made by a farmer and the clues it offers as to how it was built. And then he’ll use those clues to assemble a basic chair on stage.”
The lecture is from 6-8 p.m.; a cash bar is available. While the event is free, seating is limited, so registration is required. The Center is located at 630 Greenup Street, Covington, Ky., 401011.
Chris is working on some bends for an upcoming seating project.
Update: Comments are now closed. Thanks for entertaining us on our drive!
Got a woodworking question? Then today is you’re lucky day: It’s time for Open Wire! You have until 5 p.m. Eastern to pose your question in the comments section below, and we’ll respond – hopefully with a informed and useful answer…but no promises. (And it’s possible your fellow readers will have answers, too – and perhaps you’ll have an answer for someone else).
Chris and I are driving to Northern Indiana to pick up a thing…so if you’re wondering why I’m answering many of the chair questions…I’m not. I’m the amanuensis on those. But I’ve you covered on many of the not-chair questions.
– Fitz
p.s. The remaining Open Wire dates for 2025 are August 9, October 25 and December 13.
A couple weeks ago, one of our warehouse’s dehumidifiers lost power and dripped water onto a pallet of “Ingenious Mechanicks” books. We dried them out, but a couple hundred of them suffered some water spotting on the back covers and have pages that are a little wavy from the moisture (the waviness will likely disappear over time). See the photos below for examples of the spotting.
We cannot sell these as new, so we are selling them at a discount. The water-spotted books are $26 (that’s $18 off the regular $44 price). All sales are final on this special offer.
