Author: fitz

Another in my series of posts related to kitchens

The Lost Art Press storefront is open tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019) from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. for all your woodworking questions and holiday (or personal) shopping needs (in addition to the Lost Art Press books, we have a Crucible Tool lump hammer or two, some scrapers and burnishers, and five holdfasts).

Brendan Gaffney has a chair (or nine) on which he’s working, and I’ll be finishing up the tills on the XL Anarchist’s Tool Chest I’m making for a customer, then – depending on how busy we are – installing the hinges on the lid, and the rest of the hardware. And possibly mixing up some milk paint.

At 2 p.m., I’ll give a free presentation on cutting through dovetails – and tricks for fitting them. (I promise there will be no Shakespeare jokes.)

And late in the day, it’s possible the globe-hopping Christopher Schwarz will make a brief appearance (but only if his plane is on time and he’s not too tuckered out).

We’re at 837 Willard St., Covington, Ky., 41011.

— Fitz

p.s. Plus a reminder that tomorrow and December 14 are the last days on which the storefront will be open until June 13, 2020 (we’re planning to be slightly less busy 2020).

p.p.s. Yes, I know those pins in the picture are far too far above the Moxon vise…but the piece is almost as tall as am I, so no choice.

The Lost Art Press storefront will be open this Saturday (Nov. 9, 2019) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is your opportunity to talk with fellow woodworkers, ask any questions about the craft that have been bugging you and perhaps learn a new technique at the bench. Plus, there’s only this Saturday and Dec. 14 to visit before the holidays, then we won’t be open again until June 2020 (click here for more info on next year’s open days).

We’ll have our full line of Lost Art Press books (excepting “The Anarchist’s Design Book” – Christopher is working on a revised edition that will go to press soon) and we’ve a few Crucible Lump Hammers, scrapers and burnishers for sale.

At 2 p.m., I’ll give a presentation on dovetails, including a few simple “tricks” to get them nice and tight…but not too tight.

As always, there are a couple of ongoing projects in the shop for you to examine (including the ongoing project of working on the shop itself).

• I am finishing up work on a super-sized English tool chest commission, and if all goes well this week, I’ll be fitting out the interior and/or installing a cool lock on Saturday.
• Brendan Gaffney is working on a tour-de-force writing chair – a mahogany post-and-rung rocker with an outboard desk and drawers (really).
• Plus we have a couple of Chris’s chairs you can check out (he’ll be on a plane, traveling back from Ireland – no doubt with a camera card full of photos of Gibson chairs).

Come for the Woodworking, Stay for the Food
And while you’re here, make time for brunch, lunch or a late lunch; here’s some great places to eat that you can walk to:

Otto’s: A fantastic brunch (you might want to make reservations just to be sure).

Coppin’s at Hotel Covington: The best eggs Benedict in town

Libby’s Southern Comfort: Crazy good fried chicken

Commonwealth: Kentucky cuisine at its finest

Tuba Backing Co: Pretzels and yummy things on pretzels – opens at 3 p.m. (It’s a new place, and open to the public right now only on Saturday afternoons/evenings…so I’ve had time to try only four offerings thus far – all delicious)

Crafts & Vines: A wine bar (they have beer and spirits, too) that we love – light bites including a cheese and meats board, house-made beef jerky, and whatever goodness is cooking on the Big Green Egg. (Maybe save this one for the early evening…so the Big Green Egg dish of the day is available.)

Also worth seeing in town:

The Cincinnati Art Museum has three new featured exhibits: “Treasures from the Spanish World,” “Women Breaking Boundaries” and “The Levee: A Photographer in the American South” along with an impressive decorative arts collection (and general admission is free).

The Contemporary Arts Center (the CAC) is also free and is currently featuring the work of Brazilian artist Sandra Cinto.

And The Cincinnati Museum Center is has reopened (following an extensive and impressive renovation). You can lose an entire day here touring the multiple museums – or just gazing around the rotunda.

And don’t forget the regulars: The Newport Aquarium, the world-class Cincinnati Zoo, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the American Sign Museum, the Taft Museum of Art and the Cincinnati Fire Museum (to name a few).

Directions to the storefront are here.

— Megan Fitzpatrick

Last winter I wrote an article for Popular Woodworking about adjusting traditional butt hinges—the kind you use with inset doors, mortising one leaf into the door and the other into the side (or face frame) of a sideboard, kitchen cabinet or armoire. I pitched the article to editor Andrew Zoellner because many people are bedeviled by butt hinges’ apparent lack of adjustability; there I was, in the midst of fitting 20 doors in a kitchen, nudging them up, down, in, out, and side-to-side to get slender, even margins. It seemed the perfect time to write something about this largely neglected subject in the interest of helping others.

I submitted the manuscript and photos before my husband and I left for two weeks in England. Everything was on track for publication. Then, over morning coffee with a friend in London, we learned that F+W, the magazine’s publisher, had filed for bankruptcy. (Thanks for shouldering the burden of acting as messenger, St.John.)

The bankruptcy news was a blow on multiple fronts. I thought the article would never see the light of day. So I’m especially happy to report that it’s scheduled for the November issue of Popular Woodworking, now published by Active Interest Media; it should go on sale October 8.

This article is especially close to my heart because aside from a few tricks I’ve figured out for myself, what I know about this topic (and many unrelated techniques) came from working with people in the trades. You’re not likely to recognize their names from magazines, YouTube, or Instagram. They’re guys (all men, in this case) who do the work they’re hired to do and take pride in doing it to a high standard but don’t necessarily talk or write about what they do. Thanks:

Kent Perelman (R.I.P.)

Jay Denny

Kenneth Kinney (R.I.P.)

Ben Sturbaum

John Cantwell

Dick Stumpner

and Daniel O’Grady

—all listed in the order in which we met. Thanks also to Mr. Williams, one of my teachers in the City & Guilds furniture making program at the Isle of Ely College in 1979 and 1980.–Nancy Hiller, author of Making Things Work

Or: Don’t knock the young-‘uns, Part 2

I’ve had my 12” Crescent jointer since the mid-1990s, when I bought the then-nonagenarian piece of equipment from a woman who had decided to quit furniture making. It’s a workhorse of a machine. At some point in the 1980s or ‘90s* it had been fitted with a hotbox for use in shops without three-phase power, but every so often the hotbox flakes out and I have to call for help because I am a coward when it comes to electricity. Blame it on the time I stupidly stuck a screwdriver in a 230-Volt outlet in England when I was 20. Let’s just say it was a bracing experience.

This week I had the Crescent checked out by Isaiah Merriman of Bloomington Heating, Cooling and Electrical. Isaiah is a son of the business owner, Kevin Merriman, my go-to electrician since he came to my (now-former) house to write up an estimate for electrical and HVAC work on the day of my real estate closing in the summer of 1995. Over the years, Kevin would come to work on the furnace or add a receptacle with a child or two in tow; I remember meeting Isaiah when he was a boy of 4 or 5 being scolded for lagging behind with a bucket of tools.

The last time I called, Isaiah was the electrician they sent out. I was surprised; I hadn’t even known he was part of the business, now that he’s an adult. He got straight to work and quickly diagnosed the problem. He was polite, professional and clearly knew what he was doing. It’s always gratifying to see competence, and especially so in members of a family business’s second generation.

What made Isaiah even more intriguing to me was the route he took to where he is today. After growing up working with his father, he studied finance at Indiana University’s Kelley School. From there he went to work in the Indianapolis office of Charles Schwab, where he became a senior manager over teams of stock brokers. He held that position for eight years.

With a growing family, Isaiah and his wife decided to move to Bloomington in 2018. He missed the town and knew it was a good place to raise kids. Although he could have applied for a job as a financial adviser at a branch of Charles Schwab, he chose to return to electrical work and became a partner in the family business. “Most clients have financial goals they are hoping to accomplish over many years (like saving for retirement),” he says. This “contrasts with the gratification that comes with the electrical trade,” in which he gets to experience the joy of seeing work come together every day. “You don’t have to imagine it. It’s right in front of you. To do this work or to do investment work, you have to have an analytical mind. You have to be able to see the little details and the big picture at the same time.”

It was especially sweet when he added “Amazon can’t deliver me.”

Once he’d diagnosed the problem, he called the office to order replacement parts. I surfaced a bunch of boards while he was on the phone, knowing he’d be able to resuscitate the motor if needed. I’m happy that my century-old jointer now has a Millennial caretaker.

*Isaiah’s estimate