Lost Art Press

Author: fitz

Woodworker, writer, editor, teacher, ailurophile, Shakespearean. Will write for air-dried walnut.

New Classes for 2018: Registration Now Open

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NatalieRegistration is now open for some additional fall classes at the Lost Art Press Storefront. Each student is supplied with a heavy workbench with a full suite of workholding options. And the climate-controlled storefront is filled with natural daylight and features hardwood floors (which are kind to your back). The storefront itself is situated in the heart of Covington’s Main Strasse historic district. Students are steps away from great food, bars and lodging.

And if you bring your family, there are lots of activities for them to enjoy in Cincinnati, which is only eight blocks away.

Classes tend to fill quickly. If you are interested in a class and it is full, please do sign up for the waitlist – spots do open up.

Restoring & Using Wooden Bench Planes with Joshua Klein
Sept. 7, 2018
Cost: $150, which includes everything but the planes (you bring those)

Chip Carving with Daniel Clay
Sept. 29-30, 2018
Cost: $300, which includes all materials

Høj Footstool with Brendan Gaffney
Oct. 27-28, 2018
Cost: $330, which includes all materials

Staked High Stool with Christopher Schwarz
Nov. 3-4, 2018
Cost: $330, which includes all materials

Høj Footstool with Brendan Gaffney
Nov. 17-18, 2018
Cost: $330, which includes all materials

Build the Cabinetmaker’s Sector with Brendan Gaffney
Dec. 1-2, 2018
Cost: $300, which includes all materials

Dutch Tool Chest with Megan Fitzpatrick
Dec. 15-16, 2018
Cost: $350, which includes all materials excepting hardware

Note: If you’ve questions about the classes, please email covingtonmechanicals@gmail.com.

— Fitz

New Class: Restoring & Using Wooden Bench Planes with Joshua Klein

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WoodenPlaneClassTomorrow morning (Aug. 3, 2018) at 10 a.m. Eastern, registration will open for a handful of new classes scheduled through the end of this year:

To those we’ve added one from Joshua Klein: Restoring & Using Wooden Bench Planes. It’s a one-day class on Friday, Sept. 7, and Joshua is staying for the LAP open house on Sept. 8 to celebrate the release of his new book, “With Hands Employed Aright: The Furniture Making of Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847).” (Joshua and his wife, Julia, are making the long trek from Maine for the Open House and book release – they don’t often make it to this part of the country – it’s worth stopping in to say hello and check out a copy of his gorgeous book!)

Here’s the class description from Joshua:

“I do not think the tools such as were used in the days of my youth can be surpassed. Even admitting the excellence of the modern tools that are used by hand, the old joiner’s affection remains for the old style of tools. He feels a spirit of affinity in a plane made of warm beech that does not seem to exist for him in cold hard steel.” – Walter Rose (1937)

Wooden bench planes are more than quaint relics screwed to the walls of kitschy restaurants. In fact, the entire pre-industrial world was built using this ingenious tool that is little more than a block of wood with a cutting iron wedged into it. This is astonishing to modern woodworkers who assume newer is always better. But wooden planes have many advantages over their metal-bodied counterparts including: lightness, lack of sole friction, comfort in use, intuitive adjustment, tactile feedback and a matchless beauty.

In this class, students will bring their own grubby second-hand planes to learn to remove grime while preserving patina, repair broken components, fine tune the bed, wedge, and iron/cap iron for optimal performance, flatten soles, and finish with shellac. The remaining time in the class will be spent exploring the (intuitive and simple) adjustment method in practical use at the bench.

The goal of this class is to empower 21st-century woodworkers to give these time-tested, but often neglected, tools a new life.

There are 10 spaces available (not much space is needed for the work, so we’re able to share a few of the longer benches for this one). Registration for the class is free, then students will be billed $150 (which includes everything but the planes).

Click here to see the other new classes (which, like Joshua’s, go live at 10 a.m. Eastern tomorrow).

— Fitz

A New Blog from Will Myers

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My daughter Emalyn, cool as always, using the spring pole lathe at Old Salem.

I just posted my first post at my new blog Eclectic Mechanicals. After all this time I finally decided to give it a go. The blog will, of course, be focused on woodworking and a lot of what goes along with it thrown in for good measure. I feel it will be a journey for all involved.

And no, Mr. Schwarz has not run me off or anything like that. I will still be posting here on occasion as well. Sorry I could not get started off with some good gossip.

— Will Myers

Credit where credit’s due

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A two-page spread featuring four Trustworth Studios wallpaper patterns in English Arts & Crafts Furniture
Although my paternal grandfather, Morris Hiller, died before I was born, my father has gone a long way toward impressing on me the kind of man his dad was. His motto: “Beware of unappreciative people.” I will never forget being reprimanded at a B&B in Scotland circa 1972 for not saying “thank you” loudly enough for the waiter who brought my porridge to hear. Lesson learned.

I did my best to thank everyone who helped with research, pre-publication feedback, photographs and other materials for English Arts & Crafts Furniture in a long list of acknowledgements at the back of the book. Aside from editors Megan Fitzpatrick and Scott Francis and book designer Linda Watts, the person who arguably made the biggest impression on how the book appears is David Berman of Trustworth Studios, who provided the Voysey-pattern wallpaper on the cover that was also used for endpapers. I consider David a mad genius and have written about him elsewhere. It came as no surprise when Fine Woodworking’s Ben Strano told me that he and his colleagues were making a video about David as an online extra related to my project article in FWW#270 that incorporates a piece of Trustworth’s “Hemlock” wallpaper.

But as I thought about this, I realized there’s someone else I should credit in this regard: Patricia Poore, longtime editor of the magazines where David’s work first came to my notice. Had it not been for her work, I would likely never have come across David, his fabulous 1910 shingle-style house (which merits the adjective “fabulous” largely thanks to his painstaking and delightful restoration), his adorable dog, Merry, nor his eye-popping period kitchen (stay tuned for a sneak peek, coming soon; his kitchen will be featured in the book I’m writing for Lost Art Press). David has advertised his wallpapers for many years in Old-House Journal, Arts & Crafts Homes and the Revival, and Old-House Interiors*. A staunch preservationist with an impressive portfolio of her own restorations, Patricia continues to publish content that’s inspiring, informative, and thought provoking.

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A selection of covers, the best designed by Inga Soderberg, going back more than 20 years
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Detail of paper on staircase wall
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David created this pattern, “Laborate et Amate” (the imperative “Work and Love!”) for his kitchen based on a set of Voysey tiles. The plaster moulding at the bottom is trompe l’oeil.

–Nancy Hiller, author of Making Things Work

*Although Old-House Interiors is no longer a stand-alone publication, much of its content has been incorporated into Old-House Journal. Arts & Crafts Homes and the Revival is now published online with a high-quality annual print publication, the first issue of which is scheduled for this October.

Building ‘The Other Roubo Bookstand’

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A week or two ago, I put up a short post and video about “The Other Roubo Bookstand,” a project taken from the plate 331 of André Jacob Roubo’s “l’Art du Menuisier,” scaled to hold the beautiful deluxe edition of the Roubo text on furniture. As promised, I’ve drawn up plans for the bookstand – it makes for a quick and satisfying build with some fun joinery.

A few notes on how I went about building mine (and how you might want to, as well).

  • I started by making the two square frames, which were made with bridle joints, and then used loose tenons for the other frame components. A Domino works well, but so would live tenons.
  • All of the material for the bookstand is 1/2″ thick, and all of the frame members, except for the kickstand and chiseled stop block, are 1-3/8″ wide. Starting with 5/4 stock, this would let you do some nice resawing and grain wrapping, and you can make one long piece and just crosscut the parts out of it.
  • The bridle joints are my addition – Roubo detailed using mitered joints, but I avoid miters wherever possible. Use whatever joinery you think is best suited to yours!
  • I didn’t get too specific about the hinge sizes or placement – use what you have. I used some nicer brass butt hinges that were left over from prior projects, but anything relatively substantial will do.

Here are the plans – you can download them as a full-scale PDF, or look at them below in image form. Make sure if you do build the bookstand to share a photo. I’m always excited to put plans out there and see who takes them up!

Happy working!

— Brendan Gaffney

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