Lost Art Press

Author: fitz

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

LAP Open Wire, Sept. 14, 2024

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Gabe and Mark at work on pre-production assembly of the Crucible Tool Exeter-pattern nail hammers. We hope to have these available soon.

Update: Comments are now closed (if there are questions we’ve missed, we’ll jump into the backend to answer later). Join us again on Oct. 19.

Do you have a woodworking question in need of an answer? Then you’ve come to the right place! Just post your question in the comments section below, and Christopher Schwarz and I shall do our best to answer. As always, brevity is appreciated. We’ll be online on and off today until around 5 p.m., at which time comments will close.

And mark your calendars for the remaining 2024 Open Wire days: October 19, November 16 and December 14. Plus, our holiday Open House on Saturday, Nov. 23, featuring special guest Rudy Everts!

– Fitz

‘Dutch Tool Chests’ Has Left the Building

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I am delighted to announce that the book I started writing four years ago – “Dutch Tool Chests” – is finally in the hands of our printer. I also hope to have proofs to review by the weekend. Above is a mockup of the cover (surprise, it’s gray/blue). The real thing will look a lot better, with cloth over 98 pt. boards and a platinum die stamp. The price will be $39. (As are all Lost Art Press books, it will be printed in the U.S.A.)

Inside the book is everything you need to build your own Dutch tool chest – 192 pages, from choosing materials at the home center or lumberyard to the paint. And of course, lots of hand-tool instruction in between – techniques and tool instruction that will come in handy for any number of projects. Oh – plus a brain dump on through-dovetails (the thing I teach the most), but written so that if you already feel solid in your dovetail abilities, you can skip all but the first sentence of each paragraph in that chapter. I’d hate to bore you.

My favorite parts of the book, though, are the two sections I didn’t write: the foreword from Roy Underhill (thank you, Roy!) and the gallery of Dutch chests from 43 other makers. These clever adaptations and customized interior designs show the great flexibility of the form, and how you can make it your own.

I’ll be sharing more from the book in the coming weeks. For now, I’m just so happy that it’s done. With luck and a lack of printer delays, I hope we’ll have it in house around November 1 (and I’m limbering up my hand for signing copies). And of course, I hope our international retailers will carry it, but as always, that is up to them. (Those that do will likely have it by January.)

– Fitz

Classes at the Storefront, Jan.-May 2025

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Welsh chairmaker and teacher Chris Williams, who will join us once again in March/April. We have alerted Crafts & Vines so the owners have ample time to stock up on red wine.

We have a handful of new classes – including one from Welshman Chris Williams – to announce for the first half of 2025, tickets for which will be on sale at 10 a.m. Eastern on Sept. 16, 2024, on our ticketing site.

• Build a Welsh-style Comb-back Chair with Christopher Schwarz, Jan. 13-17
• Build a Dutch Tool Chest with Megan Fitzpatrick, Feb. 7-9
• Build a Welsh-style Comb-back Chair with Christopher Schwarz, March 10-14
• Comb-back Chair Class with Chris Williams, March 31-April 4
• Make a Dovetailed Step Stool with Megan Fitzpatrick, April 26-26
• Build a Welsh-style Comb-back Chair with Christopher Schwarz, May 5-9

For more information, click through (above) to each class (but pay no mind to the “Register Now” button you’ll see – you cannot register until 10 a.m. Eastern on Sept 16).

Christopher Schwarz’s Welsh-style stick chair, which he’ll be teaching three times at LAP this winter and spring.

– Fitz

p.s. Classes sometimes sell out within nano-seconds (class sizes are quite small, so there are very few spots available), so if you’re interested, limber up those fingers and get ready. And if you don’t get in, sign up for the waitlist – we almost always have at least one spot that needs filling.

p.p.s. We might add a class or two in the coming months – so stay tuned!

The prototype of a Shaker-inspired dovetailed step stool that I will be teaching; I have finally tired of making and teaching Shaker trays.

Fisher House Livestream Tour w/Joshua Klein

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Join Joshua Klein, author of “Hands Employed Aright: The Furniture Making of Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847)” and editor of Mortise & Tenon Magazine, for a tour of the Jonathan Fisher House in Blue Hills, Maine.

It’s part of an all-day livestream event on Saturday, Sept., 21, during which Joshua will take you behind the scenes at Mortise & Tenon, show you his historic house reconstruction, answer all your questions and more, as well as lead the Jonathan Fisher House guided tour.

For more information and to sign up, click here.

New class: Woodcuts with Rudy Everts

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We’ve added a special class and spaces are available now: Learn How to Make Woodcuts with Rudy Everts. The class is Sunday, Nov. 24 and Monday, Nov. 25. Rudy, who is visiting from Munich, will also be filming a video on making a stick chair using nothing but feral green woodworking techniques, from log to finished chair. (But not during the class, of course.)

Students will learn how to draw a design, transfer it to a woodblock, cut the block using edge tools, then print the woodblock by hand onto paper using printing ink.

Rudy has developed a woodcut style that draws inspiration from MC Escher, Wharton Esherick and Paul Landacre, and he has developed numerous shading techniques making woodcuts over several years. (You might know just some of Rudy’s work from the cover of “The Stick Chair Journal” and “The Stick Chair Book” – as well as various carvings he’s made for Chris over the years. Also, Rudy is one-third of the Chair Chat trio, so you know it’s going to be a fun class.)

To learn more (and to register), click here.