Several weeks ago, James Wright of “Wood by Wright” and his daughter, Melody, poked their heads in to see just what really goes on around Lost Art Press. With camera in hand, James and Melody, recorded as Chris gave the grand tour of our shop, offices, and Anthe warehouse.
You may recognize James from his popular Youtube channel where he posts daily hand tool woodworking, demonstrations and how-to videos. You can click here to see James’s channel and watch more content.
But before you do that, give the video below a watch if you wish to get an in-depth look of where we work, create and pee!
This comb-back stick chair is designed for dining and working at a desk. Leaned back just enough, this chair is comfortable to sit in for hours at a time.
I’m offering it for sale for $1,400 via a random drawing. The price includes crating and shipping to your door anywhere in the lower 48 states of the U.S. Details on the sale are at the bottom of this entry. First, here’s more about the chair.
This chair is made from soft maple (seat and arm bow) and red oak (legs, stretchers, sticks and comb.) The legs and stretchers begin octagonal in shape then round into the taper. The through-tenons on the stretchers are cut flush with the legs – as with the stick tenons on the arm; Giving this chair a sleek look.
All joints are assembled with animal glue and wedged with red oak wedges.
This chair sits 17” above the ground, a comfortable height for most sitters. However, the chair can be lowered if desired. The overall height of this chair is 39-1/4”.
Due to the difference in color of wood species, I decided to paint this chair. The chair is finished with two coats of “Linen” by General Finishes “Milk Paint.” The off-white color has a matte finish that I believe will age beautifully.
This chair was my fifth chair build overall and my first chair of 2025. Made mostly by hand tools, the occasional tool mark or imperfection may be noticeable. I made this chair to the best of my ability and am proud of the outcome.
How to Buy the Chair
The chair is being sold via a random drawing. If you wish to buy the chair, send an email to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 3 p.m. (Eastern) on Friday, March 7. Please use the subject line: “White Chair.” In the email please include your:
U.S. shipping address
Daytime phone number (this is for the trucking quote only)
If you are the “winner,” the chair will be shipped to your door. The price includes the crate and all shipping charges. Alternatively, the chair can be picked up at our storefront. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.)
A Shaker tray in cherry, with one coat of soft wax applied.
You may be familiar with “A Glue Story”, a video we posted months ago showing how we make our Piggly No Wiggly Glue. Well, Chris and I decided to create “A Wax Story” in the same vein, a video demonstrating how we make our soft wax.
In case you’re curious about making your own wax, you can find the recipe in Chris’s latest book “American Peasant” (p. 65-68). In the book, Chris shares the exact ingredients he uses and where to find them. No frills, no fuss.
It should be noted however, that since publishing “American Peasant,” our soft wax recipe has been slightly modified. In the video below, you’ll notice Chris is making our soft wax with a bit more solvent (4 TBSP), which makes it even softer and easier to apply.
So, take a look at how easy our soft wax-making process is in “A Wax Story” below.
A profile view of the jaws (with stripped screw holes) in the original pine jaw of this “carver’s vise” (this one is from StewMac, where it’s called a “Guitar Repair Vise.”)
Every chair class Chris teaches seems to develop its own gravitational pull. It’s inevitable – if you orbit within 50 feet of a class taught by Chris Schwarz you will get sucked in.
Now getting sucked into a class can mean many different things: Perhaps it means assisting students taper chair legs by hand until your shirt starts sticking to you; or remaking an arm in record time due to a irreparable and untimely break; or sometimes becoming the designated lunch fetcher of the day (this task can quickly make you popular among the students).
I of course am speaking from experience. I’ve completed all of these tasks at least once and am in no way complaining about it. I openly love the infectious energy of a class week – it’s chaotic and exhausting at times and I live for it. I love walking into work unsure of what the day will hold.
While the palpable energy from last week’s class was no different, one of the tasks I was given was new to me.
With how often we use our tools here, on top of student usage, shop maintenance is a constant. Planes and chisels need sharpening, floors need sweeping and carver’s vises need new jaws.
This is nothing against our beloved carver’s vises; we use them daily here. There is, however, one fault we’ve found with most of them – the softwood jaws that come standard on the vises have a tendency to lose their heartiness over time. (The newly recast Grizzly vise comes with hardwood jaws.)
Either the constant use causes the screw holes of the jaws to strip (which is what happened in this case) or the soft pine cracks. Or both (which is what happened in this case). When these things happen, either oak or hickory are what we typically use for new jaws.
After Chris gave me a quick lesson on how to replace the old jaws, I got to work.
Below is a visual step-by-step of how I made this repair.
First things first: Unscrew the old jaws from the vise.
New adhesive-baked urethane is pricey. So I sawed off the old urethane, leaving about 1/8″ of pine backing.
A close-up of the cut.
The thin layer of pine must be planed flat for good adhesion to the new hardwood jaws. How to plane a piece less than 1/4″ thick? I used double-sided tape.
The double-sided tape held the pieces firm to the bench as I planed.
I traced new hickory jaws from the pine ones and cut them out on the band saw then planed them flat to prepare for glue-up. (Notice the crack in the old pine jaw on the lower left.)
After clamping the urethane to the hickory (which was a chore – it was slippery!), I used a toothbrush to clean up excess glue then let them clamped-up jaws dry for an hour.
After tracing the screw holes on the backs of the new jaws, I drilled pilot holes, which made screwing the new jaws in place a snap.
Last week I walked into work to a brand-new Veritas spokeshave sitting on my bench. Chris had ordered several for students and kindly ordered an extra for me. (I’m spoiled, I know.)
Grateful, I took a picture of my new tool and posted it to my social media account, not thinking much of it.
The following day I received a comment: “Would you mind posting a video of how you file the throat (if you follow Chris’s approach)?”
Huh? File a throat?? This was news to me, but according to Chris, this is common practice when breaking in a new spokeshave.
He explained that in chairmaking, sometimes cuts that are ranker than the spokeshave will allow are needed. The solution? File the throat, just a hair or two to allow a thicker shaving to pass through.
So as asked, we created a video demonstrating the process. Next week’s chairmaking class will be the first to break the new spokeshaves in.
Well, back to work for me. I have two more spokeshaves to file.
