Lost Art Press

Author: Lost Art Press

Publisher of woodworking books and videos specializing in hand tool techniques.

This is a Test of the LAP Broadcasting System

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As Megan and I mentioned yesterday, we are having serious problems with our WordPress site. We have a technical expert working on it. WordPress has mostly ignored our pleas.

In some ways, we are still trying to find out what is wrong with our Domain Name Servers (DNS). Some readers are not receiving email updates when we post new blog entries. Some are. Some are receiving an e-mail update, but it is only the digest form of the entry. Some people can see our posts in their RSS feed. Others are denied access to it.

So, if you are so inclined, could you leave a comment below telling us how you saw this entry.

  1. E-mail, full text
  2. E-mail, digest
  3. RSS

To ensure this post is long enough to kick the old WP into digest mode, I’ve elongated this entry with an old entry below.

Thank you. And apologies for the trouble.

— Christopher Schwarz

Be Fox Mulder, Not Cotton Mather

The best thing I can say about graduate school is that it taught me to think.

When someone presents an idea to you that is the opposite of everything you’ve read before and everything you believe is true, how do you react? Most people reject the new information like a kidney grafted to the place where the liver should be.

I used to be like that until I started reading Noam Chomsky’s criticisms of how mass media works.

Here’s the dime-store paperback version: Look for information that doesn’t match the conventional wisdom. This new information may not be correct either, but you should examine it closely because it will teach you something.

Here’s how this plays out in the workshop. 

In 2007, we re-published Joseph Moxon’s “The Art of Joinery” – the first English language book on woodworking – with some commentary from me. In the book, Moxon discusses “traversing” a board with a fore plane to clean it up and remove twist. I demonstrated this operation in the book and readers on the discussion forums howled.

Sadly, posts on the forums expire, so digging up the discussion is difficult. But here’s the gist:

  1. “Traversing” doesn’t really mean working across the grain.
  2. You never work across the grain with a plane. You work “with the grain,” that’s why we have this expression in our language.
  3. Moxon wasn’t a woodworker so he’s wrong.
  4. You interpreted Moxon wrong.
  5. You are wrong.
  6. Please die.

Ten years later, it seems funny that this conversation ever happened. That’s because enough people (the Fox Mulders of the world) tried Moxon’s techniques and were able to discredit the Cotton Mathers.

After 20 years in this business, I’ve seen this happen time and again.

  1. A.J. Roubo’s workbench from Plate 11 is for carpentry. Not furniture making.
  2. The bark side of a board cups and the heart side bows? Ridiculous.
  3. You have to finish both faces of a board or it will warp.
  4. You have to alternate growth rings in a panel glue-up or the panel will warp.
  5. Hide glue is outdated.
  6. Paint is for covering poor workmanship only.
  7. Nails are for carpentry, not fine furniture.
  8. Workbenches need a tail vise.

I could go on and on. And it would soon sound like I’m giving you a list of things to believe, or not to believe. All I really want to say is my favorite Russian paradox: “Disobey me.” And I’d like add one more bit of information to that: There is a way out of the paradox, but you have to find it for yourself.

— Christopher Schwarz

More Classes with Chris (Near & Far)

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I have two more classes this year that have open spots. One in Germany, and one in Indiana.

I’m teaching people to build the Dutch Tool Chest in Munich July 14-16. You can register and read more about the class here. The class takes place next to Dictum’s lovely Munich showroom and is easy to get to via train. There’s lots of good food and touristy stuff in the area for your family to do while I yell “Schneller! Schneller!” as you dovetail.

The other class is on how to build a peasant cupboard on July 27-28 at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking in Franklin, Indiana. You can read more about the class and register here. This is a fun class because the cabinet construction is the quick part. Then we paint the face frame, learn about spells and engrave them.

I probably will announce two more chair classes for this year in the coming days. One in London and one here. The class here will likely be for an Irish armchair with a saddled seat.

— Christopher Schwarz

Tickets on Sale Friday for Berea ‘Backwood Chairmakers’

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Chair by Terry Ratliff, featured on the cover of Andy Glenn’s “Backwoods Chairmakers.”

At 2 p.m. (Eastern time) on Friday we will open up ticket sales for our Backwoods Chairmakers event that will take place on June 2 at Berea College.

Tickets will be $33 for the event. This fee covers only the honorariums for the 13 chairmakers who have agreed to attend. Berea College Student Craft and Lost Art Press have both volunteered time, people and space to make this event affordable for everyone.

However, if you would like to add a little extra to help cover lunches for the attending speakers, credit card fees and gasoline, you can – only if you want, of course.

The event will begin at 9 a.m. on Sunday, June 2, and will end at 5:30 p.m. There will be demonstrations, lectures, a gallery of chairs by the chairmakers and opportunity to meet the makers and Andy Glenn, the author of “Backwood Chairmakers.”

We have space for only 200 attendees. And each ticket buyer will be limited to four tickets (to prevent scalping). 

The tickets will be sold through our Ticket Tailor website (the same site that handles our class registration).

Here’s the link to the site.

Hope you can attend!

— Christopher Schwarz

Make a Chair With Me in Germany

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I have been invited back to Germany this summer to teach a four-day introduction to chairmaking course at Dictum’s classroom in Niederalteich, a gorgeous monastery in Bavaria.

The class is in English (my German is terrible), and the location is a fantastic place to stay and learn. You can rent a room at the monastery. And we all eat meals together in the monastery’s gasthaus. 

The class runs from July 9-12. Beginning chairmakers are most welcome. In the class we will each build a simple backstool and focus on the fundamentals – the angles, the joinery and training your hands to be a chairmaker.

While the chair shown is unsaddled, we will also cover basic saddling.

You can read more about the area and the class here.

I hope to teach a Dutch tool chest class the following week in Munich. More details on that class soon.

— Christopher Schwarz

See & Meet ‘Backwoods Chairmakers’ in Berea on June 2

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A ladderback by Terry Ratliff, one of the speakers at the upcoming event.

Andy Glenn’s new book “Backwoods Chairmakers” has been a runaway hit – we’ve about blown through the first press run after only 3-1/2 months.

Recently, Andy had the great idea to gather the chairmakers from his book at Berea College so readers can meet these chairmakers, hear their stories, see their chairs and watch demonstrations of how they work.

We think it’s a great idea, so we are working with Berea College Student Craft to hold the event on Sunday, June 2, at the college’s campus in Berea, Kentucky. Tickets will be $33, and attendance is capped at 200 people.

The all-day event will feature 13 Appalachian chairmakers from Andy’s book. We’ve asked each demonstrator to bring some of their chairs so you can see the work in person. All the chairs will be assembled in a gallery for you to enjoy. We’ll also have four other “stages” going all day for you to visit.

The Storytime Stage: Where chairmakers will share their tales of how they got into the craft and manage to keep their business afloat in a world filled with mass-manufactured goods.

The Turning Stage: Several of the turners use lathes in their work and will demonstrate how they make parts using this machine.

The Shaping & Assembly Stage: Chairmakers will demonstrate the techniques they use to shape posts & rungs and assemble the chairs.

The Greenwood Stage: Splitting, hewing and hickory bark demonstrations will take place in this outdoor area. 

Plus Andy will be there to sign books.

Ladderback chairs are finally getting their moment in the sun, and I hope you’ll make the drive to Berea this June to attend this remarkable event. There is lots to do and see in Central Kentucky, so it would be easy to make this part of a quick weekend vacation.

Heck, for the ultimate experience, sign up to make a chair with Andy at Pinecroft the week after the event (June 3-8). Or a class with Andy in hickory bark harvesting the day before the event. I cannot believe there are still spots open for these classes.

More details on the event and registration will come later this week.

Please note that this is not a money-making venture. Berea College Student Craft has donated the space for the event. The tickets cover the honorariums for the chairmakers. 

— Christopher Schwarz

Places nearby Berea (or on the way) that woodworkers and their families would love:

The Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea
Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg
Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington
Museum of Appalachia in Anderson County, Tennessee
Ashland: The Henry Clay Estate in Lexington
Many stops along the Bourbon Trail
Tours of Lexington’s amazing horse farms