Lost Art Press

Author: Lost Art Press

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

New Chair Class & New Dates for ‘Open Wire’

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Some quick administrative stuff. To try to meet demand for classes on building a stick chair, I’ve scheduled a class in building a Welsh-style comb-back chair at our Covington storefront for Nov. 18-22. Registration for the class will open at noon (Eastern) on June 24.

You can register via this link on June 24.

The classes are expensive, I know. The price includes all materials, plus continental breakfast and lunch every day. (We are serious about the food.) The class size is small – six students with one instructor and an assistant. We go to great lengths to make the week special and work hard so you go home with a finished (completely finished) chair.

The other bit of news here is that we have to scale back “Open Wire” a bit for the rest of the year. Megan and I are traveling a lot in the coming months, and it’s difficult to juggle our Open Wire when one of us is out of town.

Here are the Open Wire dates for the rest of 2024:

July 20
August 10
September 14
October 19
November 16
December 14

We will post reminders before each Open Wire date. Those are the Saturdays when both Megan and I will be in the office and ready to answer your woodworking questions. Megan and I enjoy Open Wire, but we hate to leave the other in the lurch when the other is traveling or teaching.

— Christopher Schwarz

Sale Ends Saturday (Plus a Price increase)

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Our final (I hope) inventory sell-off ends at midnight on Saturday. We have seven titles for sale, from 38 percent off to 54 percent off. My most recent book, “The Stick Chair Book,” is one of those books and is just $29 until Saturday.

The sale has cleared out the space we need to operate at our new warehouse building in downtown Covington. And it will give us the room to begin assembling our new Exeter-pattern hammers in-house. So thanks for all your help in storing our excess books at your house.

The bad news here is that we will raise prices on some books and tools effective July 15.

Like all households and small businesses, we have been squeezed by inflation during the last few years and have resisted raising prices in the hope that paper costs would decline. It hasn’t happened.

The price increase will affect 15 titles, including “Chairmaker’s Notebook,” “The Anarchist’s Workbench” and “Country Woodcraft.” I haven’t yet done the math for Crucible Tools, but I feel sure prices will go up on our Warrington Hammer and Lump Hammer. 

Our original handle supplier in Arkansas decided to stop giving a crap about quality. So we left them and have been using two small companies that are doing a great job for us. But the handles cost five times as much.

Next week I’ll post a complete list of the upcoming price increases. I wish we didn’t have to do this, and we will be as transparent as possible during the process.

— Christopher Schwarz

The End of the First Edition of ‘The Anarchist’s Tool Chest’

Posted on by Lost Art Press
We have brought back the old cover color for the final printing of this edition.

When we released “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” (almost 13 years ago to this day), the goal was to create a book that looked like an odd old text that you might find on a library shelf in the basement. We chose a vintage tan cover cloth, binding process and diestamp that all fed into that look.

Unfortunately, the printer had difficulty with the manufacturing. The glue that reinforced the signatures was either spooged on or non-existant. The endsheets weren’t glued right, so some of the books were bound too tight. Others were too loose. Some books fell apart (we replaced those). All in all, it was a bit of a let-down after two years of work on the text.

After that, we spent a long time working with the press people to get results we are both happy with.

Today we are releasing the final printing of the first edition of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” and we decided to return to that original look to see if we could nail it this time. If you ever wanted to get a copy of ATC that looks like the original, this is your (last) chance.

All copies of this book that are purchased from Lost Art Press will be autographed by me.

This is the 16th printing of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” We’ve sold 45,000 copies of the book. And the last 2,000 that arrived today will mark the end of this edition.

In time, it will be replaced by a new edition that will be redesigned, printed in color and revised to reflect the changes in the marketplace and in the tools in my chest. I don’t know when this new edition will be released. Probably in 2025 or 2026 (the 15th anniversary of the book). It’s something I have been working toward for a couple years.

Kale made this short video of us going to fetch the new edition….

The chest itself will remain unchanged in the new edition. But Megan Fitzpatrick and I have devised dozens of improved methods to make the work easier. These will be in the new edition. And I might add a new coat of paint to the old boy. It has seen a lot of work.

The final tan edition is now available in our store.

— Christopher Schwarz

Spots Open in My Tool Chest Class in Munich

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Learn to build a Dutch Tool Chest from an American in the beautiful city of Munich – in July.

I still have a couple spots open in my tool chest class on July 14-16 at the Dictum store in Munich, Germany. If you are looking for a quick and fun vacation, this could be it. The school is right by the train station and tons of restaurants, biergartens and museums. Bring your family (I’ve done that a couple times – they love Munich).

Details on the class are here. The class is taught in English (Southern High Redneck English). And you don’t even need to bring tools.

— Christopher Schwarz

For Sale: Hobbit Chair in Mahogany With Stretchers

Posted on by Lost Art Press

This chair is a close cousin to the chair offered here a couple weeks ago. Same great wood and same finish. The only difference is this chair has a stout H-stretcher, making it suitable for all sitters.

I am selling this chair for $2,600, and that price includes the crating and shipping to anywhere in the continental U.S. The chair is being sold via a random drawing – details below.

This chair is made of mahogany that is at least 70 years old. I bought it from Midwest Woodworking in Norwood when it was going out of business. The wood is gorgeous stuff, light and strong.

The chair is set up for dining. The seat tilts about 3°, with a back tilt of another 12°. The seat is 16” off the floor, which makes it comfortable for a wide range of sitters. The seat is a single wide plank of mahogany (that I had to amazingly rip down to make the seat). All the housed joints are assembled with hide glue and elm wedges so that the chair can be repaired long in the future. 

The finish is super blonde shellac with a thin coat of black wax, which tones down the red and accentuates the wood’s pores.

Purchasing the Chair

We’re selling this chair via a random drawing. If you wish to buy the chair, send an email to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 5 p.m. (Eastern) on Friday, June 7. Please use the subject line: “Hobbit Chair.” In the email please include your:

  • Name
  • U.S. shipping address
  • Daytime phone number (this is for the trucking quote only)

On June 7, we will pick a name at random and contact that person. Note that if you don’t hear from us on Friday, you did not win (sorry – the mail program has made bulk replies impossible). We will happily crate up the chair and ship it to your door. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.) Shipping and crating is included in the price, with no additional charges whatsoever.

This is the last Hobbit chair for awhile (and last mahogany chair for awhile). I have a new design in my notebook that I am eager to bring into the world.

— Christopher Schwarz