When Kieran Binnie died by suicide in April, I had to take some time to think it over. I’ve had other friends and family leave the world this way, and there is a lot of anger, confusion, regret and loss to digest. At least there is for me.
Kieran and I met in 2014 when he was a student in an “Anarchist’s Tool Chest” class in England. While I try to keep a professional distance from students when I teach, I immediately bonded with Kieran over music – both playing it and listening to it – as well as the normal stuff (woodworking, tools and beer).
And it wasn’t just an international fling. Kieran and I kept in close touch since that class, meeting up in person a few times at woodworking events and classes – and always trading music recommendations back and forth. As well as staying in touch online.
At the time of his death, Kieran and I were working on a book together about the intertwined history of books and bookshelves and bookcases. I don’t know if I have the strength to complete that project on my own, but I do want something good to come out of his death.
Derek Jones, luthier Sue Johnson, Kieran, me and Paul Mayon in 2014.
Shortly after Kieran’s funeral, I talked with Rachel Moss, Kieran’s wife, about something we could do together that would help the craft, help build community (a very important thing to Kieran) and help people who might be struggling with mental illness.
I immediately thought of JoJo Wood and Sean, who run Pathcarvers in Birmingham – the same city where Kieran lived. Pathcarvers is a special organization that helps bring woodcraft to segments of the population that might not ever experience it, including people in drug and alcohol rehab, prisons, mental health services and those with low incomes. They do this in addition to offering courses to the public at large.
Rachel and I decided that Pathcarvers was a perfect fit for our efforts. And so I am pleased to announce The Kieran Binnie Memorial Fund for Craft. This fund goes directly to Pathcarvers to support their work. No administrative fees. No strings attached. This money will expand the courses that Pathcarvers offers and fund tuition for people who cannot afford it.
Pathcarvers has opened a GoFundMe page here. If you are interested in helping others through craft, I can promise that your money will be put to good use.
Please take a moment to read about Pathcarvers here. Plus some of the people who teach courses there (and have been themselves helped by the programs) here. And if you can donate – even a little – please do.
Our ceramics supplier has just filled our entire order of Lost Art Press Beer Steins, and they are now available for immediate shipment. The mugs are $39, made in the USA by an artists’ collective and hold 20 ounces of beer, bourbon or coffee.
These mugs are handmade, dishwasher-safe and a joy to use.
We also have a new bandana design available in our store. This bandana features construction drawings from one of the comb-back chairs in “The Stick Chair Book.” The bandana was designed by Tom Bonamici to look like a blueprint. These are printed by One Feather Press in Tennessee, which makes the nicest bandanas we have found. They are pre-washed, soft and crisp.
Please note that because of ongoing supply-chain problems, we may not be able to restock these items if we sell out of them before Christmas. So if you are considering these as a gift, act now to avoid disappointment or shipping delays (remember last year? We do).
Editor’s note: Following the success of “The Essential Woodworker” – our second-bestselling time of all time – we worked with Robert Wearing to republish a book filled with some of his best jigs, fixtures and appliances for handwork. During his career, Wearing had published two books of jigs for woodworking (both out of print), that are filled with insanely practical and simple devices.
Just like with “The Essential Woodworker,” we had to recreate the book from scratch – all of the text, photos and drawings had been long lost to the publishing machine. And once again, the royalties to this book went to help Wearing, who was in an assisted-living home, after an incredibly rich and long career.
You can read more about Wearing’s life in this lovely 2017 profile. Shortly after “The Solution at Hand” was published, Wearing died at age 99 (read our obituary here).
The following tools are selections from Chapter 3: Tools, of Robert Wearing’s “The Solution at Hand: Jigs & Fixtures to Make Benchwork Easier,” a hardbound book of our favorite jigs from Wearing’s career. The book covers a wide swath of material, from building workbench appliances for planing, to making handscrews (and many other ingenious clamps), some simple tools that you cannot buy anywhere else, to marking devices that make complex tasks easier.
In all, there are 157 jigs, all of which are illustrated with Wearing’s handmade drawings. The book is designed as more of a reference book than something you read straight through. Already after editing the book, I now find myself returning to it and thinking: I know Wearing had a solution for this problem. And he did.
— Christopher Schwarz
Oil Pad “Park your plane on its side lad.” This is a folk custom dating back to the age of wooden planes. The blades of these planes were firmly held by a tightly hammered in wooden wedge. Following this advice, however, will disturb the lateral setting of an iron plane whose blade is nothing like so firmly held. Instead park the plane on the oil pad made by gluing a strip of carpet to a plane-sized board [Fig. 1, above]. This is a tidy arrangement which both protects the blade and reduces friction. Very little oil is needed.
Beam Compasses This excellent and virtually cost-free tool is shown assembled at Fig. 9 A. In constructing it, first machine an overlength piece of square-section material, say 5/8″ x 5/8″ (16 mm x 16 mm). Cut off five pieces to make respectively, pieces a, b, c and d. All except d are sawn in half. The inside ends of c and d are finished quite square and all other ends are angled. Glue the a pieces to the stem and c and d between the b pieces using a short waxed block cut from the stem as a spacer. Hold the pieces together flat on a piece of polythene sheet. Drill a hole in end B for a pencil or ballpoint, the latter is often better, then drill a small terminal hole of 3 mm (1/8″) and a lateral hole for the clamp screw. A brass roundhead 12 gauge x 1-1/2″ is well suited for the cramp up. Drill halfway at 1/4″ (6 mm). Drill the remaining distance at 1/8″ (3 mm). Saw the slot with a saw having a wide kerf. Screw up and test with the chosen pen or pencil. File off any protruding screw point.
A similar routine is adopted for the sliding point unit. There are several possibilities for the clamping screw. Either put a clear hole halfway through and tap the other half 1/4″ BSW, or metric equivalent. Use a thumbscrew to tighten or make one by soldering a wing nut on to a piece of screwed rod. Or solder a wing nut to a brass woodscrew. Screw in a normal woodscrew first, then replace with the one made up. Or drill clear holes right through and use a 1/4″ (5 mm) coach bolt with wing nut.
The point can be made by grinding up a piece of silver steel of about 3/32″ (3 mm) diameter. Clean up the whole job, lightly sand and finish either with a polyurethane varnish or teak oil.
Fig. 9
Awls Of this large family of tools from the days of handwork, only the bradawl remains in the catalogues. The convenient materials for making awls are tool steel, silver steel (commonly stocked in good tool shops) or old or unwanted screwdrivers.
The bradawl, A, is most used for screw holes and is either filed or ground on both sides and after hardening and tempering is honed to chisel sharpness on the oilstone.
Marking awls, B, are made out of thinner material ground or filed to a long, fine and round point. Small electrical screwdrivers with plastic handles convert easily. This awl is not really suitable for work other than marking as it cannot remove wood.
Fig. 34
The four square awl or small hand reamer, C, is useful in the bigger sizes for enlarging holes and in the smaller sizes for making pilot holes for small screws. It is filed really square in section and after hardening and tempering is carefully honed to give four keen cutting edges. It can be made from either round or square material.
The hooked awl, D, is particularly useful for marking out the second stage in dovetails. A good material for making these is old-fashioned steel knitting needles.
Turned hardwood handles with ferrules are well worth the trouble taken. Fit the blades into the handles by drilling slightly under size, filing the end of the awl to a chisel shape and then driving on in a vice. If the section is big enough the handle and blade can be drilled through and pinned.
My latest chair is a white oak backstool/armchair that is inspired by the chair that Bilbo Baggins sits in during the opening of “The Fellowship of the Ring.” This full-size chair is by no means a copy of that chair, however. Read on for details.
Peter Follansbee once joked that I’ll buy any book that is titled “The Furniture of (Blah Blah Blah)” – in which “blah” could be a person, place or time.
He’s not entirely incorrect.
Of course I love books, reading them, writing them and designing them. And so I am constantly adding to our library, culling the losers and trying to figure out how to organize the damn books. (Right now it’s organized roughly by period, plus sections on tools, wood, philosophy, fiction and chairs.)
In addition to our library, the back room is where we design and edit our books. It’s where I keep most of my records and my stereo. (For the audio-shamers out there, my turntable is a Thorens and my pre-amp and amp are from Schiit. The speakers are Klipsch.)
All the shelving is made from yellow pine 2x12s that are screwed together and are then bolted to the masonry walls.
The Klaus Skrudland Memorial Bathroom is such an elevated way to go. Our former bathrooms were from the building’s years as a bar. They barely worked. When we tore out the old bathrooms, we found some stuff that still haunts me.
The new kitchenette is my favorite place in the morning. I make coffee there while Bean tries to lure me through the back door to the biergarten – which we will visit during our next and final installment.
