Lost Art Press

Author: Lost Art Press

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

Two Price Changes: Chore Coats and ‘Mechanic’s Companion’

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We’ve reduced the price on two products in the store. Here’s the story.

We’ve permanently lowered the price of “Mechanic’s Companion” to $23 (it was $26). We are reprinting this title this week and can lower the price because the manufacturing cost went down (we placed a large print order). 

We consider this book a foundational text for hand-tool woodworking. Peter Nicholson was a cabinetmaker as well as a writer. So this text is clear and shop-based. I still pick up important details every time I read it, much like Charles Hayward’s books.

This book is made in the USA and is designed to outlast you. Unlike several “print on demand” (POD) versions out there, this book is printed on offset equipment. The signatures are sewn and reinforced with fiber tape. The pages will not fall out after a few readings. 

Don’t get me wrong, POD is great for some applications (“Alf” fan fiction, for example). But not for a foundational book.

Chore Coats

We have lowered the price of chore coats to $135 to close them out for the season. The regular price was $165. We have to change fabrics for our next run, so we need to move out the current versions to avoid confusion. There is nothing wrong with the fabric or the chore coats. We just have to change suppliers and so we need to close these out. 

— Christopher Schwarz

Satin Black Rules (I’ve Failed You)

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My eyesight is terrible, and so I’ve long relied on rules that have a satin black background with white etched letters.

For years I used one from Bridge City, but the markings were blurry. I suspect they were screen printed or not etched deep enough. After trying a few other brands, Peter Galbert gave me a flexible one made by SPI. It was a revelation. It’s not as good as a Starrett, but it’s close enough.

When we started Crucible Tool, one of the products we worked on for months was making a set of black rules, 6”, 12” and one that would fit in a Starrett combination square. In addition to the black background, we wanted to remove the 32nds and 64ths. The rules would have 8ths and 16ths printed on both faces.

I won’t detail all the ways we failed, but we couldn’t find a manufacturer that could do the job to our satisfaction. 

This week, I finally closed the door on this project. We tried to get SPI to do a large run of rules with 8ths and 16ths on both faces. They politely declined.

If your eyesight is poor, I absolutely recommend the SPI rules. Just ignore the face with the 32nds and 64ths. When I work to those measurements for toolmaking, I’m going to use dial calipers or a micrometer.

The good news is that the SPI rules are an absolute bargain. Buy them from MSC Industrial Supply. Here are my three favorites:

6” rigid 4R rule. It’s $6.49.

12” rigid 4R rule. It’s $10.76

6” flexible 4R rule. It’s $5.73. This rule is ideal when marking out along a curved surface.

These rules are an incredible bargain. And your eyes will thank you. 

I wish we had been able to make them more appropriate for woodworking, but maybe that day will come in the future.

— Christopher Schwarz

‘Question Time’ With Show Notes

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Show Notes “Question Time” January 2021

12:41 Introduction

14:16 What are your top five favorite tools?

16:02 Which domestic hardwood is most underused relative to its potential in furniture making?

16:47 How to glue up a workbench top without metal clamps.

18:13 Do you have a preference as to what sort of steel you use in your edge tools?

19:13 For Megan Fitzpatrick: Would you describe how you survive in a hostile testosterone-driven world?

21:32 How do you find your design “voice” in what you create? Is it a natural process? Or is there more intent behind it?

23:36 Do you find much time for furniture projects that you build purely for yourselves?

25:07 Demonstration on riving dry hardwood

28:24 Any obscure modern toolmakers we should be paying attention to?

Walke-Moore Tools

Matthias Fenner

Seth Gould

30:06 What is some of the worst woodworking advice you received?

31:44 How do you get good? How do you progress to the next level?

34:33 Should I buy a combination plane or dedicated planes for grooves and rabbets?

35:51 Chris never seems to back up his work while drilling? How does he prevent blow-out? Are there special bits?

Star-M bits from Workshop Heaven

37:23 Any tips for making a Welsh stick chair into a rocking chair?

38:28 Are there good videos or books on how to take the crispness of your work up to high levels?

Rowden Atelier

40:07 Do you guys miss having people in the shop for classes or open days?

42:11 Can Lost Art Press offer some critique or advice on getting a manuscript ready to publish?

45:07 Can you offer advice on shipping furniture to clients? Building crates? Using LTL services?

YRC

46:45 Why are solid-wood drawer bottoms beveled instead or rabbeted?

47:57 Advice for planing out pin knots without tear-out?

49:51 If I have a full set of hand tools, what power tools would you recommend I purchase to make furniture?

51:30 Should I use half-lap joints to join the stretchers to the legs of my workbench?

53:10 How do you find time to shift gears from making furniture to writing?

55:35 What temperature range do you suggest when using hot hide glue?

Hold-Heet glue pot

56:15 When you put a breadboard end on a table, how do you level the breadboard to the tabletop?

57:25 I’m making a field desk and am having trouble with tearout and tool marks on the African mahogany? Any advice?

59:10 What are your favorite woods to use?

1:00:40 What is the minimum air temperature for using your “shop finish” (equal parts varnish, boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits)? Can it be applied outside?

1:02:17 Could you expound on your new children’s books? What age range will they be for?

David MacAulay books

1:05:29 When I laminate a benchtop, does it matter if the boards are quartersawn, flatsawn or a mix?

1:06:47 What one act of woodworking gives you the most pleasure?

1:07:56 When drawboring a workbench, is there any advantage to using two drawbore pegs instead of one?

1:08:57 What one hand tool would you recommend for a hybrid woodworker?

1:09:20 In your new book on chairmaking, what are some of the tools you find yourself using the most? 

1:09:50 Demonstration on making a stick round with handplanes

Live on Saturday Morning

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Our first “Question Time” livestream is at 11 a.m. (Eastern) Saturday. We’ll broadcast here from the shop and answer the questions you sent in beforehand. 

Megan Fitzpatrick estimates we received 125 questions. Yikes.

She’s been answering directly the ones that are narrowly focused. And if we don’t get to your question during the live session, we’ll try to address it on the blog in the coming weeks. 

If you aren’t able to watch us live, we’ll post the Q&A session along with the questions (and timecodes) so you can sort the wheat from the chaff.

You will be able to watch the livestream here. Above is a window where it also will be broadcasting. And we’ll post another portal on the blog on Saturday morning.

Why are we doing this? We like to experiment with new technology to help expand the woodworking community. For example, we experimented with Instagram and now reach 114,000 people, many of them beginners. That’s a success, and so we put effort into it every week. Other experiments, such as a forum, didn’t take off and so we snuffed them out.

My hope is that we will do a livestream every month. Some might be bench demonstrations, some will be Q&A, and I hope that some of them will be interviews with our authors. If we do a good job and attract an audience, we’ll put more effort and time into it.

There won’t be ads or sponsors. We won’t be selling you a multi-level awl program. No animals will be harmed, though we hope Bean the three-legged shop cat will bless us with a cameo. 

— Christopher Schwarz

Plan for a Sheffield Cutler’s Stool

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I had a few requests for plans for the cutler’s stool I built during Colonial Williamsburg’s “Working Wood in the 18th Century” conference over the weekend. 

The Sheffield stool was a common sight in the factories and workshops of the tool-making city. And while the stools are rarely identical, they are similar enough to suggest they were made to a common plan. This version is a typical one, but without the incised rings on the legs.

An undated photo from the Marples factory, Sheffield.

My version is made from a single board of 8/4 red oak and is about 20” tall when finished. Here’s the cutting list:

1 Seat 1.75” x 10.25” x 18.5”
3 Legs 1.75” diameter x 22”

I shaved the legs round with a jack plane and then cut a 1.5” diameter x 2.25” long tenon on one end of each leg. I used a hollow auger in a brace and bit. I then used a tenon saw to cut a kerf in the end of the tenon for the wedge.

Saw the seat to shape and lay out the location of the mortises on the underside of the seat. The sightlines for the front legs intersect the location of the mortise for the rear leg, as shown on the drawing. Set a sliding bevel to 18° (the resultant angle). Drill all three legs using the sliding bevel as a guide. I used a 1.5” diameter “Scotch eye” auger, with a broomstick as the bar.

Then use a jack plane or a drawknife to bevel all the corners of the seat, adding comfort. Cut some oak wedges for assembly. Mine are 1.5” wide, and 2” long. The included angle of the wedge is about 2°.

Assemble the stool with hide glue, driving the wedges into the kerfs. You can then saw the legs so the seat is level to the floor. When the glue is dry, cut the protruding tenons and wedges flush with the seat. Do any “make pretty” that is necessary for a shop stool. Add a finish if you like. I used a beeswax and organic linseed oil paste.

— Christopher Schwarz