Lost Art Press

Author: Lost Art Press

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

Printing Delays on 2 ‘Anarchist’ Books

Posted on by Lost Art Press

We have yet to replenish stock on “The Anarchist’s Workbench” and “The Anarchist’s Design Book” due to delays at one of our printing plants.

Both books have been delayed by several weeks but should be back in inventory the week of Nov. 16, according to our press representative. The reason the books have been delayed is complex. But if you boil it all down, big publishers need more printing capacity this fall so the small publishers get to sit on their hands.

If you are waiting for us to restock, I recommend you instead visit one of our retailers. Many of them have stock of both titles and can ship immediately.

— Christopher Schwarz

New Bandanas Now Available

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Our newest bandana design has arrived in the warehouse and is available for immediate shipping. These bandanas are sewn and printed in the USA. 

The design features our logo in the center, a swarm of bees and four “skeps” (not igloos) at the corners. Skeps are an early form of beehive. And bees and skeps were common symbols for woodworkers.

We use bandanas for a lot of things, from protecting our lungs when changing the dust collector to keeping our faces warm in cold weather. Bandanas aren’t the best protection against disease, but they are better than a sharp stick in the eye.

These bandanas feel a little coarse right from the factory. Wash yours before you use it, and it will become as soft as a bee’s belly.

The bandanas are $24. We have a limited quantity. Once they are gone, they are gone.

— Christopher Schwarz

I Don’t Like Flashy Wood – Go Figure

Posted on by Lost Art Press

While at Popular Woodworking Magazine, we were often called upon to offer praise or criticism for projects submitted by readers.

On occasion, it would be difficult to find anything nice to say about the project. The form, the joinery and the finish were all rubbish. When this happened, here’s what I told my fellow editors.

“You can either tell them the truth (‘Have you ever considered golf as a hobby?’) and come off as a pious jerk and discourage them from continuing in the craft,” I said, “or you can say, ‘Wow, that is a crazy nice piece of oak.’”

Many beginners gravitate toward using woods with crazy figure or coloring. (I admit I had a very short lacewood phase.) And the sh*t show of chatoyance can obscure awkward forms, gappy joinery, lumpy finishes and poor surface preparation. 

This bird’s-eye blindness or curly maple madness usually passes as woodworkers gain skill and confidence. But with some woodworkers it becomes a chronic condition. Wild figure tends to dazzle a viewer. When a customer sees a figured piece, they immediately say, “Wow!” So every piece the woodworker subsequently makes uses fiddleback-tiger-beeswing something-or-other to elicit that response.

When I encounter a highly figured piece, I step back and squint my eyes, which turns down the volume on the figure so I can see the form. Then I get really close to the piece to see the care taken in the joinery and surfaces. Only then can I appreciate the piece as a beautiful form that was carefully made and happens to use dazzling wood.

Personally, I am far more impressed by people who take homely woods and compose them beautifully to enhance the piece’s form. Straight grain on rails and stiles. Centered cathedrals on panels. Gently curved grain on a curved toe kick. Colors that reveal the form, instead of hiding it behind a dizzying fun house of ripples and swirls.

I know, I know. I’m no fun. If you think this blog entry sounds curmudgeonly, ask me about combining different species with contrasting colors sometime. 

— Christopher Schwarz

New Video: How to Use the Chairpanzee

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Here’s a short video that shows how to use the Crucible Chairpanzee to work with photographs of furniture to create simple drilling settings for the compound-angle mortises.

In the video, I show how to convert a chair’s “rake” and “splay” into “sightline” and “resultant” angles using the Chairpanzee. Why would you want to do this? It makes the drilling much easier. 

If you have only the rake and splay, then you usually use two sliding bevel tools to drill the mortise – one for rake and the other for splay – and have to obey both tools as you drill. It’s do-able, of course, as I worked that way for years.

By using trigonometry (or the Chairpanzee) to convert things to sightline and resultant angles, you have to obey only one sliding bevel tool. It makes drilling compound angles as easy as possible.

Here’s the video:

There are other ways to use the Chairpanzee. You can use it to design new chairs, stools and tables from scratch. I’ll make a video showing that process sometime in the near future.

The Chairpanzee is available in our store for $16 plus $4 domestic shipping anywhere in the United States.

— Christopher Schwarz

New in the Store: The Chairpanzee

Posted on by Lost Art Press

One of the (many) barriers to making staked furniture or chairs is wrapping your head around the compound-angle geometry. And then figuring out how to execute it at the bench.

The new Crucible Chairpanzee ($16 plus shipping) does the trigonometry for you, allowing you to translate rake and splay into sightlines (which create your layout lines) and resultant angles (which is the setting of your sliding bevel).

This allows you to easily design new pieces of furniture with compound angles and to replicate angles from existing pieces of furniture from photos.

The Chairpanzee is a clever sliding calculator that is printed and assembled in the United States. Here’s how we use the Chairpanzee on a chair design (though it can be used for tables, stools or any other piece of staked furniture).

To calculate the “sightline:”

1. On the underside of the seat, draw a line connecting the two front leg mortises (as shown above). This is the baseline.

2. Move the calculator’s slider to the desired splay angle in the top window.

3. Next to the lower window, select the desired rake angle. The number shown in the adjacent window is the sightline angle.

4. Draw the sightline angle on the underside of the seat using a protractor. The 0° on the protractor should be directly on your baseline.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for the rear legs.

To calculate the “resultant:”

6. Confirm that the calculator’s slider is set to the desired splay angle in the top window.

7. Next to the lower window, select the desired rake angle. The number shown in the adjacent window is the resultant angle.

8. Set your sliding bevel tool to the resultant angle and place it directly on the sightline on the underside of the seat.

9. Drill your mortise. Keep the drill bit perfectly parallel to the blade of the sliding bevel.

The Chairpanzee is available for immediate shipment. We hope that some of our retailers will also carry this product for our international customers.

In the coming week I’ll post a video that shows how it’s used.

— Christopher Schwarz