Lost Art Press

Author: Lost Art Press

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

Kill Wood-boring Insects with Kitchen Appliances

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When I first started harvesting green wood for my workshop, I was worried about bringing wood-boring insects into my workshop. It would be like letting loose 1,000 raccoons into a Golden Corral restaurant.

So I got some advice from fellow woodworkers. All of the advice involved pesticides. And some of it sounded reckless. (Put the wood in a garbage bag with an aerosol bug bomb. Be sure to tie up the bag really quick!)

Years ago, I found this short article by Michael F. Potter, an extension entomologist at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, and it was exactly what I wanted. Potter recommends eliminating insects from the wood using your fridge or your oven.

I’ve been using his freezing method for several years, and it has worked brilliantly.

In short: Put the wood in your freezer and set it for -4° F. Let the wood stay there for seven days. Remove it. Done.

Potter recommends using a plastic bag to protect the wood, but he’s mostly concerned about finished household items. I haven’t found it necessary when freezing raw wood.

The article also discusses how to kill bugs with your oven and gentle heat. I haven’t tried this method yet. I want to experiment first with some test pieces that are green because the method might rapidly dry out the stock and check the ends. (Potter does recommend adding a pan of water to the oven to keep the humidity high. I am interested in this technique; I just haven’t had time to give it a go.)

Another bonus with the freezing method: If you keep the green wood in the freezer it won’t dry out and will stay green as long as it’s frozen.

All this is just another excuse to add a beer fridge insect deinfestation device to your workshop.

— Christopher Schwarz

Coming in 2027: A New Woodworking School in Covington

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It needs some cleaning, paint and sprucing up. But the former picking floor of our warehouse should be a woodworking school by the end of the year.

Thanks to some tectonic shifts in our business at Lost Art Press, it looks like we will have a new woodworking school in Covington, Kentucky, that is literally in our back yard.

Last year we had to stop holding classes in our Willard Street workshop after our insurance carrier dumped us (it’s a long tale that does *not* involve anyone getting hurt. Basically, when you live above your business, things get weird).

In June, our Covington warehouse hit its maximum capacity while we had more than a dozen double-stacked pallets of books on the way. So we moved our warehouse operations a mile away to a building that was purpose-built for order fulfillment with a loading dock, a huge roll-up door and insane room for growth. We signed a seven-year lease.

Moving our warehouse then left us with three floors of open space in downtown Covington at 407 Madison Ave., which is where we run our retail storefront.

As luck would have it, two of our favorite woodworkers were interested in opening an independent school. So unless our Covington building gets hit with a meteorite, it looks like their school will occupy the warehouse space attached to our storefront.

The school will be an independent business, but it will be closely aligned with Lost Art Press. Megan and I will teach there, as will a whole host of great instructors.

And our storefront and as-yet-to-be-named school will share space and facilities. Visitors to the storefront will see the school in action. Students who need a book or a tool can saunter a few steps to get what they need.

Students loved the urban atmosphere in Covington, and this new school will preserve that. The new school is even closer to Covington’s hotel district and is surrounded by hundreds of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, bookstores and places to buy freeze-dried ducklings.

Megan and I are planning new classes for 2027 at the school – classes we have never taught before. It’s all quite nice that this is working out for everyone: students, the owners of the new school and Lost Art Press. (And for Covington, too. The owners of Larry’s say they really miss all you guys, especially Scott.)

If all goes to plan, classes will begin in January 2027. We will let you know when the first class list will be released.

— Christopher Schwarz

Free Plans for Our Clamshell Bookcase

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I’ve always loved clamshell bookcases – fold-up bookcases that allow you to transport your personal library to a lighthouse, campsite or war zone. I started building them while working on my book “Campaign Furniture” (a free pdf download for everyone).

They can be simple (such as the one shown above), or as complex as the one I built about 12 years ago (shown below). 

Earlier this spring, I designed the simple version for Kale and Katherine to build in order to sharpen up their dovetailing skills while I was teaching in Tennessee, Maine and who knows where. After giving them the construction drawings and cutting lists, I showed them where my pile of Eastern white pine was.

“Take it from here,” I said.

And they did. 

After they assembled the finished case, Katherine asked how they should finish the piece.

“It’s up to you,” I said.

And it was.

Katherine has a love (and a deft hand) for folk-art painting. And so she designed a snake that roamed all over the case. It is not random. It is carefully planned. Then Kale and Katherine spent about a week painting the bookcase between other editorial tasks.

We call the snake “Colin the Semi-colon Snake.” He’s winking.

The cabinet is designed to hold our pocket books on the two top shelves and our 6″ x 9″ books on the lower shelves. This cabinet looks great on top of a chest of drawers. Or a sideboard. And it doesn’t take all that long to build – especially if you have Kale and Katherine doing the work.

The pdf below includes all the construction drawings you need, plus a cutting list. 

LAP clamshell bookcase drawing packetDownload

I hope you enjoy the project.

— Christopher Schwarz

For Sale: Nice Machines from Kelly Mehler’s Workshop

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When woodworker and instructor Kelly Mehler died unexpectedly last year, he left behind a shop full of meticulously maintained woodworking machines that he used in his personal work after he closed his woodworking school.

The Mehler family is trying to find new homes for these machines, avoiding the chaos and unpredictability of an auction. These machines would have to be picked up in Kentucky.

I’ve worked on almost all of these machines when I taught at Kelly’s school and can vouch for them. As of now, they are in Kelly’s workshop in Berea, Kentucky. If you are interested in any of them, I encourage you to contact Kelly’s son Jason Mehler at [email protected].

You can download a pdf with additional photos of the items for sale here.

Here is what is available:

Felder AF-22 Dust Collection System: $1,400 OBO

Felder BF7-41 Combination Machine: $6,000

Powermatic 701 benchtop mortiser: $600 OBO

DeWalt 701 20” Scroll Saw: $450

Powermatic 3520 Lathe w/Baldor Motor and chuck vacuum device: $4,200

Lagune Revo 18/36, 230V Lathe: $2,500

Felder F700Z tilting shaper/milling machine: $4,000

Powermatic 719A chisel mortiser: $1,000

Delta 17-990X Drill Press: $750

Centauro S400P Bandsaw: $3,000

Delta 28-475x bandsaw: $550

Chisels, attachments, calipers and tools for lathes, custom shelving. $400 with lathe purchase

— Christopher Schwarz

Video: D.R. Dimes Reborn

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D.R. Dimes was one of those famous furniture making companies that was so ubiquitous that you couldn’t imagine it ever going out of business. But it did.

What I didn’t know is that it has recently been reborn as a one-person shop run by Douglas P. Dimes, the son of the founder. 

The story of the Dimes workshop is a fascinating read, from its rise after the 1976 bicentennial to its closing in 2017 as the market for so-called “brown furniture” bottomed out.

“The New Hampshire Chronicle” produced this nice documentary about the Dimes company, which you can watch for free. 

Like many owners of a small business, I worry about growing too fast, or the market disappearing (probably because of something I did or failed to do). It’s also a reminder that if you were born to build furniture, it’s always a sound path. Even if you are the one and only employee.

Great video. Worth a watch.

— Christopher Schwarz