Typically, I’m not a fan of Print on Demand (POD) publishers who take low-quality scans of books in the public domain and sell them alongside antique books. I have been fooled a couple times and ordered a POD book by accident.
But here is one exception. The Forgotten Books website in the UK is a massive collection of public domain works that are well-indexed. There I have found about a dozen woodworking books I had never heard of thanks to the site.
There are school manuals for woodworking, William Fairham’s “Woodwork Joints” and more than 100 others.
If you really want to buy one of these books, go ahead. I can offer no promises on the print quality. However, you can preview each title as a guest, and you get to see quite a lot of the interior of the book. More than enough to decide if it’s a book you are willing to chase down on the secondhand market, or perhaps find through archive.org or one of the many other sites that archive scans.
It’s a big list. I think you’ll enjoy paging through it.
Some righteous fried chicken from Libby’s, a Covington staple.
We are thrilled to host Lie-Nielsen Toolworks this weekend for a Hand Tool Event at our storefront at 837 Willard St. in Covington, Ky. (Details here.)
If this is your first trip to Covington, or you haven’t been here since the pandemic, there is a lot to chat about.
During the last five years, the city has blossomed in many ways (not our doing), and there are somehow even more places to eat and drink within a 5-minute walk of our front door. Here is an updated list of places close by that we recommend and love.
Breakfast
The Anchor Grill: Cash-only diner that is open 24 hours. No yuppies or hipsters. Pike Street diner: Upscale diner for fancier lads and lasses. Cedar: Still fancier breakfast spot for brunchers. Coppin’s: The fanciest breakfast. It’s at the Hotel Covington. Dang good. (Also great for lunch and dinner.) North South Baking: Great pastries, breakfast sandwiches and coffee. Point Perk Coffee: All manner of coffee. Left Bank Coffee: Also good coffee.
Lunch Olla: Best Mexican food in town. (Also great for dinner.) Guiterrez: Mexican deli run by the same family that runs Olla. Empanada’s Box: Fantastic selection of delicious empanadas. Gyros on Main: Just like it says. Kung Food: Good Chinese with good beer. (Also good for dinner.) Thai Pavilion: Good Thai with decent beer. The Standard: Burgers and fries in a converted gas station. Kealoha: Healthy and delicious Hawaiian food. Lorenzo’s: Good sandwich spot.
Dinner Otto’s: Southern classics. Libby’s: Fried chicken and other Southern specialties. Frida 602: Very good gringo Mexican. Mama’s on Main: Sturdy Italian food. Larry’s: Our fave dive bar with tater-tot-based cuisine Dewey’s: Excellent pizza. You can get it at the stand-alone restaurant, or order it from inside Braxton Brewing, the city brewery. Juniper’s: Gin bar with a great rotating tapas menu. Zola’s: Straight-ahead, no-apologies bar food. Riverside Korean: A Covington staple for 20 years.
Drinks Crafts & Vines: Our local. Great people and good small bites, too. OKBB: Probably the best bourbon bar in the world. Vintage: A wild place that sells vintage bourbon. Braxton Brewing: Solid beer, with a great pizza place inside. Rooftop bar. Knowledge or Coppin’s: The multiple bars at the Hotel Covington are all excellent. Second Story Bar: Very nice bar above the Flying Axes bar on Sixth Street.
Fun Stuff Earth to Kentucky: Toy store on our street. Amazing selection of cartoon-based stuff. Hail Records and Oddities: If you need vinyl, weird taxidermy, occult stuff, stickers etc., go see Neil. Hierophany & Hedge: A city landmark and magic shop. Not to be missed.
And then there’s Cincinnati – a whole other world of good food and drink. It is no wonder that it’s difficult to stay thin here.
About 2012, Ty Black and I developed some leather pockets for the inside of tool chests that would hold important stuff. One held a block plane. The other held pencils, pens, knives, 6” rule and other skinny things that could get lost in a tool chest.
We never intended to make them for sale, but after more than a decade of using them in our shop, I realized that other woodworkers would find them as useful as we do.
We enlisted our clothing designer, Tom Bonamici, to create canvas versions. And we had Sew Valley (here in Cincinnati) stitch them for us. They are made of the same great canvas we use for our waist apron and tool roll. (So you can be all matchy-matchy.)
We have just received our first shipment, and they are available in our store. They are sold individually, or as a set with a modest discount.
Years ago I used to make all my sticks with the 5/8” Ray Iles rounding plane. I think I must have had a bump on the head at some point because I cannot remember when or why I stopped using it.
Last year I bought one from Classic Hand Tools in the UK, and I quickly remembered how well it worked. When set with care, it can be used to shave sticks and tenons. And you can do it in a jiffy if you spin the stick with an electric drill.
There are other places that sell them, such as Workshop Heaven and Tools for Working Wood (plus some other small suppliers in the UK). If the tools are temporarily hard to get, Ray and his crew will make more.
The video above shows how I use the tool to create long sticks and tenons. It was shot by our new assistant editor, Kale Vogt. Kale is an enthusiastic chairmaker, and you’ll see a lot more of her in the coming weeks.
As per the usual, I buy all my tools with my own money. Nobody sponsors us. No affiliate links. No legerdemain.
— Christopher Schwarz
For other tips on making chairmaking cheaper, read these entries.
“The Anarchist’s Design Book, Expanded Edition” is now a free download for everyone. You don’t have to register, sign up for dumb marketing or give up your email address. Simply click here, and the book will start downloading to your device.
If you want to read more about what is in this book, click here. We will continue to offer printed copies of the book. I love physical books, and this one is particularly nice, with its premium endsheets and bookmark ribbon.
This is the fifth book of mine that I have made free as a download. Here are links to the other four (if you are interested):
