Author: Lost Art Press

It’s no secret that Brendan Gaffney and I are obsessed with the life and work of Chester Cornett, a traditional Eastern Kentucky chairmaker who pushed into the world of art with his later chairs he built mostly in Cincinnati.

While Brendan and I have been studying his chairs for some time, we both have developed an odd affection for the hand-painted sign Chester had outside his workshop. The sign is made of bits of thin sheet metal that have been screwed or riveted together. The letters are orange (Brendan found a color photo that has the sign in the background).

If you don’t speak Kentucky, here’s what the sign says:

Handmade Furniture
Maker Of The
Cornett Chairs
We Make Anything
Or It Can’t Be Made

I love the misspellings. “Funiture?” “Chaires?” “Iney Thin?”

Brendan and I have been plotting to make a sign like this for our shop. Today we made a prototype using hardboard, grey primer and orange paint from the home center. After studying photos of the sign, I decided the letters were 5” high and determined the width and height of the sign based on that.

We bought an inexpensive stencil set and stencil brushes from the home center. Then we went to work. The entire project took about an hour.

We’ll hang this sign in storefront’s library. And now I’m going to find some used sheet metal so we can make the real thing. The metal sign will hang in the garden where it will age with the help of the elements.

This is one of the benefits of being unemployed.

— Christopher Schwarz

Note: All three items have sold. Thanks for your interest in my work!

I have one of my staked armchairs finished and ready to ship anywhere in the contiguous United States.

The chair is made using red oak and is finished with organic linseed oil, beeswax and a burnishing process I’ve been experimenting with for the last year. The seat and chair’s back are configured for general use by a sitter of a typical height.

The joinery is designed for many decades of hard use. The legs feature conical tenons that are wedged into the seat and only tighten with use. All the joints are assembled with hide glue, so if a repair is ever necessary, the broken part can be easily removed, repaired and replaced.

It is the most comfortable chair form I make. I can sit in it for hours without complaint.

The price is $850 plus actual shipping costs via LTL common carrier. I am happy to deliver it anywhere within a 100-mile radius of Cincinnati for no charge.

Also, if you would like an Argentinian sheepskin (which is a fantastic cushion), I can include one for $30 (my actual cost).

Drop me a line through my website if you are interested.

2 Staked High Stools
I usually only sell these stools here at the storefront, but they are stacking up as of late because I’ve been making them for classes, a book and demonstrations. The stools are made from Southern yellow pine and are finished with an oil/varnish blend.

These stools are great for the shop. You can sit on either side of the seat. When you sit inclined toward the floor with your feet on the floor, it places your head and hands directly over your work. If you turn the stool around and sit on the other side, you sit upright with your feet on the cross-stretcher.

I have two stools available: One is 23” from the floor (on its high side); the other is 21” off the floor (also from the high side). The stools are $150 each.

Of course, the best deal here is to pick them up at the storefront. But I’d be willing to discuss shipping them in the lower 48 or delivering them. I caution you that packing and shipping these stools can be expensive.

Again, drop me a line through my website if you are interested.

A Note on Prices
If you are interested in sharing your opinion on my prices, I suggest WoodNet or Lumberjocks, and not the comments.

— Christopher Schwarz

Brendan’s video demonstrating his “chairmaker’s sighting square” was a bit of a joke. But the square itself is something we use all the time in the shop when drilling tricky angles.

You don’t have to build one of these squares – an aluminum framing square works just as well – but the wooden ones are nice. Here’s how the square works.

First the driller places the bit on the crest rail and lines up the drill with the hole locations on the crest and the seat (totally by eye). The driller can easily see if he (or she) is tilted too far left or right. But he can’t see if he’s tilted too far forward or back. This is where the sighting square comes in handy.

Place the sighting square on the crest with one of its legs in line with the drill and the bit (shown above). The “boring buddy” then sits at the other end of the square – basically, 90° to the axis of drilling.

Then the boring buddy holds up the sighting square, lining up the point of the drill bit with the hole location in the seat and one leg of the square. She can easily see if the driller needs to lean forward or backward to achieve the correct angle.

Works every time (as long as the boring buddy isn’t blind).

— Christopher Schwarz

The release of Christian Becksvoort’s new book, “Shaker Inspiration,” has been delayed a bit due to a problem at the printing plant. The printing on the dust jacket wasn’t up to snuff, so the plant is reprinting the jacket for us.

We don’t have a new shipping date yet, but it should be only a short delay. As soon as we have new information, I’ll post it here.

New Bandana Design
Tom Bonamici has designed a new Lost Art Press bandana. The completed bandanas are en route to us and should be for sale in the store next week. Like our previous bandana, this one is manufactured and printed entirely in the U.S.

This new design is printed on undyed cotton and features an array of tools around our beehive logo.

The quality of the bandana and the print job is outstanding. After washing mine many times, the printing stayed crisp and the cotton became quite soft. Tom really nailed this product – both on the design and the manufacturing.

Chore Coats
We’ve received a lot of questions about the next batches of chore coats. Here’s the latest. We have a batch of chore coats that was made using soft Japanese cotton completed and en route to us. As soon as these arrive, we will count them and put them up for sale in the store (I hope before the end of the month). This will be the last batch in the Japanese cotton.

The next batch will be sewn in a U.S.-made 12 oz. brushed bull cotton denim. Those are being sewn here in Cincinnati, and I don’t have a date yet as to when they will be ready.

Which one should you buy? Both fabrics are excellent – I’ve been testing them here this fall. Both breathe and move well. The Japanese cotton is remarkably smooth and looks a little more formal than the bull denim, which has more texture and less sheen.

When I have both versions in hand, I’ll take some photos to illustrate the difference. Personally, I’d be happy with either.

— Christopher Schwarz

This week I sat down for a detailed interview with Brandon Cullum of the “Make or Break Show” podcast to discuss workbenches, plus how we dig up historical techniques here at Lost Art Press and the exact moment I knew I was going to do woodworking for the rest of my life.

It’s an hour-long interview and delves into areas I rarely go (Brandon is a very well-prepared interviewer, and he did his homework). So in addition to woodworking, we discuss my love of trailer fires and the random way I got into both writing and woodworking as a profession.

So if you aren’t sick of me yet, give it a listen here. Also, be sure to check out the other 76 episodes – there are some good interviews in there.

— Christopher Schwarz