I’ve just finished up this Gibson stick chair in red elm and oak, and offer it for sale via auction.
The Gibson chair, an Irish form, is one of the most comfortable chairs I make, thanks to its low-slung seat and swept-back sticks. This chair is ideal for sitting by the fire or on the porch. And it can be sat in comfortably for hours.
The red elm, a difficult wood to find and to work, is incredibly strong and luminous. Prized by chairmakers as an ideal timber for seats, elm is almost impossible to split. This elm was harvested in northern Indiana and came from a tree that was remarkably straight. As a result, I was able to saw out dead-straight elm parts for the legs and sticks.
Here are some statistics: The seat tilts back 4°, and the back tilts 32° back from the seat. The seat is 15” off the floor and is 15” deep. There is 19-1/2” between the arms. The chair’s overall height is 33”. My chairs are compact but strong. If you can fit between the arms, the chair will hold you just fine. My Gibsons easily hold people 340 lbs.
Like all my chairs, the joints are assembled with hide glue and oak wedges, so the joints are strong but can be easily repaired by future generations. The chair is finished with a home-cooked linseed oil/wax finish that has no dangerous solvents. The finish offers low protection, but it is easy to repair by the owner with no special skills or tools.
Purchasing the Chair
This chair is being sold by silent auction. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.) If you wish to buy the chair, send an email to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 3 p.m. (Eastern) on Friday, July 7. In the email please use the subject line “Gibson Chair” and include your:
Bid
First name and last name
U.S. shipping address
Daytime phone number (this is for the trucking quote only)
Shipping options: You are welcome to pick up the chair here in Covington, Ky. I am happy to deliver the chair personally for free within 100 miles of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Or we can ship it to you via LTL. The cost varies (especially these days), but it is usually between $300 and $550. Important note: I will be overseas until July 20 and cannot deliver or ship the chair until I return. You are, however, welcome to pick it up from our storefront anytime (other employees will be here). Sorry for the delay.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this chair with a repaired arm. That arm was removed and replaced with a new one. This chair suffered no cracks during construction.
If you live in the greater Stockholm area, please stop by Rubank Tools AB in Farsta this Saturday (July 8) to say hello and talk about woodworking or salty black licorice.
Rubank is our distributor in Sweden, and they invited me to stop by between 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Saturday to meet customers and see their facility.
Why am I going to Sweden? About 1,000 reasons. I’ve never been to Scandinavia, and so I’m going to travel around for a couple weeks with my friend Narayan. Hide your potatoes and other comestibles, because Narayan and I are coming for your calories.
Pencil gauges were one of the products that were part of “split” orders.
As we are cranking up our order fulfillment system here, some of the shipments are being fulfilled from Covington, some from Indianapolis and some are being fulfilled from both locations.
A few orders are “split” – meaning that part of the order comes from Covington and part comes from Indianapolis. We are working on making these split orders clear to customers, but for the next week or so it might be confusing.
So if you ordered a hammer and a book, you might get the hammer from Covington in a couple days with the book following a day or two later.
Anyway, we are working on smoothing this out; so stay tuned and thanks for your patience.
In April 2023, we purchased the Anthe Building at 407 Madison Ave. in Covington, Kentucky, to become our new editorial headquarters and fulfillment center. We are in a multi-year restoration process to clean and preserve the building for future generations.
Here are some of the frequently asked questions about the building and how Lost Art Press will use it now and in the future.
Q: What are the plans for the Anthe Building?
A: The first phase of the project is to restore the first floor of the old factory. The rear of the building will become our fulfillment center, a function that is now handled in Indianapolis. The building’s storefront will become our commercial space – a book and tool store. That will be open by the end of 2023, we hope. The second floor will be restored in 2024 or 2025 to become our editorial offices at the front of the building and long-term storage at the rear. The third floor will be fixed up sometime in the future. We have ideas for how the third floor will be used, but nothing we are prepared to discuss.
In general, we are trying to alter the building as little as possible. The biggest tasks are cleaning the place and remediating any lead paint we might find. There are many partition walls that need to be repaired so they are sturdy. And we need to remove out-of-code electrical stuff, add HVAC to the upstairs floors and make a safe working environment for us.
Q: What will happen to the storefront on Willard Street?
A: The classes and workbenches will stay at Willard Street, as will the mechanical library and my woodworking machines. Lucy and I will continue to live above the storefront until we croak. So basically, Willard Street will look the same and function the same.
Q: How far is the Anthe Building from the storefront on Willard Street?
A: Less than a mile from our shop on Willard Street. I walk it in less than 10 minutes.
Q: Will people still be able to visit the Willard Street storefront to buy books and tools?
A: The Willard Street storefront will remain a commercial space until we have the storefront established at the Anthe Building. After that, all commerce will move to the Anthe Building. This will give Lucy and me a little more privacy, especially during mealtime.
Q: Why did you purchase the Anthe Building?
A: We have always loved the Anthe building and will be its second tenants since the building was built in 1897 as the Anthe Machine Works. Anthe made woodworking tooling and cutters, especially for shapers. The business closed in 2019 and was, at the time, Covington’s second-oldest business. The building is a time capsule with many original features, including the line shaft on the first floor.
The gap between the Anthe building and its neighbor.
Q: There is a gap between the Anthe building and the neighboring building on the third floor. Is the building tilting? Structurally unsound?
A: The building was inspected by a structural engineer in 2023 and they told us not to worry about it. Early on in the life of the building it pulled away from its neighbor a bit. Several metal plates and bars were added to reinforce the area. Many old buildings in this district of Covington have tilted a bit during the last 150 years.
Q: Will you change the storefront?
A: No. The store front has remained almost unchanged since the building was built. The main structure is cast iron, with the original frame-and-panel walls. The trim around the first-floor windows is painted steel. Our plans are to remove excess paint and repaint the storefront in a similar shade of green, hopefully matching the original color. We do have to replace the awning as it is beyond repair. We will eventually repaint the building’s cornice. And we are now planning repairs to the mortar in the brick work. The brick will remain unpainted, which is how the building was original built.
Q: What sort of neighborhood is the Anthe building in?
A: The building is in the city’s Downtown Commercial historic district (Willard Street is in the Mainstrasse district). On our block we have law offices, a pawn shop and a LaRosa’s Pizza. Behind us and across the street are two banks and a former insurance office that is being converted to a large restaurant and distillery. The most exciting part of this area is that we will soon have a new neighborhood behind us. A 23-acre parcel of land that used to be an IRS building is being returned to its original use as a neighborhood with residents and stores. (Read more here.) The Anthe building is located diagonally to Trinity Episcopal Church, where Chris and Lucy were married in 1993. One block away from the Anthe building (at Scott Boulevard and Fourth Street) is the former site of Grote Drugs, one of the drug stores that Lucy’s family ran.
Q: What architectural style is the building?
A: Neoclassical.
Q: How can readers help with the restoration?
A: The restoration requires a group of skilled tradespeople all working in concert with one another. And they need to be licensed in order to comply with county and state regulations. As we get into the future phases of the restoration, we might ask for help cleaning up the second and third floors, which can be done by anyone good with a brush and a broom. Mostly, you can help by continuing to buy our books, tools and apparel, which helps us fund the restoration.
Q: What are you going to do about the freight elevator?
A: For now, nothing. We hope to get it certified as a material lift (no passengers) so we can move books to different floors. But that is a future project.
Q: What are you going to do with the old TV antenna at the rear of the building?
A: It stays. Megan has to watch her soap operas – or else she gets grumpy.
Bean, as always, is thrilled by the jar of wax beside him.
Thanks to lots of work on Megan’s part, Katherine’s soft wax machine is 99 percent back in business. (The 1 percent? The dispenser valve needs adjustment.) So she now has a large load of Soft Wax 2.0 for sale at her etsy store.
Today has been a big day here, and not only for soft wax. Katherine started her first job after graduation at Rookwood Pottery, working on the production line. We could not be more proud of her. She worked her tail off at art school and then landed a job doing something she loves – working with clay.
Despite her full-time job, Katherine plans to keep making wax. She cooks it up using the raw ingredients of yellow beeswax, raw linseed oil and a little bit of citrus solvent. She then packages it in a tough glass jar with a metal screw-top lid. She applies her hand-designed label to each lid, boxes up the jars and ships them in a durable cardboard mailer. The money she makes from wax helps her make ends meet. Instructions for the wax are below. You can watch a video of how to use the wax here.
Instructions for Soft Wax 2.0 Soft Wax 2.0 is a safe finish for bare wood that is incredibly easy to apply and imparts a beautiful low luster to the wood.
The finish is made by cooking raw linseed oil (from the flax plant) and combining it with cosmetics-grade beeswax and a small amount of a citrus-based solvent. The result is that this finish can be applied without special safety equipment, such as a respirator. The only safety caution is to dry the rags out flat you used to apply before throwing them away. (All linseed oil generates heat as it cures, and there is a small but real chance of the rags catching fire if they are bunched up while wet.)
Soft Wax 2.0 is an ideal finish for pieces that will be touched a lot, such as chairs, turned objects and spoons. The finish does not build a film, so the wood feels like wood – not plastic. Because of this, the wax does not provide a strong barrier against water or alcohol. If you use it on countertops or a kitchen table, you will need to touch it up every once in a while. (I have it on our kitchen countertops and love it.) Simply add a little more Soft Wax to a deteriorated finish and the repair is done – no stripping or additional chemicals needed.
Soft Wax 2.0 is not intended to be used over a film finish (such as lacquer, shellac or varnish). It is best used on bare wood. However, you can apply it over a porous finish, such as milk paint.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS (VERY IMPORTANT): Applying Soft Wax 2.0 is easy if you follow the simple instructions. On bare wood, apply a thin coat of soft wax using a rag, applicator pad, 3M gray pad or steel wool. Allow the finish to soak in about 15 minutes. Then, with a clean rag or towel, wipe the entire surface until it feels dry. Do not leave any excess finish on the surface. If you do leave some behind, the wood will get gummy and sticky.
The finish will be dry enough to use in a couple hours. After a couple weeks, the oil will be fully cured. After that, you can add a second coat (or not). A second coat will add more sheen and a little more protection to the wood.
Soft Wax 2.0 is made in small batches in Covington, Kentucky. Each glass jar contains 8 oz. of soft wax, enough for about five chairs.
