If you don’t read my blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine, you might want to check out this article I posted there this morning. Git yer polissoirs.
— Christopher Schwarz
Author: Lost Art Press
Publisher of woodworking books and videos specializing in hand tool techniques.
Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event (and Lost Art Press Garage Sale)
This weekend (April 4 and 5) Lost Art Press will be at the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event in Cincinnati. As always, the event will be held at the offices of Popular Woodworking Magazine (go here for directions and hours).
We’ll have all of our Lost Art Press books (including a deluxe version of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible”) to sell. But this year we’ll have some extra stuff because the show is in our back yard.
We’ll have discounted copies of our books that are blemished or were soiled (don’t ask) and returned. In addition, I have been cleaning out the basement and have gathered together a heap of tools I had forgotten about or were boxed up out of sight.
Some are new stuff I purchased to test years ago. Some tools are vintage ones I bought to study. All will be priced fairly. (And yes, the tools we do not sell will be up here on the blog for everyone at a later date.)
And one last thing: I’m bringing one of my unfinished full-size Anarchist’s tool chests to sell. The shell, skirts and lid are complete. You just have to add the internal guts. As I built this chest during a class, I have already been paid for my labor. So I’ll be asking the cost of materials only: $300.
If this doesn’t sell, however, I’m not going to put it up here on the blog. These are crazy to ship.
If you live within a day’s drive from Cincinnati, these events are totally worth the trip. This show is one of the bigger ones and has a lot of other toolmakers and furniture-makers.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Please, please, please don’t ask me to send you a list of tools in advance. It doesn’t exist. Or please don’t ask to come by the house at 5 a.m. tomorrow. Crazy requests will be ignored.
Portable Library Writing Tables
One of the interesting forms I didn’t get to discuss in “Campaign Furniture,” is the portable library writing table. It’s typically a three-piece affair – the desktop lifts off the two pedestals for travel.
The version shown above is from the 1907 Army & Navy Co-Operative Society catalog, though the form appears over and over again in many of the catalogs.
It also appears as a reproduction at times. And this form is the ancestor of the modern campaign desk that is shown on sawhorses at Pottery Barn etc.
Mark Firley at The Furniture Record shows a particularly nice antique version in his blog today. The top surface of the desk tilts, there is a secretary gallery and the drawers in the pedestal units are protected by drawers. Check it out here.
And by the way, free domestic shipping for “Campaign Furniture” ends on Saturday. So if you were waiting to hide the charge on your April statement….
— Christopher Schwarz
A Carnival of Sorts
This crazy-looking saw till was on sale at the American College of the Building Arts yesterday, and I really want to build one without the wild paint job.
The tool dealer who was selling the till said he found it in Kentucky. The sides of the case tops are made from old cheese boxes. The back, he said, might have been salvaged from some leftover circus or carnival scrap, which could explain the paint.
The functional aspect of the till is an old idea: You slide the toe of the sawblade into the slot. A rubber-covered ring gets pushed to the side. As you let go of the saw, the ring drops down and wedges the saw plate in place. To remove the saw you push the blade up and pull it toward you. Nifty.
— Christopher Schwarz
Meet Caleb James, Planemaker
The world needs more wooden planemakers – it can be difficult to find vintage hollows and rounds and complex moulders that don’t need serious work (or are hopeless). Matt Bickford has his hands full; Old Street Tool isn’t taking new orders while they try to reduce their order backlog.
So today I was quite eager to try the planes from Caleb James, a planemaker and chairmaker in Greenville, S.C. Caleb makes a full range of wooden planes from quartersawn American beech that he personally cuts and dries.
I took his planes for a test drive during the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at the American College of the Building Arts today and was impressed. Very impressed. His planes work as well as the planes from Matt Bickford and Old Street. They are responsive, have tight mouths and eject shavings smoothly.
If I didn’t have all the hollows and rounds I need, I would have placed an order on the spot. I might ask him to build me a couple of beading planes I want to add to my tool chest. So if you are thinking about wooden moulding planes, you now have another option – and a very good one at that.
Here are some of his prices from his 2014 price list:
• Matched pair of hollows and rounds: $450-$465
• Rabbet plane (5/8”, 3/4” or 7/8”, with or without persimmon boxing): $250-$285
• Try plane (2” iron, 24” long): $485
• Snipe bills (1/2” radius): $545/pair
• Coffin smoother: $365
Check out Caleb’s blog and web site here. In addition to being an accomplished toolmaker, Caleb makes Windsor chairs and is whip-smart. Check him out.
— Christopher Schwarz
