Lost Art Press

Author: Lost Art Press

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

‘Um, Yeah, You’re a Real Business’

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When we started Lost Art Press in 2007, our goals were simple: Print books that we want to read. Keep the overhead as low as possible. Don’t borrow money. Don’t do something stupid to overextend ourselves.

So John Hoffman and I stored and shipped all our books ourselves. (My sunroom and living room have been stacked to the ceiling.) We did our own accounting. We were our own webmasters, secretaries and janitors.

We’ve grown tremendously during the last five years, and we ship tens of thousands of books to customers and retailers all over the world. But we are still just two guys with laptops. No employees. No building, photocopier or debt.

storage_unit1_IMG_8516We’ve managed this by farming out everything to our friends and colleagues, from editing manuscripts to page design to filing tax forms. And today we took a big step forward by moving our warehouse full of books to MSL Packaging & Fulfillment in Indiana. We looked at using a big international fulfillment house, but MSL suits us better. It was started by two guys who always pick up the phone when we call (sometimes while eating bacon) and who share a lot of our principles.

This move will increase the speed with which you get your orders – MSL is jacked right into our ordering system. And it will free us up to work even more on books, woodworking, editing, layout and blogging.

If you have a problem with an order (it happens) you’ll still deal directly with John or me. We will never cut the line of communication to our customers. (If it weren’t for you, John and I would be in miserable corporate jobs.) All out contact information is here.

• If you have a question or problem with an order, contact John Hoffman at john@lostartpress.com.

• If you have a question about the content of a product, contact me at chris@lostartpress.com.

We answer all e-mail, even if you are a rude prig. If you don’t hear back from us in 48 hours, we probably didn’t get your e-mail. Try again.

Oh, and the title of this blog entry? That’s what our accountant said to me on the phone this week when I called with a silly tax question.

— Christopher Schwarz

Roy Underhill, the Hindenburg and the Presto

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A recent NPR story on a project using vintage 1930s recording equipment featured a device that plays a big part in “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!” The portable Presto acetate disc recorder was used by folklorist Alan Lomax to record musicians such as Leadbelly in the last years of the great Depression. The NPR story covered the Presto’s role in music recording, but left out its part in recording one of the great tragedies of that era, the 1937 explosion of the airship Hindenburg.

The Presto disc recorder was a game changer in 1937; it was a 50-pound portable machine that could produce high-quality audio recordings on location. Two reporters from Chicago had traveled to New Jersey to cover the arrival of the Hindenburg and interview the Chicago passengers. As they described the approach of the great airship, it exploded and burned with such force it knocked the cutting needle momentarily out of the track on the acetate disc. The recording they made “…all the humanity!” is one of the most memorable of the 20th century.

Eluding the German agents that tried to confiscate the recordings, the two made it back to Chicago, and the next day the recordings were heard on radio receivers in millions of homes around the world. It was a shocking moment that changed broadcasting. Prior to that time, the networks suppressed any use of recorded media on radio. Everything on radio was performed live over wirelines that the networks controlled. The broadcast of the Hindenburg recordings helped break down the barriers to recorded or “transcribed” programming from that time on.

This change in the broadcasting game plays heavily in “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!” In the story, the Hindenburg recordings make it possible for Calvin’s show “Grandpa Sam’s Woodshop of the Air” to be distributed to radio stations on records, rather than be presented live. Today, everyone knows to be very careful about what they allow to be recorded – but in 1937, this was all new! Once the records were out there, just like Facebook posts today, there was no way to get them back!

— Roy Underhill

To hear the NPR story on the Presto disc recorder, follow this link:http://www.npr.org/2014/02/17/277548570/that-old-time-sound-captured-live-in-the-moment

To read more about Presto recorders, click here.

‘(A) Landmark Title Every Serious Woodworker Should Hold as a Reference.’

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Paul Mayon at the New English Workshop has just published a lengthy review of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry.”

Read the complete review here.

One quick excerpt from the review: “More than that it is an important book and a landmark title every serious woodworker should hold as a reference.”

You can order the standard edition of the book for $43, the pdf for $19 or both for $52 from our store here.

The deluxe edition is available here. We now have fewer than 60 copies left.

— Christopher Schwarz

International Downloads, PayPal & Other Boring Stuff

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Portret van een van twee Indische timmerlieden. From rijksmuseum.nl
Portret van een van twee Indische timmerlieden. From rijksmuseum.nl

We now accept PayPal for all orders placed through the Lost Art Press store – that’s in addition to Visa, Mastercard and American Express. So if you’ve been hoarding money in a PayPal account, we have another way for you to spend it.

If you are an international customer who wants to purchase a download, you can now do that directly through our store. Our store accepts international credit cards (and PayPal) for downloadable items. Your download will be delivered immediately and with all the regular security enjoyed by domestic customers.

Yes, we are still working on shipping all items internationally. We’ll be taking a big step forward to that goal this week.

Also, we ship the deluxe version of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” everywhere in the world. For information on shipping and pricing, send an e-mail to John Hoffman at john@lostartpress.com. We now have custom boxes for the deluxe edition that make it a snap to ship this massive tome without damage.

OK, back to roasting a chicken.

— Christopher Schwarz

It’s Sabre Saw Sunday

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Opnamedatum: 2012-04-12

Suzanne “Saucy Indexer” Ellison was digging around in the digital archives of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and turned up some fantastic images you might enjoy exploring.

The Rijksmuseum provides high-resolution images freely to anyone who creates an account and encourages users to use the images to make T-shirts or some other art form. It’s a surprisingly refreshing approach compared to the locked doors of other museums.

The image at the top of this blog entry is titled “Carpenter points to the drill that he has in his hand, Jan Luyken, bet. Pieter Cornelis van der Arentsz & Sys (II), 1711.” It’s a delightful drawing; the carpenter looks like he’s explaining how his drill works to a television audience.

Some notable details: The workbench has angled legs with only two stretchers. It’s a bit like a modified Roman workbench. I cannot see any vises, but the benchtop is obscured by the subject and his tools. I think it’s clear the benchtop is 38” from the ground, however.

At the carpenter’s feet are more tools: the curious Dutch sabre saw, a hammer with a nice handle and a cross pane, a plane, a box of nails and some other stuff that’s unclear to me.

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Flight to Egypt and Joseph as a Carpenter, Wheelwright and Cooper
The second image is a lot like the famous Stent panel in that it was created by someone who was a woodworker, so the details are likely to be more accurate than a drawing or painting.

This panel, circa 1600-1699, has lots to see. In the top left, Joseph is shown at a bench that is almost identical in structure to the first plate in this blog entry. Again, no vises are evident, nor is a planing stop (though there has to be something there). Again, a 38”-high workbench.

Behind him are tools: a bowsaw, bench planes, compass, rabbeting or moulding planes, a brace, miter template, perhaps a second template and a rack of chisels.

Love the hat.

In the carpentry scene below, Joseph has a try square, a level, mallet and a chisel.

In the wheelwright scene and cooperage scenes on the right we get to see a drawknife make an appearance in both.

In the center of the panel we have Joseph holding his basket of tools with his sabre saw over his shoulder.

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From The Four Times of Day, John Saenredam, Cornelius Schonaeus, 1675 – 1607
This engraving shows a carpenter crosscutting a board with a sabre saw while he kneels on a a beam. Behind him a woodworker planes what looks like the top of a table (I think that’s a drawer below).

Oh, and that’s Apollo on the cloud.

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New Year Postcard from the carpenter’s guild in Haarlem, circa 1600
This image is one I’ve been studying for some time after Jeff Burks first pointed it out to me. It pictures Joseph in his workshop at a 38”-high workbench that clearly is built in the Roman style. And it has what looks like planing stops.

At Joseph’s feet is a sabre saw and a bowsaw. Plus the baby Jesus striking a chalk line with the help of a cherub.

I’ve been studying this plate (and a bunch of others) as a way of sorting out the culture of tool storage – who uses racks, who uses chests etc. That’s a topic for another day.

Suzanne sent me links to many more images, but I have to get my butt into the shop. I’ve got blind dovetails to cut and pine to process for a demonstration next weekend in Alabama.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. All the stuff above about 38″-high workbenches is just a joke to amuse myself. Ignore it.