Thanks everyone. We are now over capacity.
Author: Lost Art Press
Publisher of woodworking books and videos specializing in hand tool techniques.
Un Etrange Suicide – in High Def
Some of you might remember my “Death by Roubo” blog entry from March 2013, a grim but fascinating look at how to use your workbench for more than woodworking.
Well sometime this summer I got the idea to turn that image into a T-shirt with a slogan that was in questionable taste. So, with the help of Jeff Burks, I purchased two original copies of the April 5, 1903, edition of Le Petit Parisen, which had originally published the story and drawing. The old newspapers weren’t expensive.
Surprisingly, everyone I told the T-shirt idea to sensibly steered me away from it.
However, because I love this image so much, I took a high-resolution photo of it today and am publishing it here for you to enjoy. The detail in the drawing is quite good. Whoever drew the illustration was either familiar with workshops or simply paid good attention.
I love the little copper glue pot, the brace on the wall and the odd clamping contraption in the background.
But mostly I like the bench. Nice detail on the leg vise’s chop, sir. I salute you.
It’s OK, don’t get up.
Save the image to your hard drive, and you will be able to zoom in on this image to your heart’s content. If you don’t know how to save an image to your computer, click the link below to download the image.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/strange_suicide_img_6637.jpg
— Christopher Schwarz
Our Book-release Party is Full
If you are coming to Woodworking in America next month (or even if you aren’t), please consider attending our book release party at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, at A Tavola Pizza, 1220 Vine St. in Cincinnati. (Sorry the book-release party is fully booked.)
And if you can’t make it to the book-release party, be sure to join us in the WIA marketplace at noon on Oct. 19 for a second book signing with many of the principals involved in the translation project.
— Christopher Schwarz
The Horse Dung (and Urine!) Experiment
In our excerpt of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry,” A.-J. Roubo offers a recipe for staining wood red using a concoction made using horse dung and urine.
Here’s the recipe:
Before finishing the dyeing of wood, I believe I ought to give a least-costly method of dyeing white wood red, which is done in the following manner:
You take some horse dung, which you put in a bucket of which the bottom is pierced with many holes, and you place it above another bucket, into which falls the water from the dung, as it gradually rots. When it does not rot fast enough, you water it from time to time with some horse urine, which helps a lot and at the same time gives a red water, which not only stains the surface of the wood, but penetrates the interior 3 to 4 lines deep. In staining the wood with this dye, one must take care that all the pieces be of the same species, and about equal in density if one wishes that they be of equal color throughout. This observation is general for all water-based stains, which have no palpable thickness nor even appearance [they leave no residue or any evident change in appearance], which requires the cabinetmaker to make a choice of wood of equal color and a density as I mentioned before.
Woodworker Jonas Jensen of Mors, Denmark, is making this stain and documenting the process on his blog, Mulesaw. Follow along – but be warned, if you don’t like pictures of dung you are not going to like the instructions.
And just a reminder, the standard edition of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” is almost finished at the printer. If you want the book with free domestic shipping, be sure to place your order before Thursday, Oct. 10.
The standard edition is available in the store here. We have some deluxe versions still available, though the supplies are dwindling. Click here for details on the deluxe edition.
— Christopher Schwarz
Peter Galbert on Chairmaking
The Sterling Historical Society presents PeterGalbert from Robert McKay Jones on Vimeo.
With all the (well-earned) hoopla about our Roubo translation, we haven’t been talking as much about the other projects coming up from Lost Art Press – including a fantastic book on chairmaking by Peter Galbert.
The book is essentially written, and now Peter is making the illustrations (by hand, natch) for the book. I’ve been editing the text and I can say that it is outstanding. And I say that as a chairmaker, not as a publisher. Look for it in 2014.
If you’d like an introduction Peter and his way of working, check out the above video shot at the Sterling (Mass.) Historical Society. If you’ve had the benefit of taking a class from Peter or attended one of his seminars, then you know his book will be nothing less than fantastic.
— Christopher Schwarz