Lost Art Press

Author: Lost Art Press

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

For Sale: Hobbit Chair in Mahogany With Stretchers

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This chair is a close cousin to the chair offered here a couple weeks ago. Same great wood and same finish. The only difference is this chair has a stout H-stretcher, making it suitable for all sitters.

I am selling this chair for $2,600, and that price includes the crating and shipping to anywhere in the continental U.S. The chair is being sold via a random drawing – details below.

This chair is made of mahogany that is at least 70 years old. I bought it from Midwest Woodworking in Norwood when it was going out of business. The wood is gorgeous stuff, light and strong.

The chair is set up for dining. The seat tilts about 3°, with a back tilt of another 12°. The seat is 16” off the floor, which makes it comfortable for a wide range of sitters. The seat is a single wide plank of mahogany (that I had to amazingly rip down to make the seat). All the housed joints are assembled with hide glue and elm wedges so that the chair can be repaired long in the future. 

The finish is super blonde shellac with a thin coat of black wax, which tones down the red and accentuates the wood’s pores.

Purchasing the Chair

We’re selling this chair via a random drawing. If you wish to buy the chair, send an email to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 5 p.m. (Eastern) on Friday, June 7. Please use the subject line: “Hobbit Chair.” In the email please include your:

  • Name
  • U.S. shipping address
  • Daytime phone number (this is for the trucking quote only)

On June 7, we will pick a name at random and contact that person. Note that if you don’t hear from us on Friday, you did not win (sorry – the mail program has made bulk replies impossible). We will happily crate up the chair and ship it to your door. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.) Shipping and crating is included in the price, with no additional charges whatsoever.

This is the last Hobbit chair for awhile (and last mahogany chair for awhile). I have a new design in my notebook that I am eager to bring into the world.

— Christopher Schwarz

Free for June: All 3 of our Substacks

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In addition to this Lost Art Press blog (long live the blog!), we also write three other blogs hosted by Substack. These blogs go deep into woodworking topics we are passionate about. They’re not for everyone. But they might be for you.

For the entire month of June we’ve removed the paywall from all three Substack blogs so visitors can look around, soak up all the information they like and decide if they would like more. All blogs offer both free and paid subscriptions. About one-third of the new posts on these blogs are free, so it’s definitely worth paying absolutely nothing to check them out for a time.

And, like this blog, you won’t be inundated with ads or spam on our other blogs. Here’s some links and three of the most popular entries from each blog:

The American Peasant
This is my PG-13 unfiltered* writing voice. It’s always about woodworking, but it delves into the ethics, scams and idiocy that permeates the craft at times. It explores vernacular furniture, the business of making furniture and (of course) off-color animal metaphors. There are more than 270 posts to read, and 13,000 subscribers. Here are three posts readers liked the most:

The Lesson of the Bearded Antiquarian

Make Money Making Things

No Viable Upgrade Path

Never Sponsored
After almost 50 combined years in the business, Megan and I know more about tools than we know what to do with. “Never Sponsored” is our blatantly frank reviews of tools – some great, some despicable. We can write these reviews because we don’t have advertisers to please, and we don’t do affiliate marketing or any other quid pro quo stuff. This new blog has 22 posts so far and nearly 3,500 subscribers. Some popular pieces:

Shapton Kuromaku Stones (the Only Ones to Buy)

The $%&@ They Don’t Tell You About Diamond Stones

Tooley Park Scribers

The Anarchist’s Apprentice
This year we brought on Kale Vogt to learn the craft of woodworking. And this brand new blog consists of diary accounts from Kale, Megan and me about the training process. The ups, down and sore wrists that come from learning to make furniture for a living. These entries are fairly personal, but they give some insight into the day-to-day working of a busy workshop. This blog has 2,300 subscribers and 19 posts to enjoy. Some highlights:

Kale’s Chair is done; Now What?

Ja, They’re Swedish

The Only Prescription is More Chairs

I hope you’ll take a look at some of the writing. We try our best to keep it lively, pointed and useful. You don’t have to sign up for any free trial or give your name or email address to poke around. (You know we hate that stuff.) Just click and go.

— Christopher Schwarz

Now Shipping: Saw Sharpening Book & Roman Workbench Video

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After a long dry spell (five months), we finally have two new products in our store that we have been working on for a long time (nine years on the saw sharpening book!).

“Set & File: A Practical Guide to Saw Sharpening” by Matt Cianci is in our warehouse and shipping. It is $32. If you buy it before July 1, you will receive a free pdf download of the book at checkout. This book shows you saw teeth like you’ve never seen them before: up close. Matt Cianci, a long-time saw doctor, has a practical way to teach saw sharpening that anyone can do (I watched teach this last weekend). 

If you’ve ever been frustrated by old texts about saw sharpening, this book will set you straight (pun intended).

“Video: Build a Roman Workbench.” This video shows you how to build the most portable, compact, inexpensive and easy-to-use workbenches available. Made from about $45 in dimensional lumber and scraps, these benches allow you to make cabinets, chairs and tables while sitting down.

These benches are ideal for apartment woodworkers – or anyone who has limited shop space (the bench can double as a coffee table). It’s also ideal for woodworkers who travel, who like to work outside or have mobility issues.

The video is now $35 – a special introductory offer. After July 1, it will be $60. The video includes downloadable construction drawings and a packet of additional information on workholding.

More new books (and tools) coming soon.

— Christopher Schwarz

Recommended: the Nakashima ‘Process Book’

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It’s a bit difficult to put a label on this book. It’s not really a catalog of the pieces produced by Nakashima Woodworkers, but it is filled with drawings and images of the pieces the company makes. It’s also a short history of the workshop, a close explanation of how they work and a sometimes-lighthearted look back at George Nakashima’s life and work.

Called the “Process Book” and written by Mira Nakashima, this 2023 book is unlike any other book I have encountered in my career as a publisher and a woodworker.

The book is a deconstruction, showing you its structure like a wedged through-tenon or visible dovetails. When you first unwrap the book, it looks like it has a dust jacket. But when you open the jacket, you find that the jacket comes off and unfolds into a large poster. One one side is a photo of George Nakashima and on the other are construction drawings. 

The book block has no boards or paper cover. Instead it is like looking at a component from a pressroom. The spine of the book shows the thread running through the signatures. And the glue that reinforces the signatures. You can see clearly the registration marks from the press (usually obscured) that guide the bindery as they assemble the book block.

And while there is no formal “cover,” the pages of the book are protected by heavy printed end sheets.

Once you start exploring the interior of the book, there are more surprises, including large fold-out sections and gorgeous photography displayed on premium uncoated paper.

The whole experience is much like experiencing a piece of well-made furniture. First you see the form – it’s a book. But as you get closer and interact with the piece you come to understand it was made with incredible care and it gives up its secrets slowly but inevitably.

If you love the work of George Nakashima and his daughter, Mira, this book is essential reading. The book is filled with sketches of the pieces the shop sells, plus many archival images and drawings that aren’t shown in George Nakashima’s “Soul of a Tree.”

The book details the process of building a piece of furniture for both the customer and the workers. It explains with great clarity how wood is chosen for each piece of furniture in a way that helps determine the final design of the piece.

And as you work your way through the book, folding and unfolding and marveling at this detail or that curious drawing, you become an active participant in the creation of the book. After you are done with the text, you put it all back together again. And there it is, the form you started with.

The book ships with a current price list (always interesting). “Process Book” is a delightful piece of work. And at only $35, it’s a steal for printing and binding of this caliber.

— Christopher Schwarz

Special Open Days in Early June

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Because of the Backwoods Chairmakers event in Berea, Ky., on June 2, we have decided to open our storefront doors here in Covington, Ky., on June 1 and June 3. This will allow travelers who are coming from out of town to stop by on their way to or from the event.

These days we keep sometimes-scattershot hours because we might be at the lumberyard, packing books at our warehouse or teaching out of town.

But on June 1 and June 3, we will be at our storefront (837 Willard Street, Covington, Ky., 41011) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to welcome you. We’ll have all our books, apparel and tools. Plus some blemished and returned books at half price (cash only on blemished books).

On June 2, Kale and I will be at the Backwoods Chairmakers event, documenting this once-in-a-lifetime gathering. We’ll also have a small table of chairmaking books for sale there. We will not have our full line of books at the event.

Either way, we hope to see you this June.

— Christopher Schwarz