Category: The Anarchist’s Tool Chest

The good news: The U.S. Postal Service is delivering copies of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” at a quick clip. We dropped the first load into the mailstream on Saturday afternoon and already we are hearing from people who have received it.

That is remarkable considering we sent the book via Media Mail and that Monday was a holiday. I guess John Hoffman’s flirting with the postal workers on the dock really paid off (and yes, Pat, I can get you John’s number).

Today I dropped off two more huge loads of books – all my car could carry – and we are almost caught up on sending out all the pre-orders. The only thing stopping us is that we have depleted the local supply of boxes that fit our book.

Other news:
• I’ll be getting estimates of the costs for our leather-bound version of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” tomorrow. If you are on the list, you will hear from us shortly with an update.

• I began milling the pine for the 6’ dividers we will have in our booth at Woodworking in America.

• I will find more boxes tomorrow, even if I have to go to an office products superstore and donate several pints of various bodily fluids. I’m a quart high on bile right now, anyway.

— Christopher Schwarz

The latest T-shirt from Lost Art Press is a little different than the five generations before it. Emblazoned on the front of the shirt is the silhouette of the English square in the shape of an “A” – the motif throughout “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” book that resembles the symbol used by anarchists. This “A,” however, has 19th-century style.

The rear of the shirt is printed with the title of the book, which I made with one of those crappy plastic label-making gizmos popular in the 1970s. I scanned the labels at a high resolution, then enlarged and distorted them in Photoshop.

All in all (and I rarely say this), I am pleased with this design.

So here’s the bad news. You know we won’t lie to you. For this run, we switched back to the 50-percent cotton, 50-percent polyester shirts made in Central America. It didn’t have to do with money — we are happy to pay for quality. It had to do with customer feedback. Customers were split on whether they liked the American-made shirts, which were more lightweight, or the Central American ones, which are beefier.

In the end, I made the call. I like the way the foreign-made shirts feel and age. My design, my choice. I am continuing to look for a good domestic supplier and have a line on a company that even grows its own cotton. I have high hopes.

The shirts are $15 plus $4 shipping. As always, we have to charge an extra $2 for the XXL size. If we do another run of these shirts, we will be sure to get a few medium and small sizes – another customer request.

Click here to order a shirt from our store.

— Christopher Schwarz

The first loads of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” are in the mail stream now, and we are all ready for a beer. Or even a roofie.

We got a few hundred orders boxed up Friday night after work (and barbecue) and spent all day boxing up the rest. Now it’s time for some tater-tot casserole and crispy pork belly. And a roofie.

If you are looking to buy this book from one of our retailers – Lee Valley Tools, Lie-Nielsen Toolworks or Tools for Working Wood – those books are on their way to their warehouses. We can’t say when the book will show up in the catalogs, but it should be soon.

We also had one walk-in customer. A local woodworker who had pre-ordered the book asked if he could pick it up.

And after promising that he wasn’t going to skin me and wear the dried flesh like a mask, we said OK.

Thanks to everyone who placed an order before we shipped. Your faith in us is heartening. And I’m glad we shipped before June, which is what we promised.

One special thanks from everyone goes out to Phil Hirz, who cleaned up the entire data base of pre-orders, and allowed us to push out these orders this weekend instead of next week.

— Christopher Schwarz

Details this week.