I can’t post the original article from October 2012 – that is the property of Popular Woodworking Magazine. But you’re smart. You can figure it out. Or you can buy the issue here.
It has been two years since “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” was released, and so I am an unpleasant person to be around.
During the last 24 months I have been distracted or devoted to the task of publishing books from other authors. I’ve been teaching classes on three continents. I’ve filmed four DVDs. I’ve written a dozen articles for magazines and more than 300 blog entries.
But no books.
So I’m doing what I always do when I write a book. I gather all the material I need, I ignore the world around me and I start typing.
Today was huge. I managed to gather all the wood I need to finish my book on campaign furniture with a trip to Midwest Woodworking.
I needed about 160 board feet of mahogany to build the remaining three projects for the book, which are now drawn in SketchUp and outlined on my laptop. Four 16’-long boards from the racks at Midwest did the trick. And this beautiful stock is now sitting in my basement, waiting patiently as I finish making a bowsaw and tidy up some loose ends for upcoming classes.
Why the heck am I telling you this?
Because I’m about to go underground. From now until Dec. 31, I will be slow to respond to e-mails. I’ll be blogging less (thanks in advance to Jeff Burks for picking up my slack). And I’m dialing down my teaching schedule for the next two years.
So if you have an urgent question, you might want to ask some of the other excellent hand tool bloggers out there. If you want to take a class with me, you might want to look at what’s on the calendar for the next few months (see the right rail of this blog). And if you are waiting for the campaign furniture book, know that I am forsaking all others for you. Well, really it’s for me. I don’t care if you buy the book, I’m writing it for me.
Today (one day early) we finished up building a dozen Roorkhee chairs plus their accompanying campaign stools at the Kelly Mehler School of Woodworking.
Then we sat on the lawn and tried to stay awake.
What are we going to do on the final day of the class? Can’t say, really. But it’s going to be pretty cool.
I’ve had a brief conversation with Jennie Alexander about the structure of this form of chair. Jennie, one of the authors of “Make a Joint Stool from a Tree,” had this to say:
“Years ago I owned an R chair.
It was not only uncomfortable it was downright unhealthy.
My back still aches.The spine is curved.
The back of this sucker is dead flat.
The spine has both a convex and concave curvature.
Good woodworking project.
Taken home it is unsittable.
“Take a seat Granny and feel the rotating back move
forward to meet you and turn your spine into a plank.”
For warriors in the field, yes.
For civilians at fireside, nada.”
I would be interested to see the chair that Jennie had. I’ve been sitting in this chair for more than a year and find it quite comfortable, especially when the back is made from stiff leather (8 oz). When the chair is properly made (according to the 1898 pattern) the bend in the leather back pushes right at, or slightly above, your lumbar region.
In any case, it’s hard to argue with Jennie. I have sat in one of her chairs and it is an exquisite piece of engineering. Lightweight. Hits you in all the right places. I want to build one.
Today I made the feet for my teak campaign chest. From the outside, this looks like a one-hour job: Turn the feet and their tenons. Glue the tenons into holes in the four square base blocks.
But many campaign chests have removable feet that unscrew from the base blocks. So if you want to do it right, it’s a bit more complex.
I tapped the base blocks with a 1-1/2” tap – the largest I have. Then I screwed the base blocks to the underside of the base.
I turned the teak feet – the quickest part of the day – and bored out their centers with a 1-3/8” x 1-1/2”-deep mortise. To join the feet to the case, I made maple tenons that fit snug into their feet and threaded the tops so they would screw into their base blocks.
Finally, I threaded the tenons into the base blocks and glued the feet onto the tenons – rotating them so they would show the nice cathedral grain facing front.
I turned the chest on its feet and stepped back to look at my day’s work.
Very unimpressive for six hours of futzing around.
Don Williams (left) and Narayan Nayar (Mr. Spock) during the Studley presentation Saturday morning.
We just wrapped up two days at the Handworks show in Amana, Iowa, and loaded almost nothing back into the van for the return trip – except for some T-shirts and one box of books.
Dang it was a good show.
With about 31 minutes left until my bedtime, here is a quick rundown of some of our current projects and their status.
Our new ‘corporate’ sign, carved by David Bignell. Details to follow.
‘To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry’
The layout and editing is complete, with us just cleaning up some typographical errors. Our goal: To get the deluxe book to the printer by the end of June. If we succeed, it will ship out at the end of July.
We are planning on printing 600 and we have sold more than 400 already. If you would like to place a $100 deposit on one, there is still time. Send an e-mail to john@lostartpress.com to get on the list. We hope to have a final price in early June.
The trade edition (which will cost about $60) will follow shortly behind to the press. More details on that as we know them.
Vintage register calipers that Jeff Burks gave me at Handworks. Yes, I suck a turd.
‘Virtuoso: The Toolbox of H.O. Studley’
At Handworks, we made our first presentation that discussed this project in detail with an entire hour of photos, commentary and details on the tools in the chest and the life of H.O. Studley. If you weren’t there, I’m afraid you will have to wait until we publish the book for full details.
When will that be? Don’t hold your breath. Author Don Williams needs to complete the two Roubo volumes before the Studley book will come out. It will be at least two years before this book is in print. So save your pennies (it will be worth it).
Other updates on books:
‘By Hand & Eye’ by George R Walker and Jim Tolpin has arrived. It looks great and is entering the mail stream now.
‘Art of the Saw: Making Sharpening & Use’ by Andrew Lunn will be released in 2014 – Andrew is scheduled to turn the book over to us at the end of 2013.
‘Campaign Furniture’ by Christopher Schwarz will also be complete at the end of 2013 and released in early 2014.
‘Art of Joinery’ by Joseph Moxon. Megan Fitzpatrick is smoothing over the text a bit to make sure we have all the long “s” characters correct. I really want to get this out before Christmas.
Joiner’s Hats: Yup. We are making these and will have some more details in the coming weeks. If you don’t like baseball hats, you might like these. Or not.
That is the news on the latest products. I’ll post more about our new corporate sign and upcoming projects in the coming weeks.
— Christopher Schwarz
Dave Jeske of Blue Spruce Toolworks builds (again) a workbench to use during the Handworks show.
