Category: Chairmaker’s Notebook

The full-size plans for “Chairmaker’s Notebook” are now available in both printed form and as a pdf. The electronic version is ideal for international customers or those who would rather have the plans printed out at a reprographics firm and get them rolled instead of folded.

Rolling the printed plans and shipping them is simply impossible for us, I’m afraid.

The pdf version is $20 and – like the printed plans – produces a 36” x 48” sheet. This is a fairly standard size that most reprographics companies can handle.

If you live in the United States you can have Staples print them for you and roll them. Check out this page. This is how we proofed the plans. You can upload the file to Staples and they will output it the same day. They will even deliver it to you.

— Christopher Schwarz

For those woodworkers who prefer full-size plans, we now offer plans for the two chairs featured in Peter Galbert’s book “Chairmaker’s Notebook.”

The plans are $25. If you order them before July 5, 2015, you will receive free domestic shipping. You can place your order here. The first batch of plans will ship out to customers about June 15.

The plans feature handmade full-size drawings of the following components of the fan-back and balloon-back chairs:

1. Full-size turning patterns of legs, stretchers and posts – both bobbin and baluster forms.
2. Full-size drawings of the seat shapes that feature all mortise locations, sightlines and resultant angles.
3. The fan-back crest shape and the bending form required to make it.
4. The profiles of on the back of the balloon-back chair and the bending form required to make it.

All the drawings are fully dimensioned with easy-to-read call-outs. The plans for both chairs come printed on a single 36” x 48” sheet on white, #20 paper typically used for engineering prints. The plans are folded to a 9” x 12” size and ship in a rigid cardboard mailer.

Like all Lost Art Press products, these plans are produced and printed entirely in the United States of America.

One caveat: While these plans provide the shapes of all the components, you will need “Chairmaker’s Notebook” to build the chairs exactly as Pete describes. These plans are a supplement to – not a substitution for – the book.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. We will be offering these plans to our retailers, but we do not know at this time which, if any, will carry the plans.

There have been several glowing reviews of Peter Galbert’s “Chairmaker’s Notebook,” but because of other book projects I haven’t had time to compile them for the blog.

Here are a few that I like:

One from carver David Fisher.

A second from chairmaker Ray Schwanenberger.

And a third from J. Norman Reid at Highland Woodworking.

We don’t solicit reviews, so these are the real deal. The most gratifying part of the reviews is that people are becoming aware that “Chairmaker’s Notebook” isn’t about chairs alone. It’s a deep dive into the world of high craftsmanship that starts with a simple walk through the woods.

In other chairmaking news, Peter and I are in the final stages of proofing the full-size plans for the two chairs featured in the book. These plans will likely be printed on one huge sheet of engineering-weight paper and be reasonably priced – about $25 to $28, if our supplier can deliver the quality we want.

More news on the plans is forthcoming later this week.

— Christopher Schwarz

In conjunction with Peter Galbert’s “Chairmaker’s Notebook,” we will soon be offering full-size plans of the two chairs shown in the book.

The plans were hand-drawn by Peter at full scale. I’ve been scanning and piecing together all the bits, trying to produce them on the fewest sheets possible. It is taking me longer than I expected.

I don’t have pricing information or a release date yet. We will be using a print-on-demand service to produce and mail them, and I am still working out some details with that company.

So stay tuned.

— Christopher Schwarz