Lost Art Press

Category: The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years

Traditional Coopering from The Woodworker Magazine

Posted on by Lost Art Press

downright_shave

Because of the bourbon industry in Kentucky, oak barrels are pretty much everywhere – even in the home centers where they are sold as planters or rain barrels. I use a used barrel as my garbage can in my shop.

Cooperage is one of the things I hope to study in my next life, when I get this furniture thing mastered in about 50 more years.

So I love to read about the craft, and the tools fascinate me – particularly the unusual compasses used for fitting the lid.

Today I’ve pulled two 1960s-era articles from The Woodworker on coopering for you to check out. One of the great things about the magazine was its dedication to documenting the traditional crafts as they were disappearing in England in the 20th century. Download the articles here:

The_cooper

If you are interested in coopering classes, check out Country Workshops, where Carl Swensson teaches Swiss cooperage. And Tillers International, where they regularly teach basic cooperage.

— Christopher Schwarz

Furniture Styles: From Gothic to the 20th Century

Posted on by Lost Art Press

chests

After reading Charles H. Hayward’s writings during his tenure as editor of The Woodworker, I think he was of two minds about furniture. While the magazine was filled with plans for up-to-date pieces that would look at home on the set of “Mad Men,” Hayward also took pains to educate readers about old work.

One of the ways he did this was by drawing pieces from the collection in the Victoria & Albert Museum, and all of those drawings will be featured in our upcoming book on The Woodworker magazine.

He also published one-page drawings that showed how a particular form of furniture – tables, beds, chairs – changed during the centuries.

Today we offer a free download of seven of these pages compiled in one pdf. You can download it using the link below.

Recognizing_the_Styles

One of the things you can see from the pdf is why we are so keen on publishing this book. The acid-based paper that these are printed on is deteriorating rapidly.

— Christopher Schwarz

Charles Hayward, Coffins & a Tribute

Posted on by Lost Art Press

coffin_kerfing

While scanning more than 350 old magazines edited by Charles Hayward, we kept running into articles that were made us pause because they were so interesting, yet we didn’t have a place for them in our forthcoming book.

We clipped them anyway, and I’ll be posting many of them here for you to enjoy.

Today is an article from the fantastic series called “The Old School,” which ran in The Woodworker between the wars. Each “Old School” column was a first-person account of work in a hand-tool shop at a different trade. This particular column was on making coffins.

You can download a pdf of the article using the link below.

Coffin_maker

Also, reader Jeff Hanes sent me this link to a film by craftsman Jeremy Broun about Hayward’s influence on him as a craftsman and illustrator. It is well worth watching.

Tomorrow I am off to San Diego to teach a two-day seminar at the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association. I have take the smart extremely stupid step of packing all of my tools and the wood for my project in my checked luggage. Along with my undies and minty floss.

Well, it couldn’t be worse than my performance in Detroit!

— Christopher Schwarz