Lost Art Press

Category: Mouldings in Practice

Books in the Works, an Update

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If I were a smart man, I wouldn’t discuss my failings as an editor, writer and publisher. But I do like to keep people informed on how our upcoming books are going. So here goes:

“Mouldings in Practice” by Matt Bickford. This book is almost completely designed and ready for the printer. What has slowed me down is the number of illustrations. There are hundreds and hundreds. And each one had to be converted from SketchUp to Illustrator, and that is a very manual process. The book will be released this summer. The people who have read this book have had their minds blown. It’s good.

“To Make as Perfectly as Possible” by Andre Roubo with a translation and essays by Don Williams and Michele Pagan. Work is going full-bore on the first volume of this book. The book designer, Wesley Tanner, is building the templates. The translation is complete and the supporting essays are being polished. We are going to publish this volume in two editions: a fancy 11” x 17” deluxe edition (only 500 copies) and a trade edition that will be more like a typical Lost Art Press book. More news to come. The first volume should be out by the end of the year — or early 2013 at the latest. Expect great things.

“By Hand and Eye” by George Walker and Jim Tolpin. I’m reading the first draft of the book now — the final draft will be in my hands in three weeks. It is fantastic. It will be out by the end of 2012 as well.

“The Joiner & Cabinet Maker” audio book, ePub and Kindle editions. I’ll be recording the audio book this week with our voice talent (news to come on that) — the electronic editions of the book will be in the store in a couple weeks. And the second printing of the book is now in stock.

Oh, and my books. I’m working actively on my own books on “The Furniture of Necessity” and “Campaign Furniture” on this Southern tour. I’ve got a few research stops planned for these books. However, don’t expect anything from me this year — I’m trying to get these other projects to press first.

There are a lot more things in the works: Peter Follansbee is working on a book on chests, we have a book on chairmaking in the works and (perhaps) our first deck of playing cards. Finally, there’s our super-secret project I cannot talk about (aw, crap, I just did). It has been in the works for two years now and will be huge. Literally.

— Christopher Schwarz

On My Own Campaign

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With the Roubo workbench class and Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool event behind me, I have returned to the solitude of my own shop and laptop so I can get some Lost Art Press work done. At the top of the agenda: finishing the design of Matt Bickford’s “Mouldings in Practice” and building a portable Campaign-style bookcase.

“Mouldings in Practice” is coming along. The first two-thirds of it are designed and being copy-edited. Unless things go off the rails, the book should be on the street in June. No word yet on pricing.


The Campaign bookcase is a folding oak cabinet that is based on an 1845 example that was owned by the Rev. George Goring Cuthbert of Ireland, who lived in India until 1861. Cuthbert’s was made from teak; mine is made from quartered oak, another common wood for Campaign furniture.

I made some small alterations to the dimensions and shelf spacing so it will hold the maximum number of 6” x 9” Lost Art Press books possible when I travel to woodworking schools and shows. I might also add some extra brass brackets to the bookcase – I have quite a box of them now.

And while I’m pleased with my progress on the bookcase, I’m mostly thrilled to be working without the roar of machines or trying to talk to people while I’m sawing, planing or rasping. This morning I cut all the stopped dados for the bookcase. That meant using a sash saw to slice the walls of the dados, a chisel to remove the bulk of the waste and a router plane to flatten the bottom of the dado. The eight dados took about an hour, including the time it took to take photographs for my forthcoming book on Campaign furniture.

As I was working, however, I had a bad thought. Though the bookcase will carry a bunch of 6” x 9” books, it won’t hold all that many copies of “Mouldings in Practice,” which will be 7” x 10.”

— Christopher Schwarz

Update on our Upcoming Books

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Now that “Make a Joint Stool from a Tree” on its way here, we have many readers asking about the other titles that are in the works here.

Before I do that, let me say that we don’t operate like a traditional publishing company with a publishing schedule. We don’t release a book until everyone – me, the author(s), the layout artist – are happy. So I might tell you a date that we hope to have a book complete, but it will always be a guess.

So with that said, here’s where some, but not all, of our projects are this morning.

“Mouldings in Practice” by Matt Bickford. This will be our next book this year. The book is written and edited. The photos are processed. The hundreds of illustrations are converted to a publishable format. We have a design template, and the designer, Linda Watts, is starting to put all the pieces together on the page. I hope to send this book to the printer by the end of March.

“To Make as Perfectly as Possible” by Don Williams. As many of you know, this project stalled temporarily when one member of the translation and review team had to tend to some important personal business. Things are moving forward again, and the goal is to have this book ready for Christmas. Don has a new blog entry ready on the project that I will post this week.

“By Hand & Eye” (tentative title) by Jim Tolpin and George Walker. Jim and George are hard at work on this book – I’ve been following their collaborative process in GoogleDocs. This book is due in my hands in June. We hope to have this ready for 2012 as well.

We have lots more projects in the works, including two books that I’m writing myself and several projects that I can’t even talk about for competitive reasons. One of these books has been in the works here in my living room for two years and involved a network of helpers here in the city. It should be big – literally – maybe a five-pounder.

Now I’ve got to get back to the shop. I have to finish that secretary in less than two weeks. If I don’t respond to your e-mails quickly, that’s why.

— Christopher Schwarz

Bye-bye Beige

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This morning I braved the chill in a T-shirt (my nipples are now like drill bits) to fetch a couple boxes of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” from the Lost Art Press warehouse garden shed.

The shed, which was filled to the rafters in September, is now all-but empty. We are almost out of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” but I’m not stressed.

Next week a new shipment of the book arrives. The third printing will have an index from Suzanne Ellison, a few typographical corrections and some editorial tweaks that aren’t worth mentioning. But the biggest change will be the cover. The third printing will have a charcoal gray cover with lettering and image debossed in white.

We made this change because we wanted to differentiate between the pre-index and post-index printings. Plus, I’m an endless fiddler.

Still, it’s a bit sad to burn through the last few boxes of the beige books – I think it’s a good-looking cover.

If you are waiting to purchase a copy with the index bound in, I’ll post a notice when we start shipping the gray book – it should be next Friday or so.

In other Lost Art Press news: The design work on “Make a Joint Stool from a Tree” by Jennie Alexander and Peter Follansbee is in full swing. That book will go to the printer before the end of the year and be on sale in January.

Matt Bickford’s “Mouldings in Practice” is about to head into design. An outside editor is finishing his tweaks to Matt’s verbiage and we are now converting the hundreds – yes, hundreds – of drawings to a publishable format.

And on the first Roubo volume: There have been a couple delays because of a personal issue with a member of the team – not Don Williams, by the way. Lots of work is being done, but I don’t have any dates to report at this stage. I am as eager as you to read this.

There is lots more to report, but I’ve got to get to the Post Office with this morning’s load of orders.

— Christopher Schwarz

Kill Your Router? Raney Thinks so

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One of the people I have asked to read and edit Matt Bickford’s upcoming book, “Mouldings in Practice,” is toolmaker and woodworker Raney Nelson.

Raney, who makes planes under the name Daed Toolworks, has professional writing experience. But that’s not why I asked him to look at the book. I brought him into the fold because he will always speak his mind, even when it comes to a friend such as Matt Bickford.

After Raney read the book, he… well he tells it better than I can. Read this blog entry from Raney and find out for yourself.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. If you read The Fine Tool Journal, you are going to find out all about Raney and his planes in the next issue.