Lost Art Press

Category: Open Wire

LAP Open Wire, Sat. May 4

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Chris is getting ready for a chair class that starts on Monday, and if all goes as planned, I’ll be gluing up panels for a Shaker project…but we’ll be also be online off and on until 5 p.m. to take your woodworking questions. So post ’em in the comments below (as always, brevity is appreciated).

Also, if you’re interested in taking a chair class with Chris, we have two late additions to our Covington Mechanicals Summer/Fall schedule that go on sale Wednesday at noon (Eastern): an Irish chair, Aug. 12-16 and a Welsh-style comb-back Sept. 30-Oct. 4.

– Fitz

LAP Open Wire, April 27, 2024

Posted on by fitz

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Chris should be done with the chair above by the time you’re reading this. As I write and schedule this post, he’s doing the “make pretty” on the arms, legs and seat, and the backrest will be installed by lunchtime. Then he’ll spray a coat or two of shellac and rub on a coat of black wax…then decide he’s unhappy with that look, strip the wax and do a few tests to find a paint that will cover it. If that’s successful, he’ll spray the paint, and hopefully get two coats applied before it’s time to head to the bar. It’s Friday; on Fridays, we go to Crafts & Vines.

If the spray approach doesn’t work, I’ll be wear painting togs Saturday, with my brush in hand.

All that to say Chris, and possibly I, will be available to answer your woodworking-related questions. Please leave them in the comments below. And please know that if the question – or your response to our answers – is longer than the preamble to the Constitution, we will glaze over and be mildly annoyed. And we will roll our eyes in your general direction. “Brevity is the soul of wit,” said Polonius. And while in his mouth those words are ironic, he’s not wrong.

– Fitz

p.s. The chair will be posted for sale on the blog just as soon as we get the blog fixed (assuming Chris is happy with the finish by then). No one is getting the RSS feed or notifications right now. It is vexing.

LAP Open Wire, April 20, 2024

Posted on by fitz

Wally and I are busy today helping students turn the sticks shown above into sawbenches. But Chris is back this week, eagerly awaiting your Open Wire questions.

So, please post your (succinct) woodworking questions in the comments below, and Chris will answer. You can also ask him about the massive wave of relief you might have felt emanating from Northern Kentucky and Central Indiana (where John lives) late yesterday. That was engendered by our finally having all the LAP/Crucible books, tools, clothing and sundries under one (now non-leaking) roof in our warehouse!

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– Fitz

LAP Open Wire, April 13, 2024

Posted on by fitz
Roy Underhill (left) and Whitney Miller (right) both graced the Lost Art Press shop this week!

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We’ve had a grand week of visitors and video shoots. Roy Underhill made a quick trip to town, then headed a little farther northwest to experience eclipse totality. And Whitney Miller, author of “Henry Boyd’s Freedom Bed,” spent the week recording a video on how to make a Swedish tool chest. Not only is she the video star, she’ll be doing the editing…so you know it will be more entertaining than most of our videos! (Look for it in our store later this year.)

After a busy week, it’ll be a bit of a relief to sit at the computer and answer woodworking questions – so queue ’em up in the comments section below, and I’ll answer. As will Chris, once he’s back late today from a whirlwind trip to the Chicago area to drop off the projects for “The American Peasant” with Narayan for photography.

As always, brevity is appreciated.

Comments will close at around 5 p.m. (but we may answer later in the evening).

– Fitz

Whitney with the finished tool chest. (We planned to use pine or linden…but the wide cherry was just too tempting!)

LAP Open Wire, April 6, 2024

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You know how when something goes wrong, we say “Wood hates you?” Well, this chair hates me. But I think this finish is going to work.

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My Saturday goal is to get the final coat of paint on this chair. I just I assume it’s going to need a third coat after Friday’s second coat, because this chair hates me (this is General Finishes “milk paint” in Westminster Green – no longer available, unfortunately). But my other goal is to answer as many of your Jane Austen questions (just to change things up!), cat questions and woodworking questions as I can. Chris is busy teaching a class in making a peasant coffer (featured in his forthcoming book, “The American Peasant”), so he won’t have much time today to get on the computer.

You know the drill: Leave your questions in the comments field below (as always, brevity is appreciated), and I’ll answer (there will likely be a delay between your asking and my answering). Please hold your crazy metallurgy and arcane chair questions until next week.

Comments will close at around 5 p.m.

– Fitz

This is the coffer the students are making (they will, of course, choose – possibly create – their own spells). The finish is Allbäck linseed oil paint in Antique Gold (through which Chris carved after it was dry), topped with a coat of purified linseed oil.