Lost Art Press

Category: Open Wire

Jan. 27 Open Wire with Andy Glenn

Posted on by fitz
Andy Glenn, and Oreo.

Chris will be presenting in Colonial Williamsburg this weekend and I’m up to my hairline in work – so we asked Andy Glenn, author of “Backwoods Chairmakers” (the most recent book release from LAP) if he’d like to take a Saturday stint of answering your woodworking questions. Reader, he said yes!

Andy is a fount of knowledge on post-and-rung chairs (particularly those from the Appalachian region), but he’s well-schooled (and not just metaphorically!) in all areas of woodworking. He trained at the North Bennet Street School (NBSS) before working in furniture repair shops, cabinet and furniture shops, and a wooden boat repair shop. For more than a decade, he’s taught continuing education classes at NBSS and has been a guest instructor in the Cabinet and Furniture Making program at his alma mater. For several years, he was also supervisor of the Woodcraft Program at Berea College Crafts and ran the Woodworking School at Pine Croft.

So get those questions ready for Saturday! As always, the post will go live at around 7 a.m., and comments will close at 5 p.m. – and there may be a lag between your questions and Andy’s answers (I believe he has an ice skating commitment mid-day).

– Fitz

LAP Open Wire, Jan. 20, 2024

Posted on by fitz
Pew Pew! We use lasers and a spotter (in this case Denise) to help guide the driller (here, that’s Michael) in cutting mortises. Peggy is in the background, working on a stretcher.

We’ve just finished a stick chair class – so I might actually be able to answer your chair questions in today’s Open Wire! (But who am I kidding – I’ll leave those for Chris.) You know the drill (with or without lasers): Leave your woodworking questions in the comments below, and we’ll do our best to answer (note that there may be a lag between your asking and our answering).

To kick things off, here’s a Jeopardy-style answer – I’ll bet you know the question: “Whatever is heavy, cheap and readily available.”

Note: Comments are now closed.

– Fitz

LAP Open Wire, Jan. 13, 2024

Posted on by fitz
Waiting for paint to dry as I write this post. The chest (faux milk paint – acrylic) will be completely dry by the time you read this. I hope the chair (linseed oil paint) is dry enough to move upstairs by Sunday afternoon.

It’s time for our (almost) weekly Open Wire, where you can pose your woodworking questions in the comments section below and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Note that there may be a lag between your asking and our answering. Chris has a class starting Monday and a trip to Colonial Williamsburg for which to prepare (he’s presenting at the Working Wood in the 18th Century conference), and I have the innards of a tool chest to complete (hopefully before Monday, because my bench will be commandeered for the class).

Comments are now closed.

– Fitz

LAP Open Wire, Jan. 6, 2024

Posted on by fitz
A rack for coats and mugs, in elm.

Update: Comments are now closed. Join us again next week for more woodworking Q&A merriment.

The final project for Chris’s next book, “The American Peasant,” is done, dusted, painted and hung on the wall – the coat and mug rack shown above. (The coat is the Lost Art Press Chore Coat, made in Cincinnati; the Lost Art Press Coffee Mugs are handmade for us in Minnesota.) So now Chris needs other distractions to keep from finishing the book. Help him out by posting your woodworking questions in the comments below (preferably about chairs – as that pretty much lets me off the hook…so I have time to complete the current project on my bench).

(Chris writes: Please ask Megan about how the Dutch tool chest book is coming.)

Also, note that there may a lag between your asking and our answering.

But let me help you with answers right away to a handful of common questions:

• What’s on deck for 2024 (includes Stick Chair Journal 2 and Dutch Tool Chest)
• What wood for a workbench
• What wood for a workbench, snark edition
• 52 Workbench Questions & Answers
• What finish for a tabletop
• This bandsaw blade, 1/2″

Comments will close at around 5 p.m.

– Fitz

LAP Open Wire: Dec. 30, 2023

Posted on by Lost Art Press
An ash seat I saddled this week.

Comments are now closed. Join us again next week!

I’m writing this on Friday night. There’s a small chance Megan and I will not survive to see a new day. We ate dinner at Purple Poulet, and the food there is so rich and delicious that our hearts might simply stop.

But if we do live, we are happy to answer your woodworking questions here on Open Wire. Simply type your question into the comment box below. Post it. We will read it and answer as best we can.

Sometimes there is a lag between the asking of the question and the typing of the answer. But we do answer all questions. Sometimes we answer them after comments have been closed – it just depends on our schedule for the day.

As always, comments will close about 5 p.m.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. If we died, know that we died happy.