Lost Art Press

Category: Projects

Speaking of Gothic

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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One of the reasons I first became consumed by woodworking was the American Art & Crafts movement. Though I rarely build Arts & Crafts pieces anymore, I fell in love with the joinery and the oak about 1990 when a neighbor let me sit in his Morris chair.

I started collecting pieces, but there was only so much antique furniture you can buy on a $16,600 annual salary at a newspaper.

So I started building it.

The Arts & Crafts style was my gateway into the craft, and I’ll always be grateful for it opening the door into other furniture styles, especially Welsh chairs and the real early stuff I’m building now for “The Furniture of Necessity.” Some of these pieces remind me of looking under rocks at Wildcat Mountain Lake in Arkansas. If the creepy guys in the bathrooms didn’t get you, the copperheads might.

Like this aumbry I’m building this week. Some of it is so unfamiliar it’s just weird and difficult to see the pitfalls ahead. Like mortising into the edge of 12”-wide oak. That’s an odd feeling. And then discovering that the mortises graze the crease mouldings on the stiles. I didn’t see that coming.

Other stuff is just new territory for me. Cutting the crease moulding on the top rail felt weird – it was going to terminate abruptly on the stiles. Yet when the joints went together, the shop lights were off and it looked good – like a moulded apron between table legs.

Tomorrow I start the pierced carvings on the stiles. I’m not looking forward to doing it in dry oak, but that’s what I’ve got.

— Christopher Schwarz

Open-Source Woodworking

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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I get asked regularly for permission to use my plans and writings for the following things:

  1. The basis for a woodworking class.
  2. The foundation for a presentation to a woodworking club.
  3. To make a commercial product to sell – a Roorkee chair, workbench or campaign chest, for example.

My answer to these questions is always: absolutely. Everything I publish is free for you to use for classes, in your club or even to make a commercial piece of woodworking to sell.

In fact, the only thing I object to is when someone violates my copyright by reproducing an entire book or DVD then reselling it as their own work or giving it away on a torrent site. That’s just theft. (It’s uncommon in the woodworking business, but it happens.)

To be honest, little that I do (or any other woodworking author, for that matter) is original. My work is inspired by old books, new books, old work and new. If my work inspires you to teach others about it, I’m happy. If it makes you want to share it with your club, ditto. And if it helps you make something you can sell, that’s great, too.

So please, take these ideas. Use them to inspire others to pick up the tools and build.

— Christopher Schwarz

SOLD Need a Knockdown Workbench?

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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In the coming week we’ll post the free SketchUp drawing for the knockdown Nicholson workbench I built earlier this month. But if you need an inexpensive and portable workbench, this one is for sale for $400, cash and carry. Sorry, sold.

I built the bench to prove the design concept, and also we needed a fourth workbench for my coffin-building event this weekend.

I didn’t expect the knockdown bench to be this good – I thought I’d have to tinker with it before I was happy. But this thing is solid and ready to go. No apologies.

The bench is made from Southern yellow pine and weighs about 250 pounds. The top is 22” x 72” and the benchtop is 33” from the floor. The entire bench can be assembled and disassembled with a 9/16” ratchet in less than 10 minutes.

If you are interested in the bench, let me know at chris@lostartpress.com. The first one to say “I’ll take it” and comes to pick it up gets it. Sorry, I cannot ship this bench.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Year of the Ankle-biters

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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The state of Maine has some amazing wildlife. And it, whatever it is, is biting me.

This week I’m in midcoast Maine to film a DVD on building a Dutch Tool Chest and attend the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks Open House on Friday and Saturday. Details here. If you live within driving distance, I highly recommend the experience. John Hoffman and I will be there with T-shirts and our full line of books. And we’ll be making Wierix squares.

Anyway, back to the biters. Something is feasting on my ankles. And while that’s inconvenient, my ankles will not be shown in the DVD (sorry, ladies). So really, my itchy ankles are of no consequence to you.

However, have you ever seen my “Sawing Fundamentals” DVD? If you watch it on a big screen, you can make a drinking game out of counting the flies shown in the DVD (the last guy to guess correctly the number of flies is now on a waiting list for a liver transplant).

We shot that DVD during the cold months, but something about the lights used during the shoot woke them up from their slumber. After every hour or so, we had to sweep up hundreds of the suckers.

We tried to scare the flies off by putting a few of their heads on tiny spikes (OK, the “spikes” were toothpicks), but the flies kept coming. Waves and waves of them.

Best thing I can say about them: They didn’t bite my ankles.

— Christopher Schwarz

Melencolia Square, Part 6: From the Grave

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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One of the earliest images of a try square that I know of is a carpenter from the tomb of Rekhmire in Egypt, a New Kingdom official from the 18th dynasty (1543-1292 BC). The image shows a carpenter in a traditional (plaid flannel) loincloth using a straightedge on a piece of work. On the floor is a miter square, a form that remained unchanged until the 18th century.

And on the wall is a try square that looks darn modern. It looks nothing like a Melencolia I square.

Many of the hand tools we use today are descended in some way from Egyptian tools that later made their way to Asia and Europe – via Greece and Italy. But as far as I can tell, the Melencolia square emerged sometime after the Egyptians and then disappeared. We woodworkers reverted back to the Egyptian-style try square for some reason.

After making at least a dozen of these Melencolia-style squares, I can assure you that I’ll be keeping the form alive – at least in Kentucky. They are simple, compact and easy to use.

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Today I made a pair of squares that are the last in this series. I must get on with building furniture that puts food on the table. These last two squares are the improved “Romanian” form of the Melencolia I square. The improvement is that the blade is a bit wider than the stock, making them easier to true up.

Both of the squares I made today were slightly out of true, and it was indeed much easier to bring them into line because the blade was wider. If you make one of these squares, I recommend this modification.

As a final note, thanks to Jeff Burks for his research and for pointing out these squares to me in the first place. Without his keen eye, I’d have never noticed them.

— Christopher Schwarz