Category: American Peasant

“The American Peasant,” my new Substack blog that I seemingly won’t shut up about, has been selected to be featured on Substack’s home page (No. 5 out of five, baby). Plus we’re featured in Substack’s app.

What does this mean? Well, we got this cool digital badge, which I have printed out and pinned to my shirt today. Isn’t it nice?

I have never sought out awards or recognition in my career. But it is gratifying at times to have someone say: “Hey, you are No. 5 in our book. For the week.”

There are free and paid subscriptions available to “The American Peasant.” Plus a free seven-day trial. Warning, it is *much* saltier than this blog. But the rewards are even more umami-esque. Or something. Anyway, it is great fun to let my hair down (what’s left of it) as a writer and talk about woodworking (and business and writing) the way I do over beers with friends.

— Christopher Schwarz

If you aren’t tired of reading my drivel yet, you might want to check out my second woodworking blog, “The American Peasant,” on Substack.

The new blog is about your typical woodworking stuff: tool reviews, carving Hungarian shepherd’s furniture with a tool you’ve never seen, admitting to drug crimes, fun projects. Plus zuegmas and neologisms!

Mostly it’s a peek at how I make a book. The research. The building. All the drawings and dead ends. 

There are two ways to subscribe to “The American Peasant.” There is a “free” subscription that allows you to read the free entries (about one-third of the stuff). Or you can pay to read everything ($5/month or $60/year). There also is a free trial subscription so you can see if the blog is for you.

Why am I doing this? Read this to find out. 

Here are some of the recent free entries you can read to get a taste:

Serf-ing USA
Recently an acquaintance left me speechless for a minute when he said: “Wait, I thought you were rich?”

The End of the Beautiful Meaningless
One of the reasons I’m not a fan of applied ornament on furniture is that it’s lost its meaning during the last few centuries. To be certain, some ornament is just gilding the lily, filling in blank spaces to delight or dazzle (or even disgust) the viewer.

‘Forged’ (Ahem) Hardware
If you like to see money and good effort get pooped down a rathole, you have found the right blog. There are many weird and false starts with a book. Here is today’s.

‘X’ Marks the Person
The second glyph/spell/prayer is a simple “X” in a square. In his book “Ácsolt ládák titkai,” Gyenes Tamás calls this a “slanted cross.” So, it could be viewed as a Christian symbol. (Crosses for crucifixion were sometimes made in the shape of an X, an I or a T.)

I promise that “The American Peasant” is not for everyone. It is my writing, but with the guardrails removed. It is personal (though always about woodworking). It is a lot of work for me to produce.

Several readers have criticized us for starting a second blog with a paywall. (Recent comment: “I guess you’re all about making money now and not about helping the craft.”) I hear you. But I also like to eat and pay my utility bills.

If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. 

(The above sentence originally read, “Shut your gob and go back to yelling at clouds.” But then I decided that was too mean.)

— Christopher Schwarz

My new blog on Substack, “The American Peasant,” is free to everyone until Dec. 15. After that, some posts will be for subscribers (such as where I talk trash about Captain Kangaroo [JK]), and others will be free. Subscriptions are $5 a month. Or $60 a year. And you will be able to try it out free for 14 days.

Here are the two most recent entries. Click on the image to read the post.