Lost Art Press

Category: The Anarchist’s Design Book

Loose Ends: Upcoming Lost Art Press Projects

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With “The Anarchist’s Design Book” and “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years” at the printer, John and I are working on stuff to fill out the next five months when we aren’t eating bonbons and getting pedicures.

Here’s a short list of stuff you should see before June – the five-year anniversary of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.”

  1. We have figured out a way for international customers to buy a book plus a pdf at a discounted price. We’ll have details in the next few weeks.
  2. Starting in February, we are going to begin selling original handmade copperplate prints of the 12 projects in “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” Each month we will feature one of the project prints for ordering on the website. Then the artist, Briony Morrow-Cribbs, will make your copperplate print to order and they will be signed and numbered by Briony and myself. Each print will be $125; we’ll offer a different print every month. We’ll also be offering a complete set of the prints in a handmade box. Details to follow.
  3. Visitors to the new Lost Art Press storefront will be able to examine and purchase these copperplate prints during our March 12 open house. Prepare to be impressed.
  4. For the five-year anniversary of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” we’ll be printing special stickers, red T-shirts and a 17” x 22” poster featuring an architectural drawing of the chest. All of these will be available first at our Covington storefront as we work out the supply issues, and then on the website.
  5. “Woodworking in Estonia” is at the top of my editing list right now. We hope to have that at the printer by June.

All of this is possible because I’m not teaching this year. I’ll also be releasing three DVDs through Popular Woodworking that I think you’ll find interesting. Oh, and I’ve started working on my next book. It will be unlike anything published in the last 70 years. Promise.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Nothing Special

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Sometimes I think this is important to say so that beginners can hear: It does not take much natural talent to become a highly skilled woodworker.

During the last 10 years I’ve taught a lot of students all over the world, and in almost every class there was at least one person who had more natural dexterity than I do. Though these particular students were all at the beginning of their journey in the craft, I could see that they could eclipse me in time if they simply stuck to it.

Likewise, there have only been two students I’d classify as hopeless. One in Connecticut; the other in Maine. That’s only two out of hundreds and hundreds.

Making stuff, really nice stuff, doesn’t require as much nimbleness as it does patience and perseverance. The basics – sharpening, sawing to a line, planing to a line and chopping – take time to seep into your hands. Once the basics are there, everything else gets easier. Turning, veneering, carving, hardware installation and fitting doors and drawers are all skills that build upon the basic set.

But mostly is has to do with the most profound and important piece of advice I ever heard from a student.

During a class in Texas, one of the students recounted how he made his workbench entirely by hand, including ripping 8’ planks for days and days to make the top lamination. One of the other students was simply amazed and asked him: “How did you do that?”

The student answered: “I just decided to commit to it. Once I committed, it was easy.”

— Christopher Schwarz

One Way to Read ‘The Anarchist’s Design Book’

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I read magazines starting at the back page and work to the front. I’m weird that way. So I’d never presume to tell someone how to read something. Left, right, up, down, bedroom, bathroom, boudoir.

Several readers have commented that there isn’t a lot of design information in “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” That shocked me because I think there is more design information in there than I intended to include.

Perhaps my response is because of the way I design things.

There are 24 ways to approach design. I know four methods pretty well. One is an architectural approach that you will find in “By Hand & Eye” and “By Hound & Eye.” It’s a great way to design good-looking pieces. (If I didn’t think so, we wouldn’t have published these two important books).

There is a prototyping method that you’ll find in the people who like James Krenov. It also works as I’ve seen it first hand.

Jeff Miller – a highly talented designer – has a different approach that he’ll explain in a forthcoming book.

And there is simple Gothic geometry. Oh, and my approach, which is nothing like the above methods.

For those of you who are looking for the maximum amount of in-the-vein design information, here’s how I’d approach reading my own dang book. (First I’m going to sit on my hands for 10 minutes so that when I type this it will feel like a stranger did it.)

ADB_mockup_lo“The Anarchist’s Design Book” is organized with a few introductory chapters that explain my ideas. Then the chapters on building stuff are interspersed with short chapters that are jabs at furniture design and the way we go about it.

So let’s say you need the “Cliff’s Notes” to this book and you can’t find them at Waldenbooks. Here’s how to pass the final without reading the entire book.

Read chapters 1-5:

1: Don’t Make the Furniture of your Gaoler
2: A Guide to Uncivil Engineering
3: An Introduction to Staked Furniture
4: Staked Sawbench
5: Extrude This

That’s pretty easy. Now be sneaky. Skip ahead to read:

9: Heavy Buddhist Feedback
13: Seeing Red

Drink a beer. Read:

14: Bare Bones Basics of Nail Technology
15: Boarded Tool Chest
16: To Make Anything

That will get you familiar with boarded technology. Whilst you get a refill, consider reading:

20: Fear Not
99: Afterword

Finally, unlike most books I put a crap-ton of work into the appendices in “The Anarchist’s Design Book.”  Look them over and read what interests you.

And that’s it, you are done.

The test is next Thursday.

— Christopher Schwarz

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About American Anarchism

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What is anarchism?
There are as many flavors of anarchism as there are anarchists. So the only broad definition I will offer is that it is “against the state.” Unlike modern European anarchism, American anarchism is a pretty peaceful affair (with some notable exceptions) and has its roots in religious freedom and justice movements in the early days of the nation.

Since the early part of the 19th century, American anarchism has been best described as a “tendency” toward individual action. It is a reluctance to engage with large governments, corporations, churches or organizations.

Most modern anarchists are not living life in the woods (those are survivalists). Instead, for me it it is about disconnecting myself as much as possible from large organizations that seek to homogenize us, control us or – at the very least – trick us into buying a bunch of things.

Is it about revolution?
Though many would disagree with me, I don’t think it is. A revolution would have to be organized and offer a replacement regime. Anarchism is not a viable way to run a railroad. Instead, it exists in parallel to whatever system is in place – capitalism, socialism, etc.

So why does it exist?
To be a part of the bell curve of thought that makes us diverse, weird and something to think about.

Is it socialism in disguise?
Hardly. American anarchism (particularly the aesthetic wing of it) is about private property. It advocates that individuals can own their tools and the fruits of their labors. The founder of American anarchism, Josiah Warren, dabbled in socialistic communities such as New Harmony, Ind., and rejected that as a way of living.

You can read all you like about Warren here at Wikipedia. Or you can skip that and read his book “Equitable Commerce” free on Google Books. Warren was an inventor, publisher, entrepreneur and band geek. But not a socialist or a revolutionary.

Is it Godless?
Nope. The first seeds of anarchism were in the Massachusetts colony and were reactions to Puritan law. Early proto-anarchists such as Anne Hutchinson believed that God’s law superseded earthly law. And she fought for equal representation of women in society. And this was in the 17th century.

Anarchists don’t have any problems with spirituality. Just don’t get us started on mega-churches or the relationship between church and state.

How does this relate to “The Anarchist’s Cookbook?”
Unfortunately, most Americans’ first encounter with anarchism is through this odd book, which has been disavowed by its author. The book has little to do with anarchism and is mostly a misguided manual on social mischief. It’s for people who want to make bombs, smoke banana peels and play with guns.

That book was my first encounter with the word “anarchism,” as well. In high school, one of my friends read the book, made some pipe bombs and threw them on the top of the local McDonald’s at 4 a.m. Luckily, he was an idiot and they didn’t go off. Was he an anarchist? Absolutely not. He was a screwed-up teenager who liked to play with fire and guns.

But when his day in court came, it was all about “anarchism.”

You say you are an anarchist. But what does that mean day-to-day?
I don’t vote. I don’t go to church. I buy everything I can from small independent businesses or individuals. I pay a lot of taxes.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not involved in my community, I’m not spiritual or I am anti-capitalist.

Why inject politics into woodworking with “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” and “The Anarchist’s Design Book?”
You might think that building quality furniture for yourself and others is a perfectly normal thing to do. I assure you it is not. Taking up tools and making something that lasts is one of the most subversive things you can do in this disposable society that encourages – nay, requires – rampant consumer spending.

I’m just trying to point out that you are not your Gap(TM) khakis.

Ornament is Now but one of the Follies

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If you wish to have ornament, you must pay specifically for it, and the workman is compelled to produce ornament, as he is to produce other wares. He is compelled to pretend happiness in his work, so that the beauty produced by man’s hand, which was once a solace to his labour, has now become an extra burden to him, and ornament is now but one of the follies of useless toil, and perhaps not the least irksome of its fetters.

— William Morris, “Useful Work v. Useless Toil” (1888)