Category: The Anarchist’s Tool Chest

We’ve shipped out more than 800 copies of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” from my basement during the last couple weeks, and we are just about caught up with all the orders.

There have been a couple hiccups, and that’s what this blog entry is about.

• If you ordered your book on May 23 and haven’t received it, send a note to john@lostartpress.com. For some reason, some of those orders didn’t get processed correctly.

• If you ordered a copy of our “Sawing Fundamentals” DVD and you haven’t received your order, it’s now on its way. We just received stock of that DVD this afternoon and fulfilled all those orders.

• If you aren’t in one of those other two categories and haven’t received your book, hang tight. We ship our books via “media mail,” which can be as fast as priority mail, or as slow as 10 business days. If you ordered your book before June 7 and it doesn’t show up by June 18, please let us know.

And finally, I have an update on the leather-bound edition of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” I dropped off the unfinished book blocks to the bindery today and they should be done within six weeks. The price will be a flat $185, which will include shipping and insurance in the United States.

If you ordered a leather-bound volume, you’ll get an update via e-mail before we ship your book.

Many customers have asked if we will do a second run of leather-bound volumes. The answer is: perhaps. We don’t have any more book blocks from the first edition. However, if we run a second printing, we’ll consider a leather-bound edition in a different color of leather.

For those of you who are printing nerds, the bindery designed a cover that uses a sans-serif font for the spine and cover board of the leather edition. It’s a little bolder than the font we used on “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” edition. I like it.

Thanks to everyone for your patience on shipping.

— Christopher Schwarz

“Broadly, the revival implies a rebellion against inutilities, a conviction that machinery must be relegated to its proper place as the tool and not the master of the workman, that the life of the producer is to the community a more vital consideration than the cheap production which ignores it, and that thus the human and ethical considerations that insist on the individuality of the workman are of the first importance.”

— C.R. Ashbee, “An Endeavour Towards the Teachings of John Ruskin and William Morris”

The good news: The U.S. Postal Service is delivering copies of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” at a quick clip. We dropped the first load into the mailstream on Saturday afternoon and already we are hearing from people who have received it.

That is remarkable considering we sent the book via Media Mail and that Monday was a holiday. I guess John Hoffman’s flirting with the postal workers on the dock really paid off (and yes, Pat, I can get you John’s number).

Today I dropped off two more huge loads of books – all my car could carry – and we are almost caught up on sending out all the pre-orders. The only thing stopping us is that we have depleted the local supply of boxes that fit our book.

Other news:
• I’ll be getting estimates of the costs for our leather-bound version of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” tomorrow. If you are on the list, you will hear from us shortly with an update.

• I began milling the pine for the 6’ dividers we will have in our booth at Woodworking in America.

• I will find more boxes tomorrow, even if I have to go to an office products superstore and donate several pints of various bodily fluids. I’m a quart high on bile right now, anyway.

— Christopher Schwarz

The latest T-shirt from Lost Art Press is a little different than the five generations before it. Emblazoned on the front of the shirt is the silhouette of the English square in the shape of an “A” – the motif throughout “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” book that resembles the symbol used by anarchists. This “A,” however, has 19th-century style.

The rear of the shirt is printed with the title of the book, which I made with one of those crappy plastic label-making gizmos popular in the 1970s. I scanned the labels at a high resolution, then enlarged and distorted them in Photoshop.

All in all (and I rarely say this), I am pleased with this design.

So here’s the bad news. You know we won’t lie to you. For this run, we switched back to the 50-percent cotton, 50-percent polyester shirts made in Central America. It didn’t have to do with money — we are happy to pay for quality. It had to do with customer feedback. Customers were split on whether they liked the American-made shirts, which were more lightweight, or the Central American ones, which are beefier.

In the end, I made the call. I like the way the foreign-made shirts feel and age. My design, my choice. I am continuing to look for a good domestic supplier and have a line on a company that even grows its own cotton. I have high hopes.

The shirts are $15 plus $4 shipping. As always, we have to charge an extra $2 for the XXL size. If we do another run of these shirts, we will be sure to get a few medium and small sizes – another customer request.

Click here to order a shirt from our store.

— Christopher Schwarz