Lost Art Press

Category: To Make as Perfectly as Possible, Roubo Translation

Don’s Vices are Vises (or is that Vises are Vices?)

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Don Williams, the primary force of nature behind “To Make as Perfectly as Possible,” is a man of few vices but many vises.

He doesn’t drink, smoke, curse or even drink coffee. But the man will travel to the ends of the earth to examine pianomakers’ vises. This peculiar, beautiful and woefully undocumented form is featured prominently on H.O. Studley’s workbench. And so Don has spent weeks researching, restoring and examining original pianomaker’s vises.

He has been documenting his findings on his blog. Have you bookmarked it yet? You should.

Here are some recent entries on these cool vises.

Searching for Studley-esque Vises in New England 2013
New England Vise Tour Day #1
New England Vise Tour – Days 2 and 3
Vise Tour Day #4 — Meeting the Studley Tool Cabinet’s Previous Owner
New England Vise Tour 2013 — Days 5,6, and 7

Keep track of Don’s blog and the cool things he does at his web site: donsbarn.com.

— Christopher Schwarz

Update on ‘To Make as Perfectly as Possible’ Deluxe and Standard Editions

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roubo_proofs2_IMG_7016If you have ordered either the deluxe or standard edition of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry,” here is a quick update on the books and your order.

Both the standard and deluxe editions will be released first at Woodworking in America. We didn’t plan it this way, but that is when both books are going to be in-house and available. If you are coming to Woodworking in America, you can pick up your copy there in person.

If you are not attending Woodworking in America, your order will ship immediately after Woodworking in America. We’ll be shipping the deluxe versions first. Then the standard editions.

If you ordered the deluxe edition, we know this has been a long wait for you (it has been a long wait for us, as well). To thank the people who bought the deluxe edition, they will all receive a coupon that will allow them to download the electronic version of the book at no additional charge. This will be a high-resolution pdf that will work on computers or ebook readers.

None of the books – deluxe or standard – that ship out will be autographed. If having a book autographed is important to you, we encourage you to pursue this on your own.

Publishing these editions has been the most complex, expensive and time-consuming venture I have ever been involved in. As someone who has read these books at least six times over in the last year, I can say that it will be worth the wait.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. There is still time to order the standard edition with free domestic shipping. Orders before Oct. 10 receive free shipping. To place an order, visit our store here.

Our Book-release Party is Full

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If you are coming to Woodworking in America next month (or even if you aren’t), please consider attending our book release party at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, at A Tavola Pizza, 1220 Vine St. in Cincinnati. (Sorry the book-release party is fully booked.)

And if you can’t make it to the book-release party, be sure to join us in the WIA marketplace at noon on Oct. 19 for a second book signing with many of the principals involved in the translation project.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Horse Dung (and Urine!) Experiment

Posted on by Lost Art Press
Jonas in June 2011, when I met him at Dictum GmbH.
Jonas in June 2011, when I met him at Dictum GmbH.

In our excerpt of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry,” A.-J. Roubo offers a recipe for staining wood red using a concoction made using horse dung and urine.

Here’s the recipe:

Before finishing the dyeing of wood, I believe I ought to give a least-costly method of dyeing white wood red, which is done in the following manner:

You take some horse dung, which you put in a bucket of which the bottom is pierced with many holes, and you place it above another bucket, into which falls the water from the dung, as it gradually rots. When it does not rot fast enough, you water it from time to time with some horse urine, which helps a lot and at the same time gives a red water, which not only stains the surface of the wood, but penetrates the interior 3 to 4 lines deep. In staining the wood with this dye, one must take care that all the pieces be of the same species, and about equal in density if one wishes that they be of equal color throughout. This observation is general for all water-based stains, which have no palpable thickness nor even appearance [they leave no residue or any evident change in appearance], which requires the cabinetmaker to make a choice of wood of equal color and a density as I mentioned before.

Woodworker Jonas Jensen of Mors, Denmark, is making this stain and documenting the process on his blog, Mulesaw. Follow along – but be warned, if you don’t like pictures of dung you are not going to like the instructions.

And just a reminder, the standard edition of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” is almost finished at the printer. If you want the book with free domestic shipping, be sure to place your order before Thursday, Oct. 10.

The standard edition is available in the store here. We have some deluxe versions still available, though the supplies are dwindling. Click here for details on the deluxe edition.

— Christopher Schwarz

Reason No. 3 to Attend Woodworking in America – Roubo Book Signing Event

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Roubo Triumph

3. If you are planning on picking up your pre-ordered copy of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” at Woodworking in America (or perhaps buy a copy at the show), please stop by the Lost Art Press booth at noon on Saturday, Oct. 19.

We will have many of the people involved with the project available to chat about the book and sign your copy. We’re not sure how long the event will run — it depends on how many people show up and what other obligations the authors, translators, etc. have.

Soon we also will be announcing details of a book-release party on Thursday, Oct. 17, at a local Cincinnati restaurant. We’re still running some numbers.

Sign up for Woodworking in America, Oct. 18-20. I mean come on, do you really need to weed the garden that weekend?

— Christopher Schwarz