I wrote about these in August. They are still awesome and I still use them every chance I get.
Why am I writing this, then? To tell you not to bother ordering them from the Two Cherries website. I ordered some, they charged my card but the pencils never arrived – Pencilgate. So if you want them, I recommend Tools for Working Wood. They won’t let you down (and the pencils are the same price when purchased direct from Two Cherries).
Fantastic pencils. Great lead. Great wood. Perfect balance and feel in the hand.
— Christopher Schwarz
Disclaimer: We buy all of our tools. We don’t accept advertising or sponsorships. We are not part of any affiliate program. We don’t make any money if you buy these items. We just like these tools.
Editor’s note: I usually start this gift guide in November, but November got away from me. Apologies. I started this guide after my kids began asking me what I wanted for Christmas. Some of the suggestions I gave them ($3 Bessey mini clamps, blue tape etc.) were so useful and appreciated I thought that others might agree.
I’ve always had a cork sanding block. It’s such a crucial part of my tool kit that sometimes I forget about it.
Cork blocks are useful as a backing material when hand sanding. If you hold the paper with your fingers only, the wood is unlikely to feel flat after you sand it. If, on the other hand, you use a rigid plastic or hardwood block to back up your sandpaper, you will have to work long and hard to get the surface feeling flat.
Cork is the perfect middle ground. It is rigid enough that the wood feels flat. Yet it has enough give that you can follow the hills and valleys of a large surface and get the job done quickly.
Where should you buy cork sanding blocks? Good question.
My old boss made me one from a piece of 3/4” plywood where one surface was covered with adhesive cork – the kind you line kitchen drawers with. It works OK. The better tool is a piece of solid cork. The block I use measures 1” thick, 2-1/2” wide and 7” long. You can wrap a 6” sanding disk around it (we don’t bother with sheets of sandpaper here because we don’t use much of it).
Finding cork blocks for sale on the internet is all about paying insane amounts of money for shipping. Your best bet is to buy a block from a local woodworking store, where you’ll pay about $6 to $10. You are probably paying too much, but the blocks don’t wear out or go bad.
Another option is to buy a cork “yoga block.” These typically measure 4” x 6” x 9” and you can get one for less than $20. Then you can cut them down to whatever size you like (using woodworking tools). And you can make some for your friends, too.
— Christopher Schwarz
Disclaimer: We buy all of our tools. We don’t accept advertising or sponsorships. We are not part of any affiliate program. We don’t make any money if you buy these items. We just like these tools.
I’m in Roorkhee chair production mode this weekend. I have two chairs that need to go to a (very patient) customer in December. And I have enough material to eek out a couple more chairs – if I don’t make any mistakes.
(Hey, I might get to keep one of these chairs for myself. Or I can sell it and help pay my daughter’s tuition.)
With this run of chairs, I’m implementing a change to the stretchers that has been in the works for several years. I experimented with it when “Campaign Furniture” first came out, but never put it into production.
The goal is to shore up a weakness in these chairs – the stretchers can split when subject to too many beef brisket sandwiches. Before the book came out, I increased the diameter of the stretchers compared to historical examples and relied on riven or dead-straight material. That helped.
To strengthen them more, I contemplated switching to hickory for this component, which is likely the strongest chairmaking wood. But its color would clash with the mahogany components.
So instead I’ve beefed up the stretchers to 1-7/16” in diameter and have left the center sections octagonal instead of turned round. This does several things:
The stretchers don’t roll around on the floor when assembling and disassembling the Roorkhee.
They are indeed stronger – there’s more material.
You cannot feel the facets when they are wrapped in the 14 oz. latigo leather.
I now make the stretchers before making the legs. The turnings on the stretchers are easy, and that gets me warmed up for the legs, which have sections that transition from round to square. One false move on the leg turnings and you have made pricey firewood.
I’ve just completed an American Welsh Stick Chair in ash that is available for sale for $900 plus shipping (free delivery within 100 miles of Cincinnati). Sorry the chair has sold.
The chair is a variation on my typical chair. This one has an entirely new rake and splay to the legs – pushing up against the limits of the form. To compensate, the seat is thicker than usual (it started at 2-1/4” thick to take full advantage of the tapered tenons, which are 2-1/4” long). All of the joinery in this chair has been compressed for an incredibly tight fit (read more about that here). All the joints are put together with hide glue, which means this chair can be easily repaired long into the future should anything go wrong.
Also, I omitted two of the short sticks to add some negative space adjacent to the back sticks.
The seat is 17” from the floor (that’s 1” lower than modern chairs and far more comfortable in my opinion). The crest is 22” up from the seat deck. And the seat has been tilted back so this chair is ideal for relaxing, as opposed to keyboarding and dining (though you can use it for all those things). The chair is built for a maximum weight of 225 lbs.
The wood is special. It’s local ash that is heavily streaked with minerals. Brendan said it looks like desert camouflage. (So, be careful if you take this chair to the desert – you might lose track of it.)
The finish is a shop-made basecoat of linseed oil and natural-resin varnish. Then it is topped with organic beeswax.
We ship these chairs via LTL anywhere in the country. Usually the shipping charge is $200 or less, depending on where you live.
If you would like to buy this chair, send me a message through my website. I’m happy to answer any questions, but the first person to say “I’ll take it,” gets it.
The expanded version of “The Anarchist’s Design Book” is complete. And, as promised, here are instructions for how to download the new pdf if you own the first edition (no matter where you purchased your copy).
It’s simple.
First, I ask for your patience with this process. We might encounter a technical glitch with this process as we’ve never done this before. We’ve tested it quite a lot, but… Also, if we do have a problem, ranting in the comments isn’t going to help us.
Please send an email to lostartpress@gmail.com. Make the subject line your name (firstname and lastname). Now open your current copy of “The Anarchist’s Design Book” and turn to page 386. In the body of the message, please write the first word of the book’s text from that page. (No, it is not “386” and it is not “appendices” – it’s the first word of text.) If there’s not an text on that page, you have a later printing. Check page 388 and use that word.
Send the message. Our filters and templates will check the message and send you a reply with a link to download the pdf of the expanded edition.
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