Lost Art Press

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Good News for our Digital Products

Posted on by meghanlostartpress

If you are a fan of our digital products (pdfs, videos, plans, etc) then you know that they are sent to you as a link via email after checkout. But did you know that you can also access any of your digital purchases by logging into your Lost Art Press account? This prevents you from having to dig through emails or lists of links when you want to find a project that you finally have time for.

I will walk you through that in a minute, but I do have one more piece of good news for customers who have been tracking their purchases with their accounts for years. I frequently receive emails requesting that email addresses be changed or accounts be merged. I have been unable to do this in the past. Not any more! So, if you are one of those customers that somehow ended up with multiple accounts, feel free to reach out to the help desk and I, the Meghan that is not Fitzpatrick, will get you sorted out. You will no longer have to wonder if you ordered “By Hand & Eye” in 2018.

OK: back to how you access your digital content in your account. Start by clicking on the little person in the top right corner of our website and log in…or create an account if you haven’t been using one for your purchases.

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Once you are logged in you will click on the “My Downloadable Files” tab.

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You will then see all of the digital content that you have purchased. Here is what the pdfs will look like:

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And what your videos will look like::

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From here you can stream your video or download it. To download it you will click on the “vimeo” icon in the bottom right corner. This will open the video in a new window with the download option showing.

As always, you can email help@lostartpress.com if you have questions.

Last Chance for Free PDF with ‘Dutch Tool Chests’

Posted on by fitz

Order “Dutch Tool Chests” (by me!) by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11, to get a free pdf with your book order. Until then, the book and pdf is $39. At midnight on Wednesday, the pdf will cost $9.75 extra if ordered with the printed book.

“Dutch Tool Chests” gives you the in-depth instruction you need to build your own slant-lid tool chest (in two sizes) – from choosing materials, to the joinery, the hardware, the interior parts that hold your tools and the paint. Plus, plans for a mobile base that provides more storage and helps you move the chest around your shop. (Oh – and a brain dump on how to cut through-dovetails – the thing I most often teach.)

My goal in this book is to not only help you make a place to put your stuff, but to help make you a better hand-tool woodworker.

But my favorite part of the book is the gallery, which includes 43 chests from other makers, with ingenious ideas for using the chest’s tool bay (or bays). Clever rolling bases. Oversized (or undersized) chests. Imaginative uses of the back of the fall front and or/underside of the lid. And other unique storage solutions and uses that set them apart.

Like all Lost Art Press books, “Dutch Tool Chests” is printed in the United States. The pages are folded into signatures, sewn, glued and reinforced with fiber-based tape to create a permanent binding. The 192-page interior attached to heavy (98-pt.) cotton-covered boards (blue cloth, of course!) using a thick paper hinge. The cover and spine are adorned with a foil die stamp (which won’t help you build a tool chest – but it looks pretty nice, if I do say so myself!).

– Fitz

p.s. If you buy “Dutch Tool Chests” from Lost Art Press, you might wonder about that scribble on the half-title or title page. That illegible scrawl really is my signature – I’m signing every copy that ships from our Covington warehouse.

2024 Anarchist’s Gift Guide: Day 10

Posted on by fitz

Day 10: GRIP 9“ Stainless Steel Pry Bar

I can’t tell you how often I grab this thin pry bar from Chris’s tool chest in a panic to remove moulding and other small pieces without damaging them, and I don’t know what else. But I grab it a lot. I have one at home that I should bring into the shop…except that I use it a lot at home. It’s less than $10; I really should just get one for my own LAP chest.

– Fitz

A Collection of Mid-18th-century French Tools

Posted on by saucyindexer
Collection of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

Several weeks ago I came across an illustrated collection of tools held by Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ). The approximate date of the collection is 1740, which pre-dates Roubo’s “l’art du Menuisier.” 

The collection, acquired in 1970, includes 84 illustrations. In the BAnQ’s description it is noted the illustrations may be from a catalog as there are prices and the number of tools noted on each page. 

The tools were used by French military forces working on fortresses north of the Rhine. The construction of the fortresses began in the 17th century and were originally led by Marshal Vauban, famed military engineer. 

As the tools were used to build and maintain military battlements, not all were used for woodworking. The gallery below has 20 illustrations, but there may be a few more (I was kicked off the website after falling to prove I was human).

You can view the entire tool collection held by BAnQ here.

A bientôt,
Suzanne Ellison

2025 Anarchist’s Gift Guide: Day 6

Posted on by fitz

Day 6: Pica Markers & Mechanical Pencils

This year I have completely embraced the Pica marking stuff. It is not perfect (details below). But it is still miles beyond what I was using before.

What makes it awesome? Pica’s “Longlife Cap.” This is basically a scabbard that clips tenaciously to your shop apron, waist apron or other pocket. It protects the pencil or marker when not in use. And it makes the marking tool always available. I can grab the pencil or marker by only half-looking down and grabbing the orange thing (marker) or green thing (pencil).

The scabbard prevents the pencil from getting smashed or clogged with debris. And it keeps the marker from getting lost.

The second thing I love about the Pica gear is that it has long and skinny tips. This allows you to mark through templates with ease, and otherwise get the tip where it needs to go.

So what’s my beef with the Pica gear? Its short lifespan. The mechanism on the first two gave out and refused to advance the lead any more. The markers are fantastic, but they run out of ink too quickly. I’m on my third marker this year (I usually go through one Sharpie marker in about 12 months.)

You can pull out the marker’s tip, flip it and reinsert it for additional life. But the tip wears down rather quickly, and you do run out of ink. 

Even with those faults, I love the Pica gear (there’s nothing better) and I hope the gear will continue to improve.

– Chris