Lost Art Press

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Origin Stories

Posted on by Lost Art Press

LAP_logo_stickerThis weekend I’m at Fine Woodworking LIVE and, to be honest, it’s a tad weird. After being in the other camp for 22 years, it’s disconcerting. I feel like I’m crashing their party.

It’s all in my head. Everyone here is as sweet as milk, and I’m sure it will go fine. (Unless the FWW staff tells me I was brought on to be Christian Becksvoort’s manicurist and astrologer during the event.)

The drive today through Upstate New York was stunning – I got to see Spring occur in reverse. And it reminded me of a fateful drive I took on the same highway 13 years ago when John and I were starting this yet-to-be-named publishing company.

We were racking our brains for a good name for the company. I’m averse to naming things after me. I don’t have a big enough ego to shoulder that load. So “Hoffman & Schwarz Ltd.” was right out. Plus, it sounded like a German audio equipment company.

One of the other contenders was “Tried & True Press” (this was before Tried & True finishing products – I hope). It’s a good name, but I was taught to avoid clichés like the plague.

Another: “Said & Done Publications.” I like this one, but it didn’t have any connection to woodworking. If you’d like to have it, it’s yours.

“Straightedge Publishing.” The problem with this name was it could also be the parent company of a skateboarding magazine. Or a publisher of books for people who don’t consume alcohol or drugs.

And then there was “Sawset Redemption LLC.” (OK, I’m lying and I’ve had two beers.)

In any case, 13 years ago I remember muttering to myself during that long drive when “Lost Art Press” just popped out of my mouth. Nervous that I would forget it, I grabbed a pen and a business card and wrote the name down while using my steering wheel as a desk. This is illegal to do in 36 states, FYI.

So. Good day.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. If you are at Fine Woodworking LIVE, please do stop by and say hello. I’ll be the guy in the Prism Conference Room scraping Steve Latta’s corns.

That Rumor is Something I Can’t Do

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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I get a lot of odd email through my personal website, and most isn’t worth mentioning. But there’s one email I get every week that I want to put to bed. It goes like this:

Someone told me you host classes where people build a roubo bench for a week with you and take it home is that true

Sorry, no. It’s not true. We hold some classes at our storefront (complete list here), but I don’t teach much these days. And we don’t have the facilities to teach a workbench class.

I still love to build workbenches and research their history. But there’s no way I could manage a class like that in our little storefront. So if you see this rumor repeated out on the internet, would you mind stabbing it in the eyeball for me? I feel bad for the people who keep asking me with high hopes.

There are lots of people who teach workbench classes. You might ping Mark Hicks at Plate 11, who teaches some classes in his shop along those lines.

I’m flattered to be asked. But like I said, it ain’t me.

— Christopher Schwarz

This Cat Would Like to Sell You Some Soft Wax

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Katherine has just completed another batch of soft wax, which is available in for sale in her etsy store. Soft wax is great for the interiors of your projects. We use it on our lump hammers. And one customer really likes it on his shoes as a polish.

However you use it, don’t put it on your beard. It contains turpentine, which is an irritant.

Katherine cooks up the wax in our basement using a waterless process and puts it in heavy glass jars with metal lids. The interior of the lids are coated with a plastic to prevent any rust from forming.

And then Bean the three-legged cat swoops in to steal all the attention.

— Christopher Schwarz

‘Never Despair – Nothing Without Labour’ T-shirts

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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One of my favorite stickers we’ve printed is from a 1905 billhead from Bittner, Hunsicker & Co. The Allentown, Pa., company made hoisery, knit goods and overalls. I own two of the original billheads and have done some high-resolution scanning and digital cleaning to produce an image that is suitable for a T-shirt.

As this was a sticker for my daughter’s etsy store, I decided to let her sell the T-shirt as well. Not only is this fair, it is necessary. Madeline is returning to school. This fall she will enroll at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health to pursue a PhD in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology.

And so she will be dirt poor again. So stickers and T-shirts to the rescue.

The “Never Despair – Nothing Without Labour” shirt is printed on a 100 percent cotton American Apparel shirt that is made in California. The T-shirt is short sleeved, asphalt colored and available in sizes from small to 4X. The shirt is $25 (with a $2 upcharge for 2X and larger) plus shipping. The shirt is available worldwide.

You can order the shirt here.

If you experience trouble (you shouldn’t), please do not email Lost Art Press – they can’t help you. Contact Maddy through her etsy store and she will take care of you.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Church of the Clocked Screws

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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I clock my screws, meaning I orient the slot in the screw heads so they are all vertical or horizontal. But I don’t think it’s a mark of superior aesthetics. It’s just something I do, like lining up the silverware on the dining table just so. I can’t help it.

Some people who don’t clock their screws, however, take perverse glee in sending me photos of beautiful antiques with their screws un-clocked. And the images come with a note saying something like: “I guess James Krenov was a moron and didn’t clock his screws, you elitist meat wrapper.”

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Yesterday I took a drive to Columbus, Ind., one of the country’s repositories of excellent post-war architecture. Check out the Wikipedia page. Or the NPR story on the town. Or the great Kogonada-directed movie, “Columbus.”

My favorite building we toured was the First Christian Church, designed by Eliel Saarinen. Considered one of the first modern church structures in America, the building offers nod after nod to the cathedrals and churches of Europe. Yet the building, completed during World War II, is a complete break with the Old World. Even after 75 years, the church feels a beacon of hope, optimism and light.

One of the prominent features of the interiors is the extensive wooden lattice work, which is affixed with tens of thousands of perfectly clocked screws.

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One of the women on our tour gasped when this was pointed out. “How,” she asked, “did they do this?”

I opened my mouth for a second and then shut it.

Clocking screws is not a matter of over-torquing or under-torquing screw heads. It’s a simple matter of thinking about the problem for two seconds and devising a simple solution.

Screws are mass-manufactured items. The slot and the worm of a batch of screws are consistent across all the screws in a box. Now add to the equation a pilot hole (or counterbore) that is the same diameter every time. How can we use these consistencies to clock the screw?

If you don’t know the answer yet, try this experiment. Drill a pilot hole in a scrap of wood. Start a screw in the pilot with the slot facing 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock. Screw it down until it is snug. Note where the slot ends up. Let’s say it ends up at 1 o’clock and 7 o’clock.

What would happen if you started the next screw with the slot pointing to 11 o’clock and 5 o’clock?

— Christopher Schwarz

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