Lost Art Press

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My Kind of Problem

Posted on by fitz

Boxing Day, 2017, 7:48 a.m.

Good morning, Nancy.

An issue has emerged concerning the counter top. As currently configured, the counter top will cover the dishwasher control panel. The dishwasher needs to move about 3 inches out from under the counter top. Please suggest a time when we can have a telephone conversation.

There’s nothing like getting up the day after Christmas to news of a work-related problem.

Being the kind of person whose first response to such communiqués is anxiety, I immediately go through a systematic reality check.

1. Look: Pull up the snapshot of the island where the dishwasher door is visible. Check: The door is protruding from the adjacent cabinets exactly as it should. (A bit of advice: Take progress shots, especially when working on jobsites. It’s helpful to be able to look at a picture on your phone when your jobsite is an hour’s drive away.)

2. Think: Who installed the dishwasher? The clients’ builder, who installs them all the time. Check: The installation is probably correct, though I won’t stop worrying until I know for sure.

3. Think some more: Is there really a problem? Don’t the overwhelming majority of dishwashers get installed under counters? Don’t you think a global leader in dishwasher design such as Bosch would have planned for this? That does make sense; you probably program the controls with the door open, then shut it. (Full disclosure: We don’t have a dishwasher. I prefer to use those 12 cubic feet of space in our small kitchen for storage.) Still, I won’t stop worrying until I know for sure.

4. Google “Bosch top of door controls dishwasher.” While installation manual is downloading, do a quick search of email records. Did I advise them to buy this dishwasher, in which case I should have known of any unusual installation requirements? No. The only relevant communication was in October, when my clients told me they were looking seriously at dishwashers. And there it is, on page 37: “Note: With hidden controls, the door must be opened before changing settings and closed after changing settings.”

5. Reply to client, adding that if I’ve misunderstood the nature of the problem, I will be glad to talk by phone. Press “send” and hope the problem is resolved.

6. Relief:

Yes, now we see how the dishwasher works, have reread the manual and are relieved to see that our concerns were unfounded. We both apologize for our confusion!! So sorry to start your day with unnecessary worries!!

7. Schedule appointment with mental health professional. Oh, wait. I don’t have one.

Happy holidays!

–Nancy Hiller, author of Making Things Work

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Festive fruit bread (a hybrid of “French fruit braid,” “Easter tea ring” and “Stollen” from Cordon Bleu: Baking, Bread and Cakes (B.P.C. Publishing, 1972)

The Kindness of Christmas

Posted on by Kara Uhl
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“Toy Makers,” photo taken between 1909 and 1919. Courtesy of: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-npcc-19400.

“The return of Christmas is a kind of beacon in the year. Whether it is the Christmas of childhood, full of excitement and a flow of good things, or the Christmas of older folk, woven with memories, or the Christmas of the captives of men far from home, for whom it is full of wistful longings, it is a season different from other seasons and a day different from other days which somehow, even under the most desperate conditions through the grim years of war and its aftermath, men have contrived in some way to celebrate. It stands for the good, peaceful things, for the kindly things, for sanity, in a world in which these are too often eclipsed and, in spite of the trappings of festivity which seem to smother it yet do not, it sends out its light under the dark skies of midwinter to give us new heart.

“… Christmas is the best of all times to relax in, with its break from the ordinary routine, free from the secret pressure of jobs waiting to be done which so often haunts other brief holidays. Time is so precious and those of us with eager and willing hands find more than enough to keep them busy and this question of relaxing can sometimes be quite difficult. How often we arrive home feeling tired at the end of a day’s work and disinclined to make a fresh start on a job of woodwork for ourselves yet with a kind of inner conflict because we do want to get it done. So after a wash and a meal we rather grudgingly make a start and in next to no time our tiredness vanishes and we become completely and happily absorbed in the work. By bedtime we are filled with a pleasant sense of achievement which will encourage us to repeat the process on other evenings. Nine times out of ten it works, but the tenth time may come when fatigue has gone deeper and on such an evening nothing goes right. Any little difficulty makes us impatient and irritable, something is lacking in quick co-ordination between mind and tool and the only remedy is to stop work before, in a rush of impatience, we do some real damage to the work. The fact is we remain so much of a mystery to ourselves that to decide even such a point as this is not always so simple as it seems. If we ceased to work when we did not feel like it we should accomplish less and less and probably end by losing even the desire to work: on the other hand there comes a time when to persist in spite of danger signals is asking for trouble.

“The only remedy is to learn to know the danger signals for what they are. The impatience that is founded on fatigue is something more than a mood. The latter will pass if we are firm with it and exercise the control that is a fundamental part of good craftsmanship: indeed the first-class craftsman will keep control from sheer ingrained habit however tired he is. But he also knows when to stop. One of the fascinations of craft work is that it compels us to this awareness of ourselves. We learn something of our limitations, of our tendencies, we learn to respect our own powers and feel a pride in developing them. It is by doing that the personality grows as well as the skill. It is a heartening thought for Christmas, when we can set our tools aside with easy minds to rejoice in the birthday of the child who, by choosing himself to become a craftsman in wood, blessed both the craft and the wood for all time.”

— Charles Hayward, The Woodworker magazine, 1955

Trees: What Should a Woodworker Know?

Posted on by Kara Uhl
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Live oak, Houston, Texas

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of blog posts by Richard Jones, who has written a detailed book about timber technology, which is scheduled to be released in early 2018.

— Kara Gebhart Uhl

What’s the best way to approach writing a book for publication? Well, probably not the way I went about it.

So what did I write about? At the end of 2007, I’d perhaps created a manuscript of about 15,000 words and devised a list of key headings. Writing as a woodworker for other woodworkers, not as a wood scientist, I’d decided the following list of topics covered what I, as the model woodworker in this exercise, ought to have a pretty good grasp of, and this probably applied to all serious woodworkers, both professional and amateur:

• Tree Classification, Growth and Structure

• Roots, Leaves, Seeds, Flowers, Germination, Transpiration

• Felling, Conversion and Yield

• Water, Water Vapour and Wood

• Coping with Wood Movement

• Seasoning or Drying of Wood and Drying Faults

• From the Kiln to the User (Storing, Transporting and Selling Dried Wood)

• Fungi

• Insect Pests

• Wood Strength and Structures

• Ecological and Environmental Issues

There were additional topics I felt it important to cover to round out the knowledge of the thoughtful and inquisitive woodworker, such as tree history, tree distribution, a section on the oaks in particular, balanoculture, ancient deforestation, socio-political and historical issues concerning trees and their use, the Latin-binomial system of identification, tree oddities and migration, and so on. All might be considered ‘soft knowledge’, but awareness of these topics contributes to being a well-informed woodworker.

In 2007 I met a publisher of craft books I knew at a woodworking show in the north of England. We talked about my writing project and he indicated he was interested in offering me a contract to write the book. I turned him down gently saying I didn’t want to work to a publisher’s deadline because I’d be writing under pressure and too many mistakes would occur, or important subjects might have to be omitted to meet their deadline. So, there I was, writing at my own pace with no deadline to spur me on, and no-one on board to publish whatever I produced. I’d made a decision that contributed to enabling what I believe is a better book, but left me with the challenging task of finding someone to publish my, er, well, I guess, labour of love.

I’m very pleased Lost Art Press is taking my raw manuscript to the next stage. And maybe I’ll tell the tale of my convoluted path to finding a publisher in a later post.

– Richard Jones

Update: Lost Art Press Chore Coat

Posted on by Lost Art Press
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One of Tom Bonamici’s sketches from the summer that shows the basic design of the jacket.

The Oregon garment factory has just produced our first chore coat prototype using the Japanese cotton that Tom Bonamici has selected. Tom wants to make a couple small adjustments to the way the collar will sit, but he is almost satisfied.

That prototype is on its way to Kentucky for us to inspect the workmanship and evaluate the cloth. Tom says the fabric is so good it feels like “unicorn butter.” That’s worrisome because we were after “centaur mayonnaise” for the hand feel.

Meanwhile, other details of the jacket are coming together. One of the important aspects of this garment (for me) is that it not be a piece of marketing. Like a traditional French coat, there will be only two details of the maker: The buttons will be debossed with “Lost Art Press” in tiny letters. You’ll have to look closely to see them. And the inside pocket will be embroidered with our skep logo.

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The embroidery design for the inside pocket.

There is still a lot of work to be done, including getting the price nailed down and finalizing some of the sizing.

The way we are going to sell these is going to be a little different than your typical clothing store. We’re going to publish very specific sizing guidelines so you can determine which size is for you. We’ll open up the ordering for a month. Everyone who orders one will then get one.

This will do two things: Greatly reduce waste and therefore help us keep the price down because we won’t have to account for garments that don’t sell.

If everything goes smoothly, the jackets will ship in March.

— Christopher Schwarz

Quick Update: Four (no Five) Titles

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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We are actively working on four books this month. Here’s a quick update.

Richard Jones’s book on timber technology (we’re still fussing with the title) has been fully laid out. Kara Gebhart Uhl and I will give it a final edit this month and it should be to the printer in early January. That means it should be released in February or March 2018. (This assumes nothing goes haywire in the process.)

Jögge Sundqvist’s book “Slöjd in Wood” is almost ready for the designer. Megan Fitzpatrick has been sorting through both the translation and notes from Jögge and Peter Follansbee, who is assisting with the editing. This book has taken a lot longer than we hoped (and cost thousands of dollars more than we planned). But the result will be worth it. Look for it in early spring.

Christian Becksvoort has just turned in the materials for his new book with Lost Art Press. The book needs a title, but it’s going to be outstanding. It will feature plans for some of Becksvoort’s best projects from his career, plus advice on the craft and how to make a living at it. We are just beginning the editing process on the book, but it should go quickly. We hope for a summer release.

Finally, there is my book, “Ingenious Mechanicks: Early Workbenches & Workholding.” The writing will be complete by the end of 2017 – I have only about 1,000 more words to go. As always, as I get to the end of a book I have found at least 30 untrodden paths before me that I could go down. This book could easily consume another 20 years of my life – and still be incomplete.

Luckily, I have worked with authors who allow themselves to be sucked down the path of researching “one more detail” and then “Oooo, one more thing.” It can go on forever, and the work becomes blurred, ill-defined and all-consuming. You have to know when to cut bait or fish.

I’m ready to fish.

Look for “Ingenious Mechanicks” to be released by May at the latest.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. I forgot to mention Joshua Klein’s book on Jonathan Fisher. It’s in the good hands of designer Linda Watts and should be complete in the next couple months. Apologies for neglecting this important title – I have too many chainsaws in the air…. It’s late and it’s been a long day.