I have one last-minute opening in next weekend’s Dovetailed Silverware Tray class (April 7-8) – so if you have a free weekend and want to spend it with me, my lovely assistant (Chris) and five more of your soon-to-be-closest friends, click the link below to register.
The class is at the Lost Art Press storefront/shop/horse garage, 837 Willard St., Covington, Ky. The fee is $275, including the stock, which is cherry, and lunches, which will not be Jimmy John’s (apologies for that to last month’s Dutch Tool Chest Class). It’s free to register – I’ll ask that you bring cash or a check to the class 🙂
During the last five years, I’ve made considerable changes to the innards of the tool chests I build for customers. Most of these changes are details, really, but they are informed by the fact that I work out of a tool chest every day.
The most significant of the changes is in the runners for the three tills. On the original chest, the runners for the lower till didn’t extend all the way from front to back. They stopped at the saw till (see above).
The reason for this was to imitate several historical chests that also had a door to the lower parts of the chest. After building the chest with the door, I found it silly. So I removed it. But I was stuck with the runners.
Now when I build a chest, I make all three runners run from the front to the back.
The other change to the runners is that I now bead the top edge of each runner. It looks nice, and the rounded edge prevents the runners from splintering in service.
This is quick work with a 3/16” beading plane.
Next up: The sawtill. It’s smaller and has less room for your weed stash.
After a good deal of wrangling and evaluating a lot of brands, we are happy to announce that five different designs of Lost Art Press T-Shirts are available again in our store.
The good news is that we have found a good supplier of shirts. The quality and the price is excellent. As a result, we have lowered the price of the shirts to $25 (and that price includes free domestic shipping). Also good news: This 100-percent ring-spun cotton shirt is available in a range of sizes from small to 3X.
These shirts ship to the U.S. and Canada. Shipping to the U.S. is free. Canadians pay an extra $8. (Sorry: We earlier thought we could ship these to Europe but were mistaken.)
Here’s the not-so-good news. We couldn’t find a domestic shirt supplier we were happy with. So these Gildan shirts are made in Nicaragua and printed in the United States. Also, this shirt is available only in two colors: navy blue and black.
Here are the five designs currently available:
Lost Art Press logo shirt: This shirt features our current logo (the one at the top of the screen) that was hand-drawn by designer Tom Lane.
Lost Art Press “Badge” logo shirt: This shirt features a hand-drawn logo by Joshua Minnich with our dividers shown in a badge.
Lost Art Press Beehive logo shirt: One of our favorite logos (also from Joshua Minnich), this logo features a skep and bees.
Lost Art Press Bandito shirt: Dovetail saws and skulls. Need we say more? Drawn by Shelby Kelley.
Anarchist’s Design Book logo shirt: Featuring the “marriage mark” from the cover of the book. Whenever I wear this shirt I get lots of questions about it.
Before you order, please check this size chart so you don’t end up looking like an overstuffed bratwurst or a jawa.
Chest sizes:
S 34-36
M 38-40
L 42-44
XL 46-48
2XL 48-50
3XL 52-54
Please note that all apparel is made to order and is not returnable unless defective.
Finally, we know there will be complaint and calls for different designs, different colors, long sleeves, pockets and shirts with the nipples cut out with fur around the holes. Please know that this is the best we can do right now.
We’ve had a few folks ask about the “hidden hexagon” mentioned in the text, and we think it’s time to share the answer with everyone. This also means revealing a little bit more about what is going on (and not going on) in this geometric construction.
What is going on is this: Drawing lines from and through certain points seems to magically create a representation of one of the most important, not to mention useful, theorems for artisans in geometry: the Pythagorean Triplet. In the geometry of this particular interaction of a circle with a square, a triangle is formed in the upper half of the circle whose legs go on to generate a pair of squares that, when their areas are added together, equal the area of the lower square — and they do that in what looks to be a simple triplet ratio of leg lengths of three to four to five.
To arrive at the correct root lengths of the upper two squares to make this simple ratio happen, the trick from antiquity is to generate a hexagon inside the circle (by stepping the radius of the circle around its circumference) and to then draw a line from the lower left hand corner of the lower square through the vertex of the closest hexagon facet. Next, you continue the line to intersect the upper portion of the circle. This provides the point to which you then draw the legs of the triangle.
The results are leg length relationships of three segments to four segments to the five segments of the diameter line. We have just revealed the simplest of the countless Pythagorean triplets. But have we really? The answer is: Almost, but not really.
We had our friend Dr. Francis Natali take a look at it, and after a couple pages worth of quadratic equations, the truth was outed: The whole-number relationship just isn’t there – though it is, inexplicably, amazingly close. Another friend, Kit Africa, generated the drawing above via CAD, also revealing an oh-so-close 3-4-5 triplet. The bottom line: This drawing from antiquity is apparently symbolic: It celebrates the interaction of easily generated shapes that allowed artisans to intuitively design and build beautifully proportioned and aligned forms on the principles of simple plane geometry.
“This has been Uncle Sam’s Woodshop of the Air, transcribed in Washington, D.C., and I’m Calvin Cobb wishing that, as you slide down the banister of life — that all the splinters are going in your direction! So long!”
Update: Sold out. (But if you’re interested, sign up for the waitlist for the June 23-24 class at LAP, or join me at Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren, Maine, Sept. 8-9 for a class on a slightly different version of a DT tray.)
“This has been Uncle Sam’s Woodshop of the Air, transcribed in Washington, D.C., and I’m Calvin Cobb wishing that, as you slide down the banister of life — that all the splinters are going in your direction! So long!”