Lost Art Press

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A Chair from Hall’s Croft in Stratford-upon-Avon

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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While teaching in England in the summer of 2015, Roy Underhill and I had a day off together and headed to Stratford-upon-Avon with his wife, Jane, to check out all things William Shakespeare.

While touring Hall’s Croft, where Shakespear’s daughter lived, both Roy and I became fascinated with a small primitive chair in a corner by some stairs. There was no evidence the chair was anything important, that it had been owned by the family or was even from the 17th century. But it was charming, and Roy and I took lots of photos of it.

We both got the bug to build a reproduction. But Roy beat me to it for this season of “The Woodwright’s Shop.” Check out the two-part episodes here:

Episode One on the Welsh Stick Chair.

Episode Two on the Welsh Stick Chair.

While visiting Roy this fall I got to sit in the chair. It is tiny – good thing I don’t have much of a butt. And the visit only strengthened my resolve to build one myself.

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With all my furniture commissions complete for the year and all my editing under control (thanks Kara!), I started making the Hall’s Croft chair this morning. I won’t be able to make it out of elm, but I am going to stay true to the size and rough spirit of the original.

It’s an odd feeling to get to start a project without a customer, article or need to satisfy (other than my curiosity). But here we go.

— Christopher Schwarz

Cool Bow Saw

Posted on by fitz

A bow saw is a handy tool to have around. There are so many operations they can perform that it makes them an almost indispensable tool.

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Bill Anderson has been teaching a class at the  Woodwright’s School for several years on making an elegant little bow saw he calls the Howarth bow saw. It is patterned off an original saw Bill found at a tool sale.

If you have ever taken a class from Bill you know he is a guy who likes details. He even took some of the parts of the original saw to his local veterinarian’s office and had X-rays taken to see how they were made. If I walked into my vet’s office with saw parts wanting X-rays taken it would be me they want to do the X-rays on. Bill though, he makes it happen.

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Bill, in conjunction with Josh Farnsworth at Wood and Shop, have released a new DVD called “Building the Historic Howarth Bow Saw”. It is an excellent, very detailed video on how to reproduce this very shapely saw.

— Will Myers

We Won’t Run Out of Stickers – Promise

Posted on by Lost Art Press

My daughter Maddy is fulfilling your sticker orders every day after classes, and she reports we still have plenty on hand.

While several customers have been worried she would run out, she won’t. When her stock gets low we’ll order a new batch of stickers. So if you send in your $5, you will get stickers.

Also, Maddy is enjoying all the notes that woodworkers have been sending, including photos of their dogs and their own company’s stickers. She’s started displaying them on a wall in her bedroom.

If you’d like a set of Lost Art Press stickers, send an SASE and a $5 bill to:

Stick it to the Man
P.O. Box 3284
Columbus, OH 43210

Maddy will take your SASE and put three high-quality vinyl stickers – one of each design – in your envelope and mail it to you immediately. (If you send $10, she’ll send two sets; $15 will get you three sets). These are the nicest die-cut stickers we could find and should even be suitable for outdoor use, according to the manufacturer. The stickers are made in the United States, of course.

One note: Maddy’s sticker business will be closed from Dec. 18 until the end of the year for her Christmas break. Orders received during that time will be fulfilled as soon as she gets back to campus.

— Christopher Schwarz

Just in Time for Christmas!

Posted on by fitz
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This chest is a close reproduction of a traditional joiner’s tool chest. Chris designed the chest and constructed the box portion during a course he taught with us several years ago. I (Jim Tolpin) finished it by building the lid and sliding till and applying the traditional milk paint. The hand grips (traditional sailor’s beckets of rope and leather) were made and donated by Keith Mitchell – a boatbuilder currently in Vermont. (You can follow Keith on his instagram feed @shipwrightskills). The chest is signed by Chris and me on the underside of the lid.

The box and lid are made from clear poplar boards. The box, the wrap-around skirt boards and the till’s corner joints are dovetailed and glued with hide glue. The bottom boards are set into rabbets and nailed in place with traditional cut nails. The lid’s frame is mortise and tenon, drawbore pinned with hewn, air-dried white oak. Chris and I did the work with hand tools beyond the initial surfacing of the stock to dimension. Dimensions are 20″ wide by 16″ high by 40″ long.

About the finish: Traditionally, these tool chests were always painted to protect the wood from moisture because they might occasionally be exposed to outside conditions. I went with three coats of black followed by two coats of red to create an “oxblood” hue. As you probably know, milk paint is one of the most durable paints available. I applied several coats of linseed/tung oil to build a sheen and to provide additional protection.

All the proceeds of this sale will go to the Port Townsend School of Woodworking youth-in-woodworking scholarship fund. A portion of the cost of this chest is tax deductible as the school is a 501 (C) (3) non-profit educational institution. To purchase, go to the auction site here on ebay.

— Jim Tolpin

Workbench Mystery No. 326

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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I finished writing the first draft of “Roman Workbenches” and have been combing through the text to find all the “snakebites” – the little details that get missed when you are writing at the speed of a firehose.

One of the details relates to the only surviving Roman workbenches I know of: three workbench tops found at a Roman fort in Saalburg. The descriptions of these tops appear in many of the classic woodworking history texts, but none discuss how they were found, what species of wood they are or offer many details about the location of the holes for workholding.

I haven’t had any luck contacting Saalburg, but a German woodworking friend is on the case.

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In the meantime, take a look at these two drawings from W.L. Goodman’s “The History of Woodworking Tools” (after J.M. Greber’s book on planes) and another image from Günther Heine’s “Das Werkzeug….” Both images of one of the Saalburg tops show it with two mortises in the front edge.

Goodman theorizes it could have been for a T- or U-shaped piece of wood for holding wood to the bench.

Sure. You could also put your Roman weed in it.

I’ve been thinking about these mortises for a long time. They show up on a few benches here and there from different time periods. But I have yet to find one that accompanies the appliance or device that used the mortise.

I have some theories. I’m sure you do, too. Here are a few of mine:

  1. We’re looking at the back of the workbench and the mortises are for a chisel/tool rack, much like what you see on French workbenches.
  2. The mortises are left over from when the piece of wood was used for something else. It could have been part of a timberframe construction that was laid out incorrectly. In other words, the workbench top is made from a scrap.
  3. It could be part of a device where you drive in wedges against stops to saw tenons. Imagine that you put a stop in each mortise. Put your work between the stops. Drive a wedge in the gap to hold it for tenoning or whatever.
  4. Aliens.

If you have any sound ideas, you know what to do.

— Christopher Schwarz