You can now download an excerpt of all of the Lost Art Press titles in our online store. At the top of the description for each book, you’ll see a link to download an excerpt. Click the link and the pdf will download immediately. No need to register or engage in any silly marketing legerdemain.
Thanks to Kara Gebhart Uhl, our new editorial helper, who made this happen.
— Christopher Schwarz
With the upcoming release of the new volume on joinery of “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years,” several customers have asked if we are going to offer a discount on the complete set of books after we publish the final volume in 2017.
The short answer: no. And the explanation: As a rule we don’t discount our books. In fact, the price of our books can only go up in the future. We price our books fairly from the get-go. We don’t jack up the retail price so we can fleece the early adopters (our best customers) and then discount the book later on to snag the cheapskates.
The reason the price can go up in the future is because the price of raw materials and shipping can go up in the future. So the price you see now in our store is the best price now – it will only go up.
So why don’t we accept advertising on our site, which could lower the cost of books for the customers? The truth is we are approached all the time by companies who want to place ads on our site (we have healthy traffic), and we always refuse. Simply put: We don’t believe in advertising. We find it annoying. We find it ethically compromising. And if we’re annoyed by it, why should we annoy our customers with it?
So sorry, no ads.
I apologize for using this bandwidth to explain something we have discussed before. But not every new reader goes back and studies the last nine years of content.
— Christopher Schwarz
Joshua Klein and company are working hard on the second issue of Mortise & Tenon magazine, and from all accounts it looks like it’s going to be another fine issue.
They’ll start taking pre-publication orders on Nov. 1 here, which is also where you can read about the articles that are planned for the issue.
Joshua had asked me to write an article for the issue, and had I proposed a piece on Kentucky-style furniture, a backwoods style that I’ve admired for many years and is on display at the Speed Museum in Louisville, Ky. (If you’d like a woodworker’s view of the museum, check out Mark Firley’s photo collection here and here.)
My summer went to crap, however, and so I wasn’t able to do the research and interviews that would make my article worth publishing. Luckily, Joshua was also interested in my Roman workbenches and let me write up an article on the interesting workholding on the low one that I built from Pompeii.
My understanding of the bench has increased greatly since Woodworking in America, and after working on it every day this fall. You might not think that it’s easy to work while sitting down, but you might give it another thought after you read the article. Roy Underhill helped me decode a couple of the important details for the article, and I hope to have a short book on the bench (and a 1505 workbench with a Roman undercarriage) ready for the printer by the end of the year.
— Christopher Schwarz
This week I’m assembling two Welsh stick chairs that are based on examples from several sources, including John Brown and Don Weber. I’ve made this sort of chair about a dozen times, and every time I build it I stray a little further from the originals.
About five years ago I started using a different arrangements of back sticks and a different crest rail. Now I’m changing the seat and undercarriage. First I made a new seat template. It’s still a D-shaped seat, but I started fresh with trammels and a compass to make it slightly larger.
I increased the rake of the rear legs to make the chair more lively. And I also changed the front legs to make them look appropriate with the new rear legs (wire models like those shown in “The Anarchist’s Design Book” guided these changes).
But the biggest change is to the stretcher turnings. I’ve been using 1-3/8”-diameter turnings with a bulbous center, much like what I first learned from Don Weber about 13 years ago.
After looking at a lot of English Windsors and Welsh stick chairs, I decided to simplify my turnings and thin them down to 1-1/8” in diameter. After getting both undercarriages together this afternoon, I was pleased with the result.
Tomorrow I start steam-bending the arm bows and am considering one more design change for this generation of chairs.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Peter Galbert’s book “Chairmaker’s Notebook” is invaluable for making all sorts of stick chairs, including Windsors and Welsh stick.
It is hard to find much on a WWII era battleship that relates to woodworking. Iron and steel rule for the most part.
My daughters and I visited the USS North Carolina (BB-55) located in Wilmington, NC. I have been there many times; it is one of those things that never gets old to me. The girls love because it is like the world’s largest playground with lots of places to hide from dad. Every time I visit I see some part I never noticed before.
Today it was the decking, more than an acre of almost flawless 8/4 teak. I never really looked closely at it before (I know, I am stupid), perfectly laid and fitted the entire 728 feet of deck. The deck drains were even perfectly executed. What is most amazing is this deck is not the original, it was replaced in 1998 with teak from Myanmar.
One other thing that was kind of neat were the seats in the galleys. Same idea as Mr. Schwarz’s workbench seat except these had a locking mechanism for holding them in the in or out position. I guess this was a battleship only option.
If you are ever in the Wilmington area the battleship is a great place to stop and spend an afternoon, or the whole day.
— Will Myers
