Category: Uncategorized

Starting next week, all the books that I’ve written that we sell through Lost Art Press will be signed via a letterpress bookplate.

For the last six months, I’ve been signing the books via a simple adhesive label. We wanted something nicer. These bookplates are about five times nicer and 32 times as expensive.

These self-adhesive bookplates measure 2-3/8” x 2-3/4” and were printed at Steam Whistle Letterpress and Design in Cincinnati, Ohio. The bookplates are on acid-free Mohawk stock and were hand-set and printed on vintage equipment restored by Brian Stuparyk at Steam Whistle.

If you need some letterpress work (invitations, business cards, whatever), I highly recommend his shop. Brian has been obsessed with printing since he was a kid and has quite the collection of vintage machines and type.

As a convenience, we are also offering these signed self-adhesive bookplates by themselves for $2 (that price includes shipping). That way you can affix them in a book you have purchased from one of our retailers. Let me repeat that in a different way: All books sold by Lost Art Press that are written by Christopher Schwarz are already signed by him via this bookplate. You don’t need to buy this item if you are buying a book from us. This item is for people who have bought a book from another retailer and want to add his signature to it.

Here’s the link to the item in our store.

Here are some quick answers to questions we’ve received about signed books.

1. Why use a label or bookplate? Why don’t you just sign the book itself?

Our inventory is in Indiana. I am in Kentucky. There simply are not enough hours in the day for me to drive to Indiana and sign all our books. Until the day comes when we can consolidate all our operations in one city, this is the best that we can do.

2. Why don’t you offer these bookplates signed by other authors?

I suspect we will do that in the future. It’s a time-consuming process, and our first goal is to produce books, not get them autographed by the author.

3. Can I get you to sign my book with no bookplate?

Sure, just show up at one of the places I am teaching (my schedule is in the right rail of the blog). I’ll sign your book, your bare chest, whatever.

— Christopher Schwarz

RE-CO BKLYN

NYC Urban Lumber Harvesting: Perquisites and Pitfalls

It’s been an interesting journey these past few years, to say the least. We have watched our company swell and shrink, from one guy to seven guys and back down to two. We’ve been overwhelmingly busy and dismally slow; the amount of all-nighters pulled in the shop in hopes of meeting deadlines being roughly equal to the amount of sleepless nights spent wondering (worrying?) about how we are going to drum up sales and keep the whole affair afloat. Small successes are always met with slightly smaller defeats, enough so that the carrot does ever dangle. Basically, when we’re not busy high-fiving each other, we can be found banging our heads against the nearest wall. At the end of the day we are able to maintain a constant level of psych for this pet project turned full time job/obsession, and that is due to a trait peculiar to most people but familiar to woodworkers:

We get giddy about the wood.

Just about every time we cut a new log, we find ourselves ogling the grain, taking photos, “ooh-ing” and “ahhh-ing” over each new slab as it comes off the mill.

We run our hands over the freshly cut surface, feeling the tree’s cool moisture, silently judging the quality of cut from the blade. Many times I’ve repeated the same idle vow: “now this one I’m keeping for myself.”

This base reaction to freshly cut boards has been the fuel that keeps us going, especially when the going gets tough. And it does get tough. New York City is a land of tiny backyards accessible only via trespassing and calisthenics.  We recently found ourselves finessing 10’ long, 300+lbs. mulberry slabs around a tight 90º turn and through an 18” wide “alley” to get to the stairs, and finally onto the trailer. Good thing there were only eight of them.

Another fun incident was trying to extract large silver maple slabs we milled from a tree downed by Hurricane Irene. These slabs were 9′-8”-long because that was the absolute maximum size I determined we could get down the stairs to the basement, across the building, up the stairs, around a dogleg turn with a four-step rise, through the door and into the truck. That was a big tree so we got to practice that dance 21 times, finding near-perfection by the end. The 9’-8” thing actually worked, just as soon as we removed the front door.

An unexpectedly fun aspect of this business turns out to be amusing the public. Folks in Brooklyn, N.Y., aren’t accustomed to seeing guys with chainsaws, especially not 48” long chainsaws. Wielding these monsters on the sidewalk in Bushwick draws a crowd. A nervous crowd, on the far side of the street. The audience that gathered while we were trying to unload a large sycamore log from the pickup by hand really got their money’s worth. By that time we had ironed out most of the kinks in the “drop clutch removal” process so our onlookers were treated to the workings of a well-oiled machine. The procedure is as follows:

–    Back vehicle up to a reliable anchor (a 10” span of brick wall between my                       loading dock and a doorway worked nicely).

–   Chain log to anchor.

–   Remove vehicle’s tailgate (very important).

–    Instruct driver to perform a drop clutch launch.

We have actually elicited applause with this technique. We’ve also folded a couple tailgates. For more quartersawn sycamore, with its characteristic lacewood-like figure and striking pink, blue and yellow color I would happily fold as many tailgates as it takes.

So you see, not lack of sleep, nor anxiety induced heartburn, nor sore and fatigued muscles can diminish our zeal for revealing the hidden beauty in each new log. In fact, there is a doozy waiting for us in the yard right now. It’s a giant chunk of crotch hickory, about 60” wide and 9’ long, with lots of telltale ripples under the bark hinting at the figure hidden inside.  We know with certainty that this log is going to kick our butts. Hickory is just way harder and heavier a material than the human physiological form was build to handle at these sizes. I can’t wait! These slabs are going to be amazing, truly one of a kind. And I’m probably going to keep one for myself.

— Roger Benton

Recobklyn.com

During the last few weeks we have made a change to the way comments are added to the blog posts at LostArtPress.com. Based on several e-mails from readers, there is some confusion about it. Here is the straight dope.

We now ask you to register your e-mail with WordPress.com – or have an existing account with Facebook or Twitter. To register with WordPress, you do not need to sign up for a blog. You just need to enter your name and a valid e-mail address. You will not get spam from WordPress. It is simply a way to determine that you are not a spam-bot.

Here is the link to register with WordPress.

For your convenience, you also can comment if you have a Twitter account or Facebook account. We are not forcing anyone into the world of social media here – the Facebook and Twitter logins are simply for your convenience.

Why did we make this change? Simple. Spam and hate mail.

Like many blogs, we get bombed with spam – about 700 messages a week – that has to be monitored and cleaned out. We have to pick through that pile of garbage to rescue real comments that somehow got put into our spam folder.

And I got weary of reading an almost daily litany of profane hate speech from one IP address (yes we know who you are; you really should investigate getting a rotating IP address if you want to really remain anonymous).

So this change saves me about 30 minutes a day, which I can spend writing or woodworking.

If you don’t like the change, I’m apologize. But we are not turning back.

— Christopher Schwarz