Lost Art Press

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Opening the Shop for Business & Visitors

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Several customers have asked when we are going to open our storefront in Covington, Ky. Here is the schedule for 2016.

Starting March 12, the shop at 837 Willard St. will be open for visitors and customers on every second Saturday of the month, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. We’ll carry all of our titles there, plus whatever else we might have lying around that’s odd or special.

We may or may not carry apparel. Right now all our shirts, hats and sweatshirts are being made on demand. But we might do a special small run of garments for the store. Stay tuned.

You are probably thinking: Are they nuts? Open on only one day of the month?

Yup. We don’t have employees, John lives 100 miles away and I can’t play “store” while building furniture, editing, writing, blogging, designing and dog knows what else. So if you are planning a drive through the area, here’s the schedule for 2016 if you’d like to stop by to talk, tour the shop or pick up some books.

March 12 (this is in conjunction with the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event down the street at Braxton brewing)
April 9
May 14
June 11
July 9
August 13
September 10
October 8
November 12
December 10

We likely will have a book-release party or two this year as well. Details to follow.

As you can see from the photo above, we still have a long way to go to make the place presentable. The plaster work is complete – both front rooms have been completely re-plastered to look as they would have in 1890. We’re installing new windows on the 9th Street side of the building that were bricked over (the city was happy to approve this restoration). This will bring some southern light into the shop area. And we’re removing the bars from the windows so we can escape in case of a fire.

Today I am headed down to start repair on the subfloor – the solid white-oak flooring arrives on Jan. 14. A section of the subfloor by the bar is rotted from an old sink leak. I also need to remove 1,239 staples from the existing subfloor, so I’m surprising Lucy today with an anniversary present of kneepads and fencing pliers.

I do know how to romance the ladies.

— Christopher Schwarz

Staked Furniture is Everywhere

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Once you become aware of staked furniture, you will find it everywhere. Today I was finishing up a marathon 12-hour session of editing “The Woodworker: The Charles Hayward Years” and stumbled on this short article from the February 1964 issue.

It’s billed as an exercise for beginning turners. And while I’d probably add some rake and splay to the legs, it’s a pretty charming piece as-is.

The most interesting detail of its construction is that the author recommends you cut the mortises before turning the legs. That works when you have 90° angles everywhere, but is a mess when you get into compound-angle joinery.

Luckily in “The Anarchist’s Design Book,” I have a way of dealing with this sort of compound-angle joint that is embarrassingly simple. Here’s a clue: Buy a set of spade bits and an extension for your drill.

You can download the 1964 article here:

Simple_stool

The cutting list for the project is as follows:

1 Top 7/8 x 10-1/4 x 14-1/2

4 Legs 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 x 13

2 Side rails 3/4 x 3/4 x 13

2 End rails 3/4 x 3/4 x 10

— Christopher Schwarz

Blemished and Excess Sweatshirts and T-shirts

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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We dug up a few boxes of sweatshirts and T-shirts and are offering them in the Lost Art Press store at a significant discount.

Last year we started using a fulfillment service to print our shirts and sweatshirts, which is why you can offer them in a wide variety of sizes and colors. Before that change, we stocked all our own stuff, and this is the excess inventory that was caught in the middle of that change.

So you can pick up a Lost Art Press hooded sweatshirt for $25 (shipping included in the price), or an H.O. Studley T-shirt or Campaign Furniture shirt for $15 (shipping included in the price).

All items are made in the United States.

Don’t dawdle. Quantities are limited.

— Christopher Schwarz

Charles H. Hayward on Utility Furniture

Posted on by Lost Art Press
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A bed built under the post-war Utility Furniture scheme in England. On display at the Cheltenham museum.

Perhaps one of the most testing times of furniture-making was that of war time and the immediately following years, when utility furniture came into being. Certain restrictions had to be placed on the methods of construction and the weight of timber used. It was realised that the items had to be reasonably durable, but the stringent requirements of the times made it necessary to keep timber sizes to the minimum. At the same time, although all unnecessary weight was avoided, there was a limit below which furniture would be unsound.

Compared with furniture of the Victorian and earlier periods, utility furniture was lightly built, but most people today have come to realise that much early furniture was unnecessarily heavy, and that in some ways lightness is a virtue providing that strength is adequate.
A problem that confronts the man in the home workshop is that of the thickness and width he should make the various parts. To the furniture designer or craftsman the decision is largely one of appearance only, because over the years a tradition has grown up in which the sections are more or less settled within certain limits.

If this sounds like blindly doing a thing for no better reason than repeating what was done before, it should be remembered that trade practice is generally founded on what experience has shown to be sound. Sometimes you can get away with slighter material, but it is often because you have to, either because the cost is too great otherwise, or because larger stuff is not available.

In any case we have to realise that, except for first-quality things, furniture today is not built for posterity as it used to be. The day when furniture was intended to be handed down to later generations has largely gone. Ask any young couple of today whether they want to start their home with things from the home of their parents, and you will invariably be told that such old-fashioned stuff does not interest them. Perhaps they are right. If the true craftsman dislikes the idea of making a thing that is not intended to last, at least the younger generation is entitled to its view of what it wants.

— Charles Hayward, from The Woodworker, February 1961