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To keep this sale civil and smooth, please, please, please read this with care before sending me a note about buying any tools.

If you subscribe to our blog via e-mail, click through to the page to see if the tool you want has been sold. As soon as the tool is sold, I will mark it as such here on the blog.

All prices include domestic shipping. I apologize for this, but I don’t have time now to wait in the line at USPS for 30 minutes per order to ship international packages. If you have a U.S. address, we’re golden.

Ask me all the questions you like about an item. But the first one to say “I’ll take it” gets it. After I receive your your payment, I will ship the tool to you. If I don’t get your payment within two weeks, the piece goes back up for sale.

To buy an item, send an e-mail to chris@lostartpress.com and in the subject line please put the name of the item you want. If you say “I’ll take it,” and I don’t know what item you want, confusion ensues.

Whew. I hate rules. But here we go.

All the tools sold.

Because of the traveling and writing I do, I end up with tools I do not want or need. It makes me a little nuts.

Some of this is people who give me excess tools and say: “Find a needy student who could use this.” Others are tools that I purchase to write reviews, or because I need a tool while on the road, or to help someone out of a jam.

Many of these tools I’ll be giving away to students at my Hand Tool Immersion class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking in 2015. But some of these tools are too specialized or exotic to put in the hands of a newbie.

And so I’m going to sell them off here on the blog starting tomorrow. I’ll post the mechanism for purchasing the tools tomorrow. Please do not e-mail me asking for a list of tools I’ll be selling (I don’t have time for that) or special treatment (that will only annoy me). Prices will be more than fair.

In the meantime, think about any excess tools that you own that could be doing good work in the hands of another woodworker. Whenever I visit tool collectors who have racks of user-grade tools, all I can think of is the unused potential gathering dust before me. To be sure, rare and oddball stuff is better off in a collection. But garden-variety bench planes should be on a bench somewhere (in my opinion).

If you want to purge your tools, consider selling them on one of the swap-n-sell areas on the woodworking discussion forums. Or there’s always eBay.

Once you pare your tools down to a good, basic set, you will find that taking care of your tools is easier because you have fewer. You will have a little extra money for wood, glue and finishing supplies. And the tools you sold will have a new home where they are used and appreciated.

— Christopher Schwarz

All Lost Art Press books now ship via USPS Priority Mail, which arrives anywhere in the United States in one to three business days.

From a practical standpoint, this means you can order Lost Art Press books up until Dec. 19 and  be confident they will show up by Christmas.

Until today, we have shipped book orders via Media Mail, a less-expensive shipping method for books that is supposed to take eight business days for delivery. During the last seven years and 100,000 packages, we have seen slower and slower delivery times (up to 15 business days) for Media Mail and seen more lost and damaged packages.

So today we switched to priority mail for books and have raised some rates (but not all) by $1. Shirts and hats will, as always, will continue to be shipped by first-class mail or priority mail, whichever is less expensive for you.

In 2015 we will offer other shipping options and have opened negotiations with other shipping services. Our goal is to get your order to you as quickly as possible without damage or excess expense.

So if you have been eying “The Book of Plates” or “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!” but thought it was too late to order, think again.

— Christopher Schwarz

At long last, we now have all sizes of our Lost Art Press USA-made sweatshirts in stock and ready to ship. Yes, there is still time to order one for Christmas – John is fulfilling these personally to make sure they get out.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that our current supplier has become unreliable. Why? We don’t know. But we know we can’t wait on them anymore.

So once this batch of sweatshirts is done we will be switching to a different supplier of USA-made sweatshirts: Royal Apparel of New York. These sweatshirts are a bit heavier, have a metal zipper and cost more. So prices will go up once this current batch is sold out, though I don’t know what the increase will be yet.

So if you want an USA-made Lost Art Press sweatshirt at $45 to $46, act now.

— Christopher Schwarz

Lost Art Press sweatshirts with the hand-lettered logo are back in stock and ready to ship immediately.

These midweight American Apparel sweatshirts are available in sizes small to XXL. The price is $45 (XXLs are $1 more). Some customers have reported the sweatshirts are a bit snug. So before you order, check out this sizing chart for this particular sweatshirt. If in doubt, order one size larger than you typically wear.

In my personal experience, American Apparel sweatshirts loosen up over time, becoming a little more baggy than when new (just like me!).

We’re going to keep this sweatshirt in stock as best we can through the winter months. Order early, however, to avoid delays and disappointment.

See the sweatshirt in the store here.

— Christopher Schwarz