Category: Uncategorized

Chris’s recent post about texture reminded me of this Japanese bowl that I have:

The bowl is extremely light in weight, which leads me to think that it is made from kiri (Royal Paulownia, Paulownia tomentosa). The finish is urushi, and I believe that it is tamenuri, which is “natural” urushi, without any dyes or pigments added.

The bowl is turned, and the surface texture is very rough, with substantial tear-out and other “defects.”

A view of the inside reveals what looks to have been an all-out assault with a scraper.

Here’s a close-up of an area with a lot of tear-out:

I find the bowl interesting, in that it appears as if its primary purpose is to highlight the limitations of our tools. The only place where the bowl deviates from that purpose is in its base, which is turned perfectly flat and smooth, like any other bowl.

– Steve Schafer

This week we have made a lot of changes to how we make and ship the things we sell.

First: All books now ship via FedEx’s SmartPost service. SmartPost uses FedEx to move our books across the country, and a local USPS carrier to take it the last leg to your door. The service is reliable, the packages are tracked and you can expect delivery in 5-7 days from when your order ships. We switched to SmartPost because USPS’s Media Mail service collapsed last fall during the holiday shipping season.

Second: We now offer international shipping to many countries on books and apparel. To be honest, shipping books internationally is crazy-expensive. You will be better off buying our books from one of our international retailers. However, sending apparel across the globe is actually quite reasonable. And that’s because….

Third: We have changed how we make T-shirts and hats. Until now we made T-shirts and hats in large batches that sat in John’s office until you ordered one. We had to print about 100 to 200 shirts at a time, and we usually lost our own shirts on the deal.

We now use a fulfillment service in California to print and ship our U.S.-made shirts and U.S.-made hats worldwide. The shirts are the same (American Apparel), as are the hats (Bayside). The print quality is better than we were getting in Indiana. They are in a wider range of sizes – XS to 3XL. And the packaging is fantastic.

So now when you order a shirt or hat from a store, our fulfillment service prints the shirt or embroiders the hat and sends it to you, anywhere in the world.

We will soon be able to offer many of our old T-shirt designs (and additional new ones) very easily with this service. So you should soon be able to get the shirt you always wanted.

Incidentally, we make these shirts and hats for fun, not for profit. We make almost nothing on apparel. So on that note, I’m headed back to editing some books.

— Christopher Schwarz

 

After an unholy amount of work by John, we are now offering international shipping to Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand for all of our products.

Three things to keep in mind:

1. International shipping is expensive. It will always always be more economical for you to purchase books through our fine international sellers. We are using FedEx as our carrier. The rate you pay is what it costs. It is crazy expensive and there is nothing we can do about it (and still stay in business).
2. There will be a learning curve for us. International shipping is complex for a small business. We have tried to automate things as much as possible, but there will be bumps in the road for us and customers. Please be patient with us.
3. The best bet for international customers is to order T-shirts only. The shipping fees are fairly reasonable for shirts. Sending books overseas is nutty expensive.

So if you are international, check out the store. Most importantly, check out the T-shirts.

— Christopher Schwarz

I spent the morning organizing and packing up more than 500 hand-drawn illustrations that Peter Galbert made for “Chairmaker’s Notebook.” Even though John and I have spent about 150 hours scanning and adjusting the images, they are still as remarkable and wonderful as the day we opened the box.

As all the pages went back into their proper portfolios, it became obvious that you could almost build a chair using the images alone – they are that detailed.

To give a feel for the imagery in “Chairmaker’s Notebook,” I made a short video of a few of my favorites from the book, set to music by The Black Twig Pickers.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. “Chairmaker’s Notebook” is available for pre-publication ordering in our store with free domestic shipping until March 20, 2015 – the day the book ships from the printer.

Also noteworthy: Lie-Nielsen has agreed to carry the book, as well as the other retailers mentioned earlier: Lee Valley Tools, Tools for Working Wood, Highland Woodworking, Henry Eckert Fine Tools in Australia and Classic Hand Tools in the UK. Links to our retailers can be found here.

And finally: A reader noted that our Vimeo videos (and my Vimeo profile) had become populated by some naughty, naughty content. After some digging, it became obvious that having “The Naked Woodworker” in our feed was attracting the smut.

If you encountered this, I apologize. If you missed seeing it, ditto.

Since 1996 I have had a public e-mail address for all things woodworking. I have – to the best of my knowledge – answered every e-mail people have sent me (except a few from Nigerian princes).

Today I shut down my public e-mail address: chris@lostartpress.com. Here’s why.

During the last few years, my e-mail volume has ballooned to the point where I spend two to four hours every day answering mail. This is interfering with my writing, editing, building and (apologies) sanity.

If you have a question related to my writing, I encourage you to search my two blogs, which have more than 4,000 articles on all-things woodworking, plus jokes about animal flatulence.

On this blog, use the search box at the top right of the page. On my Popular Woodworking Magazine blog, the search function is right above the most recent entry.

Plus, you can always query me by leaving a comment on my blog that relates to a recent entry.

I ask that you do not bombard John with questions related to woodworking or about getting in touch with me. He has his hands full with customer service for Lost Art Press and keeping fulfillment running smoothly.

I have enjoyed corresponding with readers during the last 19 years. But I have reached a point where I need more time to think, build, read, research, edit and write.

Thank you all for your understanding in this matter.

— Christopher Schwarz