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I’ll try to make a long story short enough. While looking under my bed for some shoes, I found an unopened box of 52 copies of “The Art of Joinery,” our first book at Lost Art Press. Then while, doing inventory, I found another sealed box of 52 that was mixed in with “The Essential Woodworker.” And we had another box of them that we had pretty much forgotten about.

So we are going to sell these last 156 copies for $20 each plus shipping – way below the market rate for this book. If you want a copy of the first edition, now is your chance.

Before you order, please read this: One copy per customer. Sorry scalpers. If we find out you ordered more than one, we will simply cancel all your orders. As of 11 p.m. we are sold out.

In 2013 we are going to come out with a revised edition of this book with a new design, a new font, a few text changes and the addition of the entire original text from Joseph Moxon – unaltered for the purists.

— Christopher Schwarz

Tools should be used. And when I have some that are doing more sitting than cutting, I give them to friends or sell them.

After 15 years at Popular Woodworking and purchasing tools for review, I still have more tools than I want. Today I’m getting rid of five of them. Here are the terms. Please read them before sending me a message.

The first to say, “I’ll take it,” gets it.

I only ship to addresses in the United States.

No, you cannot come to my house and dig through my basement.

After I receive your payment (PayPal or personal check), I’ll ship your item.

If you want an item, send an e-mail to chris@lostartpress.com and be sure to say which item you want.

So here’s what I’m selling:

Lie-Nielsen No. 4-1/2 in bronze anniversary edition. Made in 2006. Price: SOLD.

This plane is virtually unused. Sharpened once. Signed. And stamped with my mark. I’ll need to grind and sharpen it again for you before shipping it. I do not have the box or the papers – sorry collectors.

Lie-Nielsen No. 62 Low-angle jack plane. SOLD.
No apologies on this tool, other than the fact that it is stamped with my owner’s mark. The iron is O1 – I bought this before the A2 craze.

Gramercy Hammer, 9 oz. head. Price: SOLD.
It’s a great hammer. I just have too damn many hammers. No apologies, other than it has my owner’s stamp on it.

Gramercy Hammer, 4 oz., Price: SOLD
Again, too many hammers. This one is great for adjusting plane irons and driving sprigs.

Wood Joy Razor Shave. Price: SOLD
I bought this shave for a review that never materialized. It’s in new, unused condition.

— Christopher Schwarz

You can now download Roy Underhill’s reading of “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker,” the almost-lost 1839 text that tells the fictional story of young Thomas West’s apprenticeship in a rural English workshop.

It is $22 and available in our store now via this link.

“The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” is a book that has opened up the world of hand-tool woodworking for thousands of people. The book’s anonymous author detailed the day-to-day workings of a hand-tool workshop in the early days of the 19th century as a way to guide children who were thinking about entering the woodworking trade.

The book begins with instructions on how to sweep the shop, tend the shop’s fire and help the other journeymen. It ends with the hero, Thomas, building a full-blown chest of drawers as a journeyman.

The original text is extremely rare and was unearthed by Joel Moskowitz, the owner of Tools for Working Wood. He brought it to the attention of Lost Art Press, and that partnership resulted in the publication of print version of “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.”

The Lost Art Press version of this book includes the original 1839 text, a historical commentary on the trade by Moskowitz and a detailed explanation of how to build the three projects featured in “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.”

The audiobook version of the book consists of the original text only, read by Roy Underhill. Lost Art Press was particularly pleased to get Roy to read the book for us. Not only is he a student of early trades, but Roy is also a long-time thespian, and he brought his many voice talents to the project.

You can download a snippet of the book – a short section on making chisel handles – using the link below.

Track 14 of The Joiner & Cabinet Maker

As a result, the 215-minute audiobook version of “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” is a joy to listen to once you become accustomed to the early 19th-century way of explaining things.

Downloading Details

The download will play on all computers and devices, including iPods, Androids, generic smartphones and Kindles. As always, these files will not have any copy protection on them. The audiobook is delivered in a single compressed .zip file. After downloading it, simply double-click on the .zip file and it will decompress into a folder containing all the .mp3 files for the book – 22 in all. You can drag these onto your device or onto iTunes to add them to your listening library. Also, simply double-clicking on the file will start playing it on your computer.

If you have never manually added content to iTunes, it’s easy. Here’s a quick tutorial from Apple.

The audiobook was edited by John Hoffman of Lost Art Press. The final mastering was performed by Ben Strano, a Nashville-based engineer, producer and woodworker.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. We are working on a three-CD set of the audiobook, which will be available for sale shortly.

We are putting the final touches on Roy Underhill’s reading of “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker,” the 1839 text that tells the fictional story of young Thomas West’s apprenticeship in a rural English workshop.

The audiobook will be available in two different formats. On Monday, you will be able to purchase it as an mp3 that you can download from the Lost Art Press web site for $22. The mp3 version is more that 200mb, so don’t try it if you have a dial-up connection.

The download will play on all computers and devices, including iPods, Androids, generic smartphones and Kindles. As always, these files will not have any copy protection on them.

We also will be releasing the audiobook as a three-CD set in the next two weeks. We are still negotiating with CD duplicators so we are not sure what the price will be.

The audiobook is 215 minutes long and features Underhill reading the original text of “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker.” I recorded Underhill this Spring at his home in North Carolina. The audio was edited by John Hoffman of Lost Art Press. The final clean-up and mastering was performed by Ben Strano, a Nashville-based engineer, producer and woodworker. I think it sounds tremendous.

In the meantime, listen to this short “commercial” by Underhill where he reads some of the promotional copy for the original book (by the way, this was mastered by me – the audiobook sounds much cleaner).

JandC_promos

Update: Crap. The promo cuts out after 2 minutes. I’ll upload a fixed one later. Gotta fill orders.

We will have more information and a sample of the audio of the book on Monday.

— Christopher Schwarz

Our new T-shirt design features three planes from Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises” on the front. On the back are the words: “I Shall Die Trying,” something we’ve all occasionally uttered while flattening a large and warped panel.

Thanks to Rob Campbell, also known as The Joiner’s Apprentice, who came up with the idea for the shirt.

The forest green shirts are 100-percent cotton and made in the United States by American Apparel – the screen printing was done in Indiana. The shirts are $16 ($18 for 2XL). Apologies in advance: We didn’t order any sizes “small” or “3XL.”

As always, we make only one run of each shirt design. So if you like it, buy one before we run out of your size. This T-shirt scarcity is a problem even for me. I gave away my last “Rude Mechanicks Since 1678” shirt to a friend, and I have been trying to get my oldest daughter to sell me her shirt. No dice.

You can order a shirt from our store here.

— Christopher Schwarz