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The hats we sell at Lost Art Press are likely the dumbest corporate self-promotional item ever.

We don’t have our company’s name on the hat. Nor our web site’s url. Catchy slogan? Nope. The only thing on the hat is a set of embroidered dividers taken from Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises.”

Heck we don’t even make much money selling the hats. They’re premium caps from Adams – the same brand that Thos. Moser uses.

But I love my hat. It saved me $200.

Let’s back up a couple months. During a nasty snowstorm I pulled my wife’s Honda into our driveway and put it into park as I was still sliding a bit. The car’s shift interlock went haywire. Bottom line: The transmission was jammed in “park” and wouldn’t budge.

Thanks to a little trick from the Honda people I bypassed the lock and was able to get the car into “drive” and took it to the dealer. They recommended replacing a solenoid and a few other routine maintenance things I’ve been putting off. Price: $300.

So I sat my hinder down in the lobby as they worked on the truck. An hour later the service manager fetched me.

“The bill was $300,” he tells me. Then he lowers his voice. “But seeing as how you’re in the brotherhood, the bill is $100.”

I’m bewildered, but I’m not not so stupid as to ask questions. I pay the bill. I drive home.

I told my wife the story and she figured it out: It was my Lost Art Press hat. The dividers are part of the traditional Masonic symbol. The service manager assumed I was a Mason and cut me a deal.

Sweet!

Next up: Lost Art Press T-shirts featuring the logo of the Trilateral Commission.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. If you want to buy one of our “money hats” visit the Apparel section of our site. The hats are $16.

Tonight I’m signing and lettering all the black leather “Joiner and Cabinet Maker” books that were bound by hand by the Ohio Book company in Cincinnati.

I am pleased with the quality. The silver lettering is crisp. The leather is applied neatly to the boards and the end papers are quite a sight.

We still have a few of these books available. But because there are so few, we’re not even going to put them in the store. As of this evening, the letters “U,” “V,” “W” and “Y” are available. Everything else is spoken for.

If you are interested in one of the last four, the cost is $165 plus $8.50 for priority mail shipping in the United States (foreign orders can get a quote from Sharon using the link below). Please contact Sharon at sharon@lostartpress.com. Or you can call her at (317) 603-3605.

These books will ship out to Joel Moskowitz at Tools for Working Wood this week. Once he signs them, they’ll be dispatched to their final destinations.

We have used up about half of the unbound editions so far. I’m not sure exactly how many of them are left because some were damaged during transport. If we do another run of these leather-bound books it will be an edition that will be released during the Woodworking in America Conference Oct. 1-3.

— Christopher Schwarz

April 2 update: There is one book left. Letter “Y.”

Have you seen this man?

We chose the dividers from Moxon, our first publication, as our corporate symbol. I say corporate as a joke because if you know us you know we are hardly corporate. Our lofty goals for Lost Art Press are to publish information that other companies won’t and to make enough money to support our tool and alcohol purchases which by the way, are substantial.

Anyway, I wanted to refer you to a podcast that I have found called The Logan Cabinet Shoppe. The purveyor of this blog is Bob Rozaieski. He is a Sith from the dark side of woodworking i.e. hand tool only guy. On his site he has put a video chronicle of the building a porringer top tea table. If you go to Quick tip #4, you get to see how he designed the tea table using proportions based on column orders. The entire design starts with the height of the table which was restricted to fit a particular space in his house. From this known limitation he then designs the remainder of the piece using only dividers, to include determining the curves of the cabriole legs. The video is done in a clear color coded manner and is easy to understand.

I wanted to thank Bob for taking the time to put this information out there for us and let others know about this great video podcast. In case you want to know what a hand tool only Sith looks like, here is a picture of Bob from his site.

Regards John

Demand was stronger than we anticipated for a leather hand-bound edition of “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.” We sold out of all of our copies within a couple weeks of announcing the run. So at the request of several customers, we are offering a second run of 26 books at the same price.

This run will be different than the first. The book will be bound by hand by the craftsmen at Ohio Books in Cincinnati, but the leather will be a finely grained black cow skin. The title on the cover and spine will be debossed and foiled with a matte silver (we experimented with several sheens and colors). And the marbled end sheets are a matching black and gray. If you’d like details of the shop that does the binding, check out this blog entry.

Each book will be signed by me and Joel Moskowitz and lettered A through Z.

This is one edition that I am buying for myself.

The cost will be $165 plus $8.50 for priority mail shipping in the United States (foreign orders can get a quote from Sharon using the link below). When the books arrive in May we will list them for sale in the store. If you are interested in reserving a copy, please contact Sharon at sharon@lostartpress.com. Or you can call her at (317) 603-3605. Please note that half of this run of black leather books is already reserved.

As always, it’s first-come, first serve.

We might offer a third run later in the year using a different leather (green or deep red, perhaps). However, there are no guarantees. These books are very expensive for us to carry in inventory. I’m not trying to pressure you, just being honest.

— Christopher Schwarz