Lost Art Press

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Seeing is Sharpening!

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Another entry from my apprentice John who continues on the Trestle Table project when not on the road.

So I was in the check out at the market with a live lobster in a bag and a half gallon of gin. I looked at the check out person and said “one of us isn’t going to make it through the night”. She gave me a look. Yesterday, I got the same look from my wife. I was looking at a plane iron with a magnifying glass talking to myself about 1,000 grit scratches when I noticed she was looking at me.

Let me explain. I was helping at a recent class being taught by Chris and Tom Lie-Nielsen at Marc Adams School of woodworking. Chris was talking about sharpening and said that sharpening is really about seeing. As he went through the various grit stones he was using he held the iron up to the light and moved it around to see the edge. He said he could still see some 1,000 grit scratches in it.

I thought about that and decided to really try to concentrate on seeing the edge as I sharpen. To help see the difference in the scratches I changed stroke direction when I changed grits. I tilted the edge to the light and I could really see coarse scratches left in the iron after using the 1,000 grit stone. It’s like I snatched the jewelers loop out of the Master’s hand and can now sharpen my own plane. These scratches needed to come out on the 4,000 grit stone before going to the 8,000 for polish. In the past I would not have taken the time to concentrate on the edge and would have switched grits sooner resulting in an inferior polish on the edge. It also causes sharpening to take longer since I would have been polishing 1,000 grit scratches instead of polishing 4,000 grit scratches, which is a lot easier to do.

The sequence to sharpening is to take the tool from a grinder to a 1,000 grit stone for edge shaping. Stay on the 1,000 as long as it takes to get a wire edge on the back side of the tool (the back side must also be flat and polished. That means going through the same sequence but you only need to do this once). Then to the 4,000 grit, which is used to remove the 1,000 grit scratches and then to polish on an 8,000. That is it. I am sharpening two tools for the first time today. It took four strokes to get a wire edge on the 1,000 grit, approx six strokes on the 4,000 and between 3 and 6 on the 8,000. Then turn the iron over and carefully slide the wire edge onto the 8,000 grit stone to remove the wire edge.

So if you want to make an impression try the lobster and gin trick, or grab a magnifying glass and see if you can see the scratches.

— John Hoffman

After Sawing, the Router Plane

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This is another entry from John who is referring to his previous post Titled “First Class Practice”

As you recall I am making the base of the Trestle Table and am in the process of making notches in two members so when they are glued together I will have a mortise. After sawing into the waste a number of times, I removed it by hitting it with a hammer. A good Maydole hammer no doubt, but any hammer will do. Here is what the joint looked like. Not only doesn’t this look nice but I don’t think I am going to get a good glue joint.

So I took out my Stanley vintage router plane and went to work. Here is the result!

See how much tearout there is on the near-right side? And this was one of the best examples. I was planing directly across the grain and boy did I make a mess. I learned that I could avoid this by canting the plane and paying close attention to the wood that made contact with the iron. It was kind of like saddling an Elm chair seat with an Inshave. If I continued to make angle adjustments I could get a good result. I also used the two top sides of the work as a reference for the sole of the router plane.

I had to adjust the depth a bit deeper than intended but this is the final result. You can still see where big area of tearout was, but this will make a good glue joint.

For explanation purposes here is how I used the sole of the router plane on the work.

John

Union Village Blanket Box

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The Union Village Shaker community is about an hour north of my home in Fort Mitchell, Ky., but it doesn’t figure large in the world of Shaker furniture like the eastern Shaker communities do.

Union Village was the first and largest Shaker community west of the Allegheny Mountains, and it was the parent community for the western Shaker communities in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Georgia.

Founded in 1805, more than 4,000 Shakers lived at Union Village during its peak and they were known for selling herbal medicines, seeds and brooms. The community declined until it was sold in 1912. The site is now a retirement community in Warren County, Ohio.

One of the artifacts remaining from the village is a walnut blanket box with fine lines and tight dovetails. The box is similar in form to many Shaker chests that are extant, but this one has always been a favorite.

I chose to adapt this design because it highlights the advantages of my preferred chest-building method. The fine bit of transition moulding around the plinth is easy to accomplish with this traditional construction technique.

While I retained the proportions and lines of the Union Village original, I used finger joints instead of dovetails. And I used figured maple instead of walnut. These two alterations give the box a contemporary feel.

Statistics:
Dimensions: 21-3/8” high x 38-1/2” long x 18-1/4” deep
Materials: Tiger maple exterior; poplar interior parts
Finish: Custom blend of oil, varnish and linseed oil.
Construction Details: All surfaces are handplaned using traditional techniques. Plinth and box are joined using entirely traditional joinery methods. All the hardware is iron with traditional pyramid-head screws.

— Christopher Schwarz

Merry Christmas From Us!

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

I want to thank all our customers, all those persons that tried to place orders and all those that needed patience as we started this endeavor. We are just two months into Lost Art Press, a concept that has been years in the working.

The idea of Lost Art Press is to make the equivalent of the Lie-Nielsen $150 block plane. We wanted to bring back to public knowledge, the “Lost Art” of woodworking. As Chris recently explained this concept to my sister in law, when compact discs came into existence who wanted to know about LP albums? When machinery came to the woodworking trade and mass production became not only possible but common, the secrets of the old timers went to the grave with them. Remember the first time you tried a premium hand plane? After using a number of low cost planes, the first time I used a Lie-Nielsen plane I was convinced it was worth every penny it cost. The thing worked! We are trying to make the $150 block plane equivalent in the publishing business. Our goal is to produce books and DVDs that will outlast us, that will inform challenge and provide that story of the past.

That said, we have a number of projects underway that will follow this theme. We will update our site as they come online.

To introduce myself, I am Chris’s apprentice. I have been woodworking for a number of years and thought this company would be a great fit with my woodworking passion. Well, thanks to all of you, I have not been in the shop for months! I have learned all about internet e-commerce, gateways, merchant accounts, accounting software, web sites and shipping! Shipping is a real issue. We are trying our best to keep our shipping costs as low as possible and get products to you asap!

We will be on the road to a number of shows this year. If anyone wants to know about the business end of things, please grab hold of me through if you are at one of these shows. I will be glad to share. We will be updating our site on show dates.

Lastly, I would like to introduce my wife Sharon. She is the one handling the telephone and most of the customer service issues. She continues to remark how nice our customers are. It is no surprise to Chris and me. The woodworking community is a great bunch of people.

Thank you for your support!

All our best.

— John Hoffman Lost Art Press

Books are Shipping Now. New Classes Coming Soon.

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We received our first load of books this week and are shipping them out with the Deluxe CDs (plus any DVDs you ordered). So if you ordered a book from us, watch your mailbox.

The books are autographed, of course. Two readers will receive “special” deluxe editions. Meaning, my kids asked if they could add a discreet smiley face to the title page (hope that’s OK).

One important thing I want to add to our Canadian and international customers is that we are still working out the shipping options to make them fair to everyone. Until then, if you are outside the continental United States just drop John Hoffman a line at John@lostartpress.com. He’ll take care of you.

Also, we’ll be posting some new classes and seminars on the site in the coming weeks. So do check back if you are interested in classes.

— Christopher Schwarz