Lost Art Press

Category: Woodworking Classes

England. And then More Roorkees

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I leave for England Saturday to teach two classes for the New English Workshop at Warwickshire College, but before that English experience, I have to tend to another.

Today I started roughing out the parts for two more Roorkee chairs in sapele that will incorporate some interesting details. One of the details will be this little piece of brass awesomeness.

If life doesn’t go off the rails I hope to get the legs turned tomorrow.

While in England, I’ll mostly be teaching and sleeping. I’m teaching two tool chest classes, which are about as grueling to teach as they are to take. But I am going to get to meet David Savage on Tuesday, which I am greatly looking forward to.

And I know some of the students in the class, so I’m packing extra ibuprofen for the inevitable hangover(s).

This is my first teaching assignment in England, and I hope it’s not my last. The Germans didn’t seem to mind my occasional nudity. I wonder if how the Brits will?

Better yet, perhaps I should pack one of my wife’s dresses….

— Christopher Schwarz

2 Spots Open in a Dutch Tool Chest Class

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Due to last-minute cancellations, there are two spaces open in my Dutch tool chest class (the last one of 2014) in Warwickshire College, England, for July 28-29.

The price of the class is £295 plus materials, and the materials are reasonably priced and fantastic. The organizers of the course have arranged to get blacksmith-made hardware for the chests. Check out this post on the hardware. We will be building the chests from yellow pine.

If you want to register for the course, contact Paul Mayon directly here. You can read about the course and the sweet facility here.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Year of the Ankle-biters

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The state of Maine has some amazing wildlife. And it, whatever it is, is biting me.

This week I’m in midcoast Maine to film a DVD on building a Dutch Tool Chest and attend the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks Open House on Friday and Saturday. Details here. If you live within driving distance, I highly recommend the experience. John Hoffman and I will be there with T-shirts and our full line of books. And we’ll be making Wierix squares.

Anyway, back to the biters. Something is feasting on my ankles. And while that’s inconvenient, my ankles will not be shown in the DVD (sorry, ladies). So really, my itchy ankles are of no consequence to you.

However, have you ever seen my “Sawing Fundamentals” DVD? If you watch it on a big screen, you can make a drinking game out of counting the flies shown in the DVD (the last guy to guess correctly the number of flies is now on a waiting list for a liver transplant).

We shot that DVD during the cold months, but something about the lights used during the shoot woke them up from their slumber. After every hour or so, we had to sweep up hundreds of the suckers.

We tried to scare the flies off by putting a few of their heads on tiny spikes (OK, the “spikes” were toothpicks), but the flies kept coming. Waves and waves of them.

Best thing I can say about them: They didn’t bite my ankles.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Canadian Gravity Latch

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Ric “Formerly Anonymous” Archibald made a cool little locking system for his Dutch Tool Chest. He calls it the “Gravity Latch.”

Ric, like a fair number of students, made a Dutch tool chest before taking the class on making the Dutch tool chest. Yes, I think it’s curious, too.

— Christopher Schwarz

18 Chests, 144 Dovetails and 0 Clamps

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Today we had to assemble 18 dovetailed Dutch tool chests during a two-hour period. We had glue. We had mallets. But we didn’t have any clamps that were long enough.

So we fetched the hammers and the nails.

When you look at lots of old furniture, you’ll come across a fair number of them where the dovetails are nailed. If you are a regular visitor to The Furniture Record, then you have seen this joinery method before.

Sometimes it is obvious that the nails were added later for some reason – waffle-headed roofing nails on an 18th-century piece are a clue. Other times the nails look like they are as old as the piece and were added by the maker.

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When I announced we were nailing the dovetails during this class at Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, I saw a few raised eyebrows. But as there were no clamps, so everyone dove in.

To assemble these chests, we used 6d cut hinge nails from Tremont. The hinge nail is a headed nail, so it is ideal for fastening chores such as this. All the chests went together in less than two hours and are all as tight as ticks.

— Christopher Schwarz