Lost Art Press

Tool for the Outhouse Trade

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A trip to North Carolina would not be complete without visiting Roy Underhill at the Woodwright’s School and the black hole of my disposable income, also known as Ed Lebetkin’s tool store.

I came to drop off some Lost Art Press Books to for Ed to sell in his store, but I walked out of there owing him money. It happens every time.

The highlight of the visit was the corncob curved drawknife/scorp-like tool that Ed picked up at auction recently. I shudder to think of what dirty job it was relegated to.

I picked up a box of hardware – old brasses and iron chest handles. Plus a complete box of Jennings augers, an old center-finding tool and a homemade layout triangle that was too cool to pass up – I’m a sucker for shopmade layout tools.

Ed’s store is completely full of stuff at the moment, as you can see in the photos. And if you need a corncob scorp (or any other hand tool), drop him a line at edlebetkin@gmail.com.

When I wasn’t giving Ed all my money, I was taking pictures of carver Mary May for an upcoming feature I’m writing on her for Popular Woodworking Magazine.

— Christopher Schwarz

Southern-fried Furniture of Necessity

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I spent today at the research center of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) on a scouting trip for my upcoming book “The Furniture of Necessity.” MESDA’s research center in Winston Salem, N.C., is an irresistible magnet for this book because of the museum’s “object database.”

This database has 20,000 objects of furniture, metalwork, textiles etc. in it. And you can browse through it to your heart’s content – the research center is free and open to the public (true Southern hospitality).

I pored over the furniture archives today until the research center closed, and I scanned more than 150 photos and datasheets about pieces of furniture that were produced for the middle-class (whatever that is) – or people with austere tastes.

I got some amazing stuff, including some Moravian chairs that are shockingly contemporary. Plus some great stretcher tables, six-board chests, drop-leaf tables and chests of drawers. I’m afraid I can’t show you my scans because they are protected by copyright, but I will attempt to divert your scorn by writing about something else – Jerome Bias!

I got to have lunch with Jerome, a furniture maker and interpreter at Old Salem. Jerome wrote the great story in Popular Woodworking Magazine about Thomas Day and was the guy who introduced me to the research center at MESDA.

When I visited Jerome’s shop at Old Salem he was cleaning out the bottom of an oilstone box he was building using an old woman’s tooth router plane. We had lunch at the local shop of Martin O’Brien, a cabinetmaker, finisher and stone carver.

The barbeque was terrific, of course, but the conversation was even better. Martin does a lot of work on MESDA pieces and had some great insights into traditional finishing that made me stop chewing my food.

So that’s what I did on my summer vacation. And now I have earned a can of Fat Tire.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. I did change the title of this blog. Some readers pointed out that using “chicken” in the headline could be misconstrued. Not my intent. Ever. So I just changed it. This is not worth of comment please.

Books in the Works, an Update

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If I were a smart man, I wouldn’t discuss my failings as an editor, writer and publisher. But I do like to keep people informed on how our upcoming books are going. So here goes:

“Mouldings in Practice” by Matt Bickford. This book is almost completely designed and ready for the printer. What has slowed me down is the number of illustrations. There are hundreds and hundreds. And each one had to be converted from SketchUp to Illustrator, and that is a very manual process. The book will be released this summer. The people who have read this book have had their minds blown. It’s good.

“To Make as Perfectly as Possible” by Andre Roubo with a translation and essays by Don Williams and Michele Pagan. Work is going full-bore on the first volume of this book. The book designer, Wesley Tanner, is building the templates. The translation is complete and the supporting essays are being polished. We are going to publish this volume in two editions: a fancy 11” x 17” deluxe edition (only 500 copies) and a trade edition that will be more like a typical Lost Art Press book. More news to come. The first volume should be out by the end of the year — or early 2013 at the latest. Expect great things.

“By Hand and Eye” by George Walker and Jim Tolpin. I’m reading the first draft of the book now — the final draft will be in my hands in three weeks. It is fantastic. It will be out by the end of 2012 as well.

“The Joiner & Cabinet Maker” audio book, ePub and Kindle editions. I’ll be recording the audio book this week with our voice talent (news to come on that) — the electronic editions of the book will be in the store in a couple weeks. And the second printing of the book is now in stock.

Oh, and my books. I’m working actively on my own books on “The Furniture of Necessity” and “Campaign Furniture” on this Southern tour. I’ve got a few research stops planned for these books. However, don’t expect anything from me this year — I’m trying to get these other projects to press first.

There are a lot more things in the works: Peter Follansbee is working on a book on chests, we have a book on chairmaking in the works and (perhaps) our first deck of playing cards. Finally, there’s our super-secret project I cannot talk about (aw, crap, I just did). It has been in the works for two years now and will be huge. Literally.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Winners of the Hide Glue Contest

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Holy cow (no pun intended), this contest stressed out my phone’s commenting software and my e-mail server. But it was great fun.

Here’s a list of my 10 favorite entries:

10. Assjuice
9. Mr. Edhesive
8. Sticky-tariat Hide Glue
7. Gelding Welding
6. Black Gluety
5. Fatal Attraction
4. Quarterhorse – It’s three quarters water and one quarterhorse!
3. High Hold Silver!
2. Sticky Trigger (by Chris)
1. Rigor Mortise Glue (Ernie)

I’m actually going to grant prizes to the top two winners – it really was a tie. Both made me almost wet myself.

— Christopher Schwarz

Chris Isn’t Here

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I’m traveling for the next 10 days to a wide variety of Southern destinations to do research for a couple books, interview some woodworkers for articles in Popular Woodworking Magazine, record an audio book and eat my entire weight in grits.

So if you send me an e-mail, it’s unlikely that I’m going to get it immediately and even less likely that that I’ll be able to answer it until I return on May 28 (or so). So if you have a workbench emergency, you’ll have to contact Scott Landis. For handplane emergencies, contact Garrett Hack. Toolbox emergencies, Jim Tolpin.

If you miss me, then click on over to Rob Campbell’s blog “The Joiner’s Apprentice,” where he just posted an interview with me. The direct link is… here.

— Christopher Schwarz