Lost Art Press

Update On Your Order & Leather Editions

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We’ve shipped out more than 800 copies of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” from my basement during the last couple weeks, and we are just about caught up with all the orders.

There have been a couple hiccups, and that’s what this blog entry is about.

• If you ordered your book on May 23 and haven’t received it, send a note to john@lostartpress.com. For some reason, some of those orders didn’t get processed correctly.

• If you ordered a copy of our “Sawing Fundamentals” DVD and you haven’t received your order, it’s now on its way. We just received stock of that DVD this afternoon and fulfilled all those orders.

• If you aren’t in one of those other two categories and haven’t received your book, hang tight. We ship our books via “media mail,” which can be as fast as priority mail, or as slow as 10 business days. If you ordered your book before June 7 and it doesn’t show up by June 18, please let us know.

And finally, I have an update on the leather-bound edition of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” I dropped off the unfinished book blocks to the bindery today and they should be done within six weeks. The price will be a flat $185, which will include shipping and insurance in the United States.

If you ordered a leather-bound volume, you’ll get an update via e-mail before we ship your book.

Many customers have asked if we will do a second run of leather-bound volumes. The answer is: perhaps. We don’t have any more book blocks from the first edition. However, if we run a second printing, we’ll consider a leather-bound edition in a different color of leather.

For those of you who are printing nerds, the bindery designed a cover that uses a sans-serif font for the spine and cover board of the leather edition. It’s a little bolder than the font we used on “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” edition. I like it.

Thanks to everyone for your patience on shipping.

— Christopher Schwarz

Mouldings: Help Us Get it Right

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This year Lost Art Press has two books coming out on mouldings – understanding, designing and making them. But if you have ever delved into the world of cavettos, scotias, astragals and toruses (tori?), then you know that the lexicon can be off-putting.

Or even impenetrable.

We are determined to publish an excellent glossary with these books, and we’d like your help. Starting this evening I’m going to post a term and a proposed definition. If you have anything that you think should be added or changed, please leave a comment.

Commenters who are particularly helpful will receive free stuff. What defines “helpful?” I don’t know yet. What is “free stuff?” Depends. Free books, T-shirts, hats, smack and blow.

So here’s the first definition:

facial angle: The angle at which a moulding or grouping of mouldings are viewed. Mouldings that all fall in a consistent facial angle are more pleasing than those that jut out or are radically inset from the facial angle.

Thanks in advance for your help.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Tool and Not the Master

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“Broadly, the revival implies a rebellion against inutilities, a conviction that machinery must be relegated to its proper place as the tool and not the master of the workman, that the life of the producer is to the community a more vital consideration than the cheap production which ignores it, and that thus the human and ethical considerations that insist on the individuality of the workman are of the first importance.”

— C.R. Ashbee, “An Endeavour Towards the Teachings of John Ruskin and William Morris”

On Fancy Tool Chests (and Box Tarts)

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When I work in the shop or on my laptop, I find that I do a lot of staring.

As I assemble a project, I often catch myself just staring at the parts or the assemblies for many long minutes until I shake myself out of the fugue state. I don’t know what the heck I’m doing. Processing things? Getting used to their shape? Evaluating? Brain farting?

But I do the same thing when I’m writing. I end up staring at a lot of photos and sentences at times. Again, it’s like my brain is on “pause.”

The end result, however, is that I get some small insights from my mouth-breather behavior. At least, I think I do.

I did a lot of staring at tool chests and tools as I wrote “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” (which is perhaps why it took 14 months to complete). As I gazed on the beautiful inlaid chests and then the chests with pedestrian guts, something clicked in my head.

The fancy chests were mostly in books. The plain chests were mostly ones I had seen in person.

In fact, the only real fancy chests I had encountered “in the wild” were at John Sindelar’s Tool Museum. Sindelar has a taste for tools that range from the refined to the outrageous. But he doesn’t collect many plain things.

Tool chests that are plain – both inside and out – are what you will find at flea markets, antique store and at many tool meets. They are painted on the outside and plain pine on the inside. The only vibrant color inside is usually the stains of hard use.

After much staring at chests, I realized that simple and plain chests are the dominant form, easier to build and just as useful as a chest that is inlaid with pearl and ebony.

And while my tool chest is as plain as I could manage, that doesn’t mean I dislike the fancy chests. Far from it.

This weekend while at Sindelar’s museum I made a visual inventory of his chests on display (he has many more in storage, including an awesome one with secret compartments).

By far, my favorite chest in Sindelar’s collection is the one he calls the “seven tarts” chest. The interior of the chest is moderately elaborate, with some inlay on the sliding tills. But the highlight of the chest is a series of seven frames planted on the inside of the lid. Each frame features a photo of a different woman (real or sculptural). It’s not pornographic (unlike Sindelar’s mermaid brace), but it is charming.

I’ve included some of the chests on display this weekend at the museum for you to peruse in the gallery above. Just remember while you are staring at these chests that you aren’t going to find this stuff at a garage sale. So keep staring.

— Christopher Schwarz

Where the Heck is My Book?

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The good news: The U.S. Postal Service is delivering copies of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” at a quick clip. We dropped the first load into the mailstream on Saturday afternoon and already we are hearing from people who have received it.

That is remarkable considering we sent the book via Media Mail and that Monday was a holiday. I guess John Hoffman’s flirting with the postal workers on the dock really paid off (and yes, Pat, I can get you John’s number).

Today I dropped off two more huge loads of books – all my car could carry – and we are almost caught up on sending out all the pre-orders. The only thing stopping us is that we have depleted the local supply of boxes that fit our book.

Other news:
• I’ll be getting estimates of the costs for our leather-bound version of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” tomorrow. If you are on the list, you will hear from us shortly with an update.

• I began milling the pine for the 6’ dividers we will have in our booth at Woodworking in America.

• I will find more boxes tomorrow, even if I have to go to an office products superstore and donate several pints of various bodily fluids. I’m a quart high on bile right now, anyway.

— Christopher Schwarz