Lost Art Press

The industrial system has brought with it tremendous advantages. It means we are living at a far higher standard of comfort than our forefathers, and with far more leisure. But it is always working towards uniformity, the dead level only minimizes costs and increases output.

If we are going not only to acquiesce but to follow blindly where it leads, then we shall get standardization – and deserve it.

If we, as craftsmen, still keep our judgments keen and our tastes discriminating; if, that is to say, we persist in being individuals still, we can do something to stem the tide. But those children, who have gone out into the very heart of their own land and seen for themselves, and weighed things in the balance as children do, I think they will do even more.

— The Woodworker, April 1940

To be a man is to be responsible: To be ashamed of miseries you did not cause; to be proud of your comrades’ victories; to be aware, when setting one stone, that you are building a world.

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, (1900-1944) French writer, aviator, from “Terre des Hommes” (1939).

In fact it might be said that one cannot do good woodwork and think about the war at the same time. Most readers, of course, have found this out for themselves. When war first came our postbag brought us countless stories from readers, telling us of the wonderful relief they had found in just getting on with their jobs. And in the present violent phase of the struggle calmness comes to those who carry on quietly with their hobbies.

— The Woodworker, July 1940

I will not give away my hard-earned skills to a machine. It’s a bit like robbery with violence, for (machines are) not only intended to diminish my bank balance, but also to steal my power.

— John Brown (1932 – 2009), Welsh stick chairmaker