There are many ways to mark centerlines on workpieces that are square, round or octagonal. But we wanted a simple, compact, dedicated and beautiful tool for this everyday job.
The Crucible Center Square is based on a vintage tool owned by a bodger friend. His tool was compact but had a weight and shape that made it feel like a worry stone in your hand. The bodger wouldn’t part with his (we don’t blame him), so we decided to make our own.
The underside of the Crucible Center Square.
Our Center Square comes in two versions. The smaller one (now available) is machined from a solid chunk of steel in Kentucky. It measures 3-1/4″ long x 1-5/8″ wide x almost 3/8″ thick overall. The working area of the blade is 2-7/16″ long and includes a 1/8″ hang hole. It is ideal for chairmakers or turners who need to mark the centers of spindles or sticks for turning or shaving.
The larger one will be available later in 2022.
Using the tool is simple. Press the workpiece against the 90° opening on the underside of the tool. Then scribe a pencil line or knife line along the tool’s blade. Rotate the workpiece and repeat.
In this video, Megan Fitzpatrick walks you through the process:
For the last five weeks we have been shooting and editing a long-form video on how to build a stick chair using simple tools (plus a few – mostly inexpensive – specialty tools that make the job easier, which are covered in the video) with wood from the lumberyard.
The video clocks in at more than four hours long with 18 separate chapters that cover all aspects of construction, from selecting the lumber to applying the finish. The video will be available to stream or download (without any digital rights management). Above is the trailer, which says “Available Now” at the end; you’re getting a sneak peak – it’ll be available on Aug. 15.
Purchasers will also receive a digital file with full-size patterns for the chair shown in the video, which can be printed out at any reprographics firm or office supply store. Plus, notes on the sizes of the chair parts and sources for tools used in the video.
The video will be released on Monday, Aug. 15. For the first two weeks, we will sell it at an introductory price of $50. After that introductory offer, the video (and its downloads) will be $75.
This is our first in-house video for Lost Art Press. For previous videos we hired professional videographers, video editors and sound technicians. While that process produced a slick-looking product, the filming process was difficult and exhausting. Hiring a professional crew is expensive, and so there was always a rush to get the thing shot because of the hourly bill.
Thanks to new technology and a lot of practice on our part during the last two years, we now are confident we can produce high-quality video (and sound) without hiring a crew. As a result, this video was shot in painstaking detail and took five weeks. (It usually takes me two-and-a-half days to build a chair, so this was a sloth-like process.)
We were also able to incorporate graphics and details that had to be glossed over with a professional crew.
This, however, is not cinematic art. (Your spouse will likely sleep through parts.)
I consider the “Build a Stick Chair” video as a companion to “The Stick Chair Book.” But not a substitute. The book took about 56 weeks of work and goes into details that are impossible for a talking head to explain on your television. But the video shows bodily motion in a way that print never can. Some things about chairmaking are so simple if you can just see the process unfold before your eyes.
I’m not saying you should get both the book and the video. Instead, start with the one that appeals to you most. If you are a visual learner, the video is probably the correct choice. If you are first a reader, the book is what I would recommend.
Above is a short trailer I put together that shows some of the processes that are explored in the video. There is a cat in at least one shot.
Thanks to Harper Claire Haynes (our summer intern) who did the bulk of the shooting and editing. And Megan Fitzpatrick, who filled in every day and helped immensely with getting the video into its final semi-polished form.
Last word: Don’t expect a flood of long-form videos from us. Our first love is books. But when we can do a video (and it we think it will help people) we now have the technology and skill to do it.
Fig. 33.1. Good watercolours send a clear message to the prospect that we have “a creative” in charge here. That’s a good thing.
The following is excerpted from “The Intelligent Hand,” by David Binnington Savage – a peek into a woodworking life that’s at a level that most of us can barely imagine. The customers are wealthy and eccentric. The designs have to leap off the page. And the craftsmanship has to be utterly, utterly flawless.
How does one get to this point? And how do you stay there?
One answer to these questions is in this book. Yes, the furniture can be technically difficult to make. But a lot of the hard labor involves some unexpected skills. Listening. Seeing. Drawing. And looking into the mirror and practicing the expression: “And that will cost 20,000 pounds.”
If I were learning to create presentation drawings now, I would probably not be learning analogue skills, but instead go straight to computer-aided design (CAD). A good-quality program that will link properly to a computer-aided manufacture (CAM) program would be the tool here – not a cheap 2D version, but one that will show you the job, turning it around to show it from all angles. I am reliably told that a good two years should see you fluent in CAD. We teach the possibilities of CAD at Rowden, using Rhino, but getting fluent takes time; it’s a complex program.
However this is for Lost Art Press – and doing decent watercolour presentation drawings is getting to be archaic. This is a shame, as good watercolours send a clear message to the prospect that we have “a creative” in charge here. That’s a good thing.
Have a look at nearby printing facilities. Heavy watercolour paper is like thin card stock – it’s so thick. If you can find a printer to accept this thick paper, you can print from CAD using a fine grey outline that can be gone over with pencil and watercolour to a similar effect.
I wrote earlier about the tools and what you are attempting to achieve. Now I will be specific about how these drawings came about.
Fig. 33.2. An old American-made Windsor chair in the studio that I keep as a chair totem. I look at it and take measurements from it when questions come up.
First the chair. I had the sketches; I would never go straight to watercolour without a sketch to work from. I want to improve upon it here, while sticking with what I’ve downloaded [the idea from his mind] to keep the proportions and the idea nice and clear.
The side elevation was first; this was a matter of choosing a scale to draw with. I knew my paper was going to be in landscape orientation, as I want the side elevation with the front elevation alongside so I could transfer dimensions from the first drawing to the second. If need be, I work a plan drawing in there some-where. The layout of the page is critical. So, I chose a scale of 1:5 to nicely fill the page.
I use what is called a scale rule – a triangular cross-sectional rule with several scales; 1:10, 1:7.5 and 1:5 are the three I use most. The paper is A3 (11.7″ x 16.5″) 140 lb. watercolour hot-pressed paper – really heavy and super smooth. I fix it to my cedar double-elephant-sized drawing board on the left in the bottom quarter, fixing on all four corners with translucent drafting tape. Over the years a mound of this tape has built up in this section of the board – a witness to the hundreds of drawings I’ve done on it.
I put the paper on the left to be near the ebony edge of the cedar board on which the T-square slides. I got rid of parallel motions and clever architects’ drawing aids years ago in an effort to have only simple tools that would always be accurate if I held them correctly.
Double elephant – huh?! Well, yes – it’s not a mea-sure often heard now, but it was a size of paper when paper was not measured in A-whatever or inches. In the old days we had elephants as a way to measure the size of a sheet of paper. This is the biggest drawing board I could find; it’s about 42″ x 31″. You need a big drawing board and a block of wood to support it at an angle on your bench. It’s got to be big to do perspective drawings – but that’s for later.
The first line on the page is the floor. I look at how large the chair might be, how high and how wide, then work out where the side elevation should sit on the paper at 1:5. A line for the height of the seat goes in next; here, it’s 14-1/2″; if the seat is to compress when you sit on it, I put this line slightly below the top of the seat.
Fig. 33.3. I’m working on the plan view of the seat.
Now I put two lines down for the back leg and the seat. I look hard at the sketch and how that seat slopes and how the back leg leans way back. Here, I use one of my two big French curves mentioned earlier, the one that is a big spiral, with the radius opening out as you go around it. I used this tool repeatedly on this drawing, as I wanted a family of shapes that would have the same feel, the same DNA.
I do this a lot on chairs when I’ve designed a curved back leg shape – using the curves to develop the front leg and arms, while trying at the same time to use it differently to create different shapes with the same origin.
Having put down the side elevation to the best of my ability, I think about the front elevation and the plan. Chairs are very three-dimensional; they have to look good from all around. This means thinking in three dimensions, accepting that this side elevation has a consequence on the front and plan elevation. You find yourself chasing around the image. Top. Bottom. Side. Side. Top. Bottom. It’s a subtle form of madness.
Bang in the first lines for the front elevation – the baseline or floor. Do this as an extension of the line on which the side elevation sits. Next, put down a centre line at 90°; this places the front elevation there. The front legs are next. I have an old American-made Windsor chair in the studio that I keep as a chair totem. I look at it and take measurements from it when questions come up such as: How wide should a chair be? How high should a seat be? This old chair is strong, light, comfy and good-looking all around. All I have to do is that – but totally differently.
So, the front and back leg positions are added. The front legs are 550mm apart overall, and the back legs lean out, opening the chair back up. I put lines in from the side elevation across to the front to show the top of the crest rail and the bottom back of the seat. OOOooo…this makes a nice square – or it will when I tighten it up. This is what I am doing at this point – tightening up the proportions, hiding squares and rectangles, making shapes I like, then checking them against Euclid.
You can see the seat plan view (at left) going in above the side elevation. Once I positioned the top of a leg on it at a 550mm width, I saw a problem. If that leg is to stay there, the side elevation must change; the leg must come further back. Grrrrr….
Fig. 33.4. I cut a sharp edge on my eraser so I can use it really accurately – just that line. Then, with a really sharp 3H pencil, I set about making the change. It’s always a tussle, and you can see some of my old lines compressed in the paper.
When this happens, you need look at what you have already done and accept that it can be better. On the paper, it’s easy to erase lines. I cut a sharp edge on my eraser so I can use it really accurately – just that line. Then, with a really sharp 3H pencil, I set about making the change. It’s always a tussle, and you can see some of my old lines compressed in the paper.
My drawings are nothing like it, but if you look at great drawings such as Leonardo’s “Vitruvian Man,” you’ll see they often have an air of having been carved in the paper – with many corrections and amendments.
This six-stick comb-back chair is based on two Welsh examples I have studied in person and admired. But it definitely has four feet planted in the Americas as it is made with quartersawn and plainsawn red oak (and was built by a Southern boy).
I built the chair during the filming of our soon-to-be released video about how to build stick chairs, so you will be able to watch every step of the construction process, from choosing the wood to applying the finish (baby photos!).
I am selling this chair for $1,500 via a random drawing. Instructions on purchasing the chair can be found near the bottom of this blog entry. Here are some more details about its design and construction.
This particular chair is set up for general use. The back is fairly upright at 16° off the seat. And the seat tilts at 3°, giving the chair an overall tilt of 19°. The seat is 16-3/4” off the floor to accommodate both short and tall sitters, and the chair is 38-1/2” high overall. So it has a nice presence in a room.
One of the goals with this chair was to make it a bit more roomy. There is 19-1/2” between the arms, and the arm shape is square-ish to accommodate stocky sitters.
All the straight components of this chair were sawn or split out to be as strong as possible. The arms are made from four pieces of quartersawn red oak. All of the chair’s major joints are assembled using hide glue, so repairs in the (far) future will be easy. The chair is finished with a non-toxic soft wax, a blend of beeswax and raw linseed oil that my daughter cooks up here in our shop. The wax is an ideal chair finish. It is not terribly durable, but it is easily renewed or repaired.
The new oil/wax finish looks a wee brash to my eyes right now. But it will mellow quickly as the oil absorbs UV and imparts a little warmth to the oak.
How to Purchase This Chair
This chair is being sold via a random drawing. The chair is $1,500 plus domestic shipping. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.) If you wish to buy the chair, send an email to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 3 p.m. (Eastern) on Thursday, Aug. 11. In the email please use the subject line “Chair Sale” and include your:
First name and last name
U.S. shipping address
Daytime phone number (this is for the trucking quote only)
After all the emails have arrived on Aug. 11, we will pick a winner that evening via a random drawing.
If you are the “winner,” the chair can be picked up at our storefront for free. Or we can ship it to you via common carrier. The crate is included in the price of the chair. Shipping a chair usually costs about $250 to $300, depending on your location.
In the 15 years John and I have run this company, we’ve never had a big “sale” for our books and tools.
Sure, we’ve had to occasionally drop the price on a product we are closing out (remember “The Book of Plates?”). But we’ve tried hard to keep our prices fair and consistent, so that we weren’t treating new customers differently than our existing ones.
Due to a number of crazy business swings caused by the pandemic, paper shortages and labor problems, we are reducing the price of 13 of our books by 40 percent until the end of August 2022. These are not slow-selling books we are trying to offload. The sale includes all of my “anarchist” series books.
Instead, this is a way to reduce inventory that we built up in the dark days of the pandemic. We are now paying a lot to store it in a climate-controlled warehouse, and that expense is becoming annoying. So here is your chance to get some of our best titles at a price you won’t see again.
Prices are effective immediately through midnight Aug. 31, 2022. You can see everything that is on sale on this page. Here are the specifics.
If you have been a long-time customer then you know this is highly unusual. We hope we won’t have to repeat this sort of sale until there is another world-shaking event (which is to say, never).
