Today I signed off on the 11th printing of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” Since 2011, we have printed nearly 30,000 copies of this book. In big-boy-pants publishing terms, that number represents a total and utter failure. Also a failure: Telling the world how many books you’ve really printed.
But <expletive omitted> that.
Those of you who purchased that book are responsible for laying the foundation blocks for what we do here with Lost Art Press. Had I published that book with another publisher, I’d have made about $10,000 (and would be working in retail by now). Because John and I published it ourselves – and you bought it – we made a publishing company instead.
The 10th anniversary of the book is coming up in 2021. We might have to do a revision or (at least) a redesign….
We’ve had a couple people ask what tools they need to make the cherry tool chest built by Whitney Miller in “Make a Swedish Tool Chest” (available at introductory pricing of $35 until Aug. 26) So, below is a list of every tool Whitney picks up on camera. To those you could add a jointer, planer and table saw if you’re going to prep your own material with the aid of power tools – though you could also carefully choose 3/4″- or 7/8″-thick S4S stock at the lumberyard, and glue up panels from that, resulting in minimal prep.
Cutting or marking gauge (Whitney is using a Tite-Mark cutting gauge)
Dovetail template (Whitey is using a 1:4 Crucible Dovetail Template, which matches the angles on the paper template included in the video)
0.5 mm pencil (Whitney is using…several – any will do, but my current faves are Graphgear and Ohto)
Marking knife (Whitney is using a vintage Blue Spruce knife)
Dovetail saw (Whitney is using a Lie-Nielsen non-tapered DT saw)
Coping saw (Whitney is using a Knew Concepts 6-1/2″ saw with an aftermarket handle by Elkhorn Tools, which is no longer)
The coping saw blade is a Pégas 18tpi skip tooth blade (which cuts slowly but cleanly in this 7/8″-thick cherry; the 10 tpi blade would also work, though it would leave a more ragged cut)
Bevel-edge chisels (Whitney is using a 1/2″ Lie-Nielsen socket chisel)
Crosscut saw (Whitney is using Chris’s vintage Wheeler Madden & Clemson)
Mallet for dovetail chopping (Whitney is using a Blue Spruce 16-ou. round mallet)
Smooth plane (Whitney is using a Lie-Nielsen No. 3 in bronze)
12″ adjustable square (Whitney is using a Starrett)
24″ adjustable square – not strictly necessary (Whitney is using a Starrett)
Block plane (Whitney is using a Lie-Nielsen No. 60-1/2)
Jack plane (Whitney is using a vintage Stanley No. 5; I think it’s a Type 11…for the tool nerds among us)
Glue brush (Whitney is using a No. 2 Torrington glue brush. Along a Dixie cup that contains a few ounces of Piggly No Wiggly glue. For the drawers, we used Titebond Original PVA for its quicker setup time.)
Rectangular mallet (In my brief appearance to help knock the case together, I grabbed the Blue Spruce 24-ou. rectangular mallet)
Clamps (we used Bessey K-bodies, aka parallel-jaw clamps)
Paraffin wax (I believe the brand is Gulf)
Drill/driver (Whitney grabbed a 12-volt Milwaukee for light-duty needs, and a 20-volt DeWalt for heavier-duty needs )
Drill bits (we swear by HSS Lipped Imperial Brad-Point Drills from Lee Valley – so I assume Whitney used these)
Countersink (Ours are Insty-Bits)
Slot screwdriver (Whitney used a Grace Gunsmith-style Slot Screwdriver)
16-ounce hammer (Whitney is using a vintage Plumb “Autograph”)
Rabbet plane (Whitney is using a Veritas Skew Rabbet plane, which technically is a moving fillister plane)
6″ adjustable square (Whitney is using a Starrett)
Plough plane (Whitney is using a vintage Record No. 043)
Small router plane (Whitney is using a Lie-Nielsen No. 271 open mouth)
Centering punch, not strictly necessary…but awfully fun to use (Whitney is using a Starrett No. 819 Automatic Center Punch)
A pocketnife and needle-nose pliers (while installing the traditional ring pulls – I have no idea what brands)
Also shown throughout are a Crucible Lump Hammer, Crucible Holdfasts and a Benchcrafted Moxon Vise. The bench is Christopher’s “Anarchist’s Workbench.”
I think I got them all – if I missed any, my apologies (and I’m sure someone will let me know).
If this were corporate America, I would have been fired either today or on the Tuesday after Christmas (let him have a nice holiday with his family before we can him).
Lost Art Press shrank about 6 percent in 2023 across the board – that’s sales, revenue, numbers of orders and visitors to our website. So far this year, we’ve shipped out 43,341 books, tools, posters and T-shirts directly to woodworkers (I don’t yet have the numbers for what we shipped to our wholesale customers). That’s about 6 percent down from last year.
In corporate media, shrinking is unacceptable. You have to grow top-line revenue every year and maintain your profit margin – or increase it. Sometimes the goal that was handed down was to grow by 5 or 10 percent during a year, without additional expenses.
Why did we shrink? Because we grew in other ways. We bought a building so we could bring our fulfillment operations back in-house – where they belong. Megan, John and I stuffed a lot of boxes this year and attended a lot of construction-site meetings when we could have been making books or videos.
We also grew as an organization. We added two employees – Mark and Gabe – who run the fulfillment side of our operation. All our employees have company-sponsored health insurance (even though we aren’t required to offer it because of our company’s small size). And everyone started the job with vacation days in the bank.
How we judge success is – thankfully – different than in corporate media. Here’s how I evaluate our year:
Are we eating, paying our bills on time and enjoying what we do?
Do we have enough money in the bank so we can make good books, tools and the like?
What are customers complaining about? Are we getting more or fewer complaints than last year?
Are our authors happy with the royalties on their book(s)?
Do we have enough challenging projects ahead to keep life interesting?
Would I rather push a broom at Costco?
By these measures, Lost Art Press had a good year. To be sure, we had some flubs along the way. Both Megan and I failed to get our primary book projects to press. Both “The American Peasant” and “Dutch Tool Chests” were supposed to be out this year. Not to mention Vol. 2 of “The Stick Chair Journal.”
All three projects are entering the third trimester. We should begin pushing any time now.
So what’s ahead for next year?
We hope the Anthe building will be stabilized and fully operational by the end of January.
Matt Cianci’s book “Set & File” will be out in February.
“The American Peasant” will be out in March.
Other projects will follow: “Dutch Tool Chests,” “Stick Chair Journal,” a new book from Jim Tolpin and Geo. Walker, and full-length videos on building the Anarchist’s Workbench and my Hobbit-inspired stick chair.
I’ll start working on my next book (it’s a pocket book on finishing à la “Sharpen This”).
We also hope to release our claw hammer, plus a couple canvas accessories for your tool chest.
Will we be able to do all that? I hope so. But if we don’t, no one’s getting fired.
During the last 13 years, I don’t think we’ve made a profit on T-shirts, but they are fun and we end up with some high-fashion rags in the end.
We’re making these new shirts through a print-on-demand service, which is why we can offer so many colors and sizes from XS to 4XL. But because of the way the shirts are made, here are some important details:
We cannot accept returns on these shirts unless they are defective. So please check the sizes and colors with care. These shirts are cut slimmer than some other brands. The sizing is similar to the American Apparel shirts we used to sell.
The logos and wording are in black on all the shirts. So the contrast will be low if you put a black logo on a dark blue shirt. We like this effect, which is why we offer it. We couldn’t offer both white and black logos because of the technical limits of the print-on-demand service. Apologies.
During the last 13 years we’ve had many requests to bring back old designs. Getting these shirts back in the store took a shirtload of technical work from Megan Fitzpatrick and John Hoffman. We had to find old files, rebuild certain images and then clear a bunch of technical hurdles to integrate the print-on-demand service with our store. Fingers crossed it all works.
We’ve a last-minute cancellation for Kieran Binnie’s Anarchist’s Tool Chest class, Sept. 23-27 at the Lost Art Press Storefront. The class is $900 plus $500 for materials (which we got today – gorgeous sugar pine from California).
Here’s the description from our now-defunct Eventbrite page:
Join Englishman Kieran Binnie to build a full-size English tool chest (a.k.a. “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest”) with his assistants Christopher Schwarz and Megan Fitzpatrick.
This class is all about the dovetails (and building a traditional chest to hold around 50 hand tools) – you’ll get plenty of practice hand-cutting this joint on the carcase, skirts and dust seal, plus you’ll build a bomb (and butt) proof raised-panel lid to top it off. Though we will have time to build only the outside of the chest, you’ll see some options in the Lost Art Press shop for outfitting the interior.
Kieran Binnie is a woodworker and writer. Kieran’s love of hand tool work started when he enrolled at renowned Totnes School of Guitarmaking in Devon, England, and his interest expanded from lutherie to furniture making following classes with Christopher Schwarz and Roy Underhill. He writes a weekly woodwork blog (overthewireless.com) and is a regular contributor to Furniture & Cabinetmaking Magazine and to Popular Woodworking. He is also working on a forthcoming book on the history of books and bookcases for Lost Art Press.
* Apologies in advance for the comic stylings of Christopher Schwarz and Megan Fitzpatrick, who will be on hand to assist as needed, and translate from rebate to rabbet, cramp to clamp, centimeters to inches and so on.