Lost Art Press

For Sale: Comb-back Stick Chair in Sycamore and Oak

Posted on by Lost Art Press

This comb-back stick chair is designed for dining and working at a desk, though its back is leaned back just a bit more to add some comfort.

I’m offering it for sale for $1,500 via a random drawing. The price includes crating and shipping to your door anywhere in the lower 48 states of the U.S. Details on the sale are at the bottom of this entry. First, some notes about the chair.

The chair is made from American sycamore (seat, arms and comb) and dead-straight red oak for the legs, stretchers and sticks. The sticks are shaved and left octagonal. All the tenons are cut slightly proud and burnished. All the chair’s joints are assembled with animal glue, which is reversible, and wedged with hickory wedges selected for arrow-straight grain.

The seat is tilted 2.5°, with the chair’s back tilted 14.5° off the seat, making this a great chair for enjoying a meal or writing a letter. The seat is 17” off the floor, making it comfortable for most sitters. The chair is 40” tall overall.

It is finished in soft wax, a non-toxic finish we make here in the shop. The finish is not terribly durable, but it is easy to repair if you ever damage it. The finish lasts many years if you don’t abuse it, and the oil from your skin enhances it and adds to the luster. THis is a finish that looks better every year.

Like all my chairs, I make them as best I can, but most of the work is by hand. So you will find an occasional stray tool mark or tiny imperfection. These are not left intentionally, but they are the result of hand work.

This is my 19th chair this year.

How to Buy the Chair

The chair is being sold via a random drawing. If you wish to buy the chair, send an email to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 3 p.m. (Eastern) on Friday, Sept. 27. Please use the subject line: “Sycamore Chair.” In the email please include your:

  • U.S. shipping address
  • Daytime phone number (this is for the trucking quote only)

If you are the “winner,” the chair will be shipped to your door. The price includes the crate and all shipping charges. Alternatively, the chair can be picked up at our storefront. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.)

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. You can get free patterns for this chair here.

In 30 Years, Oak Trees Will Have More Woody Biomass

Posted on by Kara Uhl

In an article in “The Conversation,” researchers Rob MacKenzie and Richard Norby, with the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR), shared findings from a recent study published in Nature Climate Change. Their question: How will trees respond to more CO2 in the future?

Their laboratory is a forest in Staffordshire, England. Their equipment, tall pipes that infuse the air with extra CO2. Their samples, 180-year-old English oak (Quercus robur).

“After we increased CO2 levels to what will be the planetary level in the 2050s, trees took more of it from the atmosphere and their wood production increased by 10%,” MacKenzie and Norby wrote.

Several FACE (Free Air Carbon Enrichment) experiments are happening around the world in an attempt to better understand which trees are more likely to thrive in the future. You can learn more about BIFoR FACE here. And you can watch a video about the BIFoR FACE facility here, and a more recent video about BIFoR FACE experiments here.

— Kara Gebhart Uhl

Dovetailed Blanket Chest for Colonial Williamsburg Conference

Posted on by fitz

I’m headed to Virginia this weekend for a few days at Colonial Williamsburg where I’ll be studying, measuring and taking careful notes on all the details of a late 18th/early 19th-century Virginia blanket chest in the CW collection – a chest I’ll be replicating for the 27th Annual Working Wood in the 18th Century Conference, Jan. 23-26, 2025.

The 2025 Conference theme is “To Furnish a Town: High, Low, and In-Between.” At a glance – and that’s all I’ve had so far – I think this chest part of the “in between.” While it’s not a fancy piece, it likely wasn’t made for the least fortunate. I’ll use it as a stepping off point to discuss dovetails (surprise), blanket chests and painted furniture…and will discuss my presentations in more detail when I have more detail. The most difficult thing (other than standing on a stage and speaking to an audience) will, I think, be finding air-dried yellow pine boards wide enough to replicate this piece, which has overall dimensions of 22-5/8″ x 45- 1/2″ x 17-7/8″ – and I might not be able to (in which case I’ll call it a reproduction rather than a replica).

High-style work will be represented by renowned cabinetmaker and teacher Steve Brown, who will present the build of a Virginia cabriole leg dressing table, discussing its design and construction, as well as its relationship to New England examples. And by CW cabinetmakers Bill Pavlak and John Peeler who will trace the evolution of style and construction through the lens of fall-front desks and a drop-leaf dining tables (if you follow Bill and John on Instagram, you’ve seen some of what they’re working on for the conference…at least that’s my guess! And it’s making me anxious, as I’m itching to get working, too!).

Also presenting are CW joiners Brian Weldy and Ayinde Martin, who will demonstrate the sophisticated greenwood turning and joinery techniques from seemingly humble forms, and carpenter Matt Sanbury and others will show how logs were turned into lumber.

You can read more about the 27th Annual Working Wood in the 18th Century Conference and register (for in-person or virtual attendance) at the conference website.

– Fitz

Stick Chair Journal No. 2 Now Shipping

Posted on by Lost Art Press

After an absurd number of delays, The Stick Chair Journal No. 2 is now shipping. The new issue contains complete plans for a Hobbit-esque stick chair, plus lots of photos of original chairs (for inspiration), techniques to help you at the bench and a profile of Welsh chairmaker Gareth Irwin.

The new issue is $25. Because of the arrival of the new issue, we are closing out copies of issue No. 1 at a special price. And offering a bundle of both issues Nos. 1 & 2 for a discount.

Every order of the Journal comes with a pdf download of the Journal itself, plus a pdf download of the full-size patterns for the chair in each issue.

Important note: We have printed 2,000 copies of issue No. 2 of the Journal. Once that press run has been exhausted, we will not reprint this issue.

And if you haven’t noticed, the Journal is the same physical trim size as “Welsh Stick Chairs” and “The Belligerent Finisher” so all your soft-cover stick-chair material is an identical size (for people who are into that – see below).

About Issue No. 2

Not One Chair, But 1,000: Some chairmakers become obsessed with perfecting one form of chair. That’s fine. But stick chairs ask something different from their makers.

‘Preflight’ Avoids Assembly Disasters: The most common problem stick chair makers face is with cracked arms. These simple techniques reduce the chance of a cracked arm to almost zero.

Gareth Irwin, Chairmaker in the Forest: We visit the Wales shop of Gareth Irwin, who builds his chairs entirely by hand. With lots of inspiring photos.

The Tyranny of Tables: The seats of modern chairs are too high (18″) for short sitters. Why don’t we lower the standard seat height of chairs? Simple answer: The dang tables we dine at. We offer a solution.

Stick Chairs in the Wylde: A detailed photographic look at a selection of antique stick chairs from Tim and Betsan Bowen, antique dealers in Ferryside, Wales.

John Brown’s Cardigan Chair: To our surprise, we now own the first chair that John Brown built in the United States. This article is a close examination of the Cardigan chair, both its virtues and faults.

Hobbit-y Armchair: This chair is inspired by a prop from “The Fellowship of the Ring.” It combines elements of British and Germanic elements into a chair (actually, a backstool. Kinda?) that is perfect for the hearth and telling tall tales.

Control the D#^& Tenon Cutter: If you struggle with the Veritas Power Tenon Cutter, this article will set you (and your tenons) straight.

Today I Would Build Some Furniture

Posted on by meghanlostartpress
Dick’s kitchen chair. It resided at his table. (Photo courtesy of the National Park Service)

The following is excerpted from “The Handcrafted Life of Dick Proenneke,” by Monroe Robinson. 

Millions of PBS viewers first met Dick Proenneke through the program “Alone in the Wilderness,” which documents Dick’s 30-year adventure in the Alaskan wilderness. On the shores of Twin Lakes, Dick built his cabin and nearly all of the household objects he required to survive, from the ingenious wooden hinges on his front door to the metal ice creepers he strapped to his boots.

And now, “The Handcrafted Life of Dick Proenneke” examines this adventure through the lens of Dick’s tools and the objects he made. Written by Monroe Robinson – the caretaker of Dick’s cabin and his personal effects – the book weaves together vintage photos and entries from Dick’s journals plus new drawings and images to paint a portrait of a man fully engaged in life and the natural world around him. The italic text after Dick’s journal entries is commentary by Robinson.

June 28, 1968:

Today I would build some furniture. First a kitchen chair and then a bench three feet long. I had them both ready to glue by 11:30. Back on the job I augured the hole for my table legs and the bunk poles were ready. I could sort, cut and fit them in. I’m near the end of the job of building on the cabin until I get a plane, glue and polyethylene for the roof. By the time I had the scraps cleaned up and tools sharpened as I do every evening it was time to call it a day.

Three-foot bench. (Photo by Monroe Robinson)

In 1995, Dick wrote, “My chair still giving trouble. One back rest support broke off at the hole in the seat foundation. I would shorten it a bit and shape a new end to fit in the hole with the broken support end. Working like a beaver when here came a Cessna 180.”

My replicated chair without caribou pad. Note the black bear tooth punctures in the end of the seat. (Photo by Monroe Robinson)

In 2001, a black bear broke the chair when it climbed through Dick’s nine-pane window to pull the chair and its caribou fur pad outside. I repaired Dick’s chair only to have it break when someone leaned back too far. I replicated his chair, repaired this new break and sent Dick’s chair to the archives.

In replicating the chair, I particularly focused on drilling the mortise holes for the legs and back rest at angles matching Dick’s. The chair’s stance, the splay and rake of the legs, along with the angle of the backrest support-post, make it a beautiful and comfortable chair. The back legs splay back a few degrees more than the front legs, and the back legs are slightly shorter. The chair looks simple but most handcrafted chairs at wilderness cabins are not crafted like this. Dick’s matter-of-fact approach did not mean a thrown together, uncomfortable chair. And constructing a handsome chair did not mean taking all day.

When a black bear, in 2015, managed to turn the handle of Dick’s door and pull out my replicated chair with a new caribou pad along with Dick’s four-legged stool with his original caribou pad, it was apparent the fur created an attracting odor. All fur was removed from Dick’s cabin.