Lost Art Press

Don Weber’s Slides (Part 1)

Posted on by Kara Uhl
“Pile of chairs”
Closeup of Men Shoveling Chairs (Scupstoel), Circle of Rogier van der Weyden, possibly Vranke van der Stockt (Netherlandish, ca. 1420–1495)

While working on Don Weber’s profile for The Stick Chair Journal No. 4, Don told me that he had a carousel of slides that might of  interest. These were images he used during a talk he gave with Michael Dunbar, and, he believes, Jennie Alexander, at a chair symposium at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library.

Don has always enjoyed reading and is well known for his extensive collection of books on the craft, including many rare and first-edition books. Many of those books were lost in a 2010 flood that sent four-and-a-half feet of water, mud and oil (there was an auto repair shop across the street) into Don’s shop. He tried to salvage what he could. Many of the images on these slides were pulled from those now-lost books.

We pored over these images and thought you might like to as well. Some have captions from Don (in quotes), some have captions from us, some have no captions at all.

Enjoy!

— Kara Gebhart Uhl

“Turned chair, 14c”
Maastricht Book of Hours, BL Stowe MS17

“Joseph the carpenter”
Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece), Workshop of Robert Campin Netherlandish, ca. 1427– 1432

“Monks riving”
Cistercian monks at work, 12th century, Cîteax Moralia in Job, 1111

“A monk turning rosary beads”
Hausbuch der Mendelschen Zwölfbrüderstiftung, Band 1, Nürnberg 1426 – 1549, Stadtbibliothek Nürnberg, Amb. 317.2°

“Turned table elements”
The Young Virgin, Francisco de Zurbarán, Spanish, ca. 1632 – 33

“Turned and frame & panel chair”

“Ladderback chair”
Interior with Woman Cooking, Esaias Boursse, 1631 – 1672

“Turned chair, 12c”

from Ständebuch (The Book of Trades), Jost Amman and Hans Sachs, 1568

The Pewter Potter, Ständebuch (The Book of Trades), Jost Amman and Hans Sachs, 1568

Tornarius. Der Holtzdreher (The Turner), Ständebuch (The Book of Trades), Jost Amman and Hans Sachs, 1568

“Bow lathe, Eastern”
De Stoelemaaker (The Chairmaker), Het Menselyk Bedryf (The Book of Trades), Jan Luyken and Caspar Luyken, 1694

“Chairmakers’ shop”
L’art du Tourneur mécanicien, Père Hulot, 1775

“A closer look at the chairmakers’ shop”
L’art du Tourneur mécanicien, Père Hulot, 1775

“Turner’s shop”
A turner’s workshop, Robert Bénard after Lucotte

“De Draajer” (The Turner), Het Menselyk Bedryf (The Book of Trades), Jan Luyken and Caspar Luyken, 1694

A turner’s workshop, Robert Bénard after Lucotte

Stent panel

Stent panel

Plate 13 from M. Hulot’s “L’Art du Tourneur Mécanicien” (1775)

Plate 13 from M. Hulot’s “L’Art du Tourneur Mécanicien” (1775)

Plate 13 from M. Hulot’s “L’Art du Tourneur Mécanicien” (1775)

Plate 13 from M. Hulot’s “L’Art du Tourneur Mécanicien” (1775)

Plate 13 from M. Hulot’s “L’Art du Tourneur Mécanicien” (1775)

“Lathe construction”
Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, edited by Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert

“Poppets up close”

“Bow lathe parts”
Recueil de planches, sur les sciences, les arts libéraux, et les arts méchaniques: avec leur explication, edited by Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert

L’art du Tourneur mécanicien, Père Hulot, 1775

“Moxon, great wheel lathe”
Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises,” 1680

“Dominy lathe, Winterthur Museum Garden & Library”

“The Book of Trades or Library of Useful Arts,” 1807

“Dutch turner, flywheel lathe”

Squirrel Chair For Sale

Posted on by Katherine Schwarz

Last month, I went to Nashville where Travis Curtis taught a group of fellow woodworkers and me how to build a Jennie Chair and, for better or for worse, I decided it should be purple and have squirrels on it. The chair was built, woven and painted purple in five days. Mapping out and painting the squirrel design back at the Willard Street shop took a couple more days.

The chair is painted in plum from Real Milk Paint and finished with a coat of garnet shellac and Soft Wax on top. The details are painted with acrylic paint from Real Milk Paint. The chair’s overall height reaches 33-1/4″, and its width is 18-1/4″. The seat height is 17-1/4″, and the depth is 14-1/2″. The seat is woven with sturdy recycled paper.

The design is Jennie Alexander’s from “Make a Chair from a Tree.”

The back slats hug the body nicely and slightly bend with the sitter. The woven seat has a gentle give to it – not stiff and not loose. The chair is lightweight at 6 pounds.

I chose squirrels as the star rodent for this chair. I wanted to replicate the layout of the hare and flowers on the Irish chair I made earlier this year while also allowing the chair to have its own personality.

This chair is ready to start its life journey with a special someone. I’m selling it via silent auction with the starting bid being $600. The highest bid is the price you will pay. The price includes crating and shipping anywhere to the lower 48 with no additional charges.

If you wish to buy this chair, send and email to [email protected] before 3 p.m. on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. Please use the subject line “Squirrel Chair.” In the email please include your:

  • Bid
  • Name
  • 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. If you’re local to Covington, you can pick it up at our shop.

— Katherine Schwarz

Mind Upon Mind: Stick Diameter Gauge

Posted on by Kara Uhl

Editor’s note: Our Mind Upon Mind series is a nod to a 1937 Chips from the Chisel column (also featured in “Honest Labour: The Charles H. Hayward Years”), in which Hayward wrote, “The influence of mind upon mind is extraordinary.” The idea being there’s often room for improvement. To that end, we’ve asked you what else you have thought of, tried out and improved upon after building projects from our books. To submit your own idea, email [email protected]. You can read more about the submission process here.

Today’s pick is from David Farnum, in Greer, South Carolina. 

— Kara Gebhart Uhl

One of the challenges I have when shaving long sticks is getting a good fit – one that’s not too skinny – where the stick fits into the armbow. For a long time, I drilled a mortise using the same bit as I did for the armbow in a piece of 2x scrap, but the simple slot gauge below makes it much quicker and easier to check the size. I already had the 8″-long piece of maple because that’s what I use to check the height of the armbow. Cutting the slots in that gives me one less thing to keep track of.

The gauge is just a series of notches cut a tiny bit wider than what’s labeled. Making the slots a little bigger keeps me from overshooting – when the stick fits the slot, I can carefully fine-tune the last little bit with a scraper or block plane. The stick doesn’t get jammed like it often did in the mortised 2x scrap and rotating it in the slot quickly shows where the high spots are.

— David Farnum

LAP Open Wire: Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026

Posted on by fitz

Comments are now closed. If we’ve not yet answered your question, we’ll get to it soon! Join us again on October 10.

Welcome to Lost Art Press Open Wire, where until 5 p.m. Eastern, you can ask any and all woodworking questions and questions about Lost Art Press, our cats, Shakespeare (me), Late 19th/early 20th-century Russian literature (Chris), and we and your fellow readers will do our best to answer. Simply post your questions in the comments section below.

Note that there might be a lag between your questions and our answers. Chris is busy building a chair, and I am working on my kitchen renovation.

The remaining Open wire dates for 2026 are:
October 10
December 12

– Fitz

LAP Open Wire Tomorrow (Sat., Aug. 8, 2026)

Posted on by fitz

Tomorrow (Aug. 8) is Open Wire day – a chance for you to ask any and all woodworking questions and get answers from Chris and me, as well as from your fellow woodworkers.

The Open Wire post will be live here on the blog at 8 a.m. tomorrow for you to post questions in the comment section, and we will start answering…as soon as we wake up and log on. I’m sure Chris will also be busy working on a chair tomorrow, and I’ll be working on junk removal from my backyard (my ex-kitchen is stacked up under the porch roof of my garage) and making shelves for the new kitchen. So please bear with us if we don’t get to your question right away. (And if you have an answer for someone else, please do chime in!)

I get to swing a sledgehammer tomorrow morning to flatten the cabinets. Fun! Then they and the rest of the detritus will be hauled away. Yay! (The cat shelters will stay, of course.)

– Fitz