As the public school is the lever by which the improvement of society must be worked, every effort to provide means of training for those who would otherwise be without it—every endeavour to give the children of the poor useful knowledge of common things—merits the support of every educational influence. And this brings us to the practical observation that toys ought to be made to advance education, whereas a majority of those furnished to children in this country do more harm than good. At least half of them should be burnt ignominiously as early corrupters of public taste.
(more…)
Search Results for: cat
The Making of a Cabinetmaker – Part I
I took kindly to woodworking. In fact, I was brought up in the woods until I was seven years of age. During these first seven years of my life I saw my father only occasionally, for he was a cabinetmaker by trade and worked in a smart little town about sixty miles distant from our forest farm and came home after intervals of about six weeks to remain with us but a day or two. When I was about seven years old my mother died and the remainder of the family father took with him to the town where he worked.
I went to school, but had a chance to run in and out of the shop as I pleased, and just about as the child learns to speak his mother’s language by sights and sounds long before it is sent to school, so I learned a great deal about cabinetmaking long before I took any tools in my hand to actually learn the trade.
(more…)
Last Day for Free Shipping on ‘Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!’
Midnight tonight (Nov. 29, 2014) is the last time you will see free domestic shipping on Roy Underhill’s “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!” The book is $29. Shipping and handling fees will be about $7.
To give you a further taste of this funny book, today I took our video camera to the home of Megan Fitzpatrick, who edited the book for us. Megan read one of her favorite chapters. It’s a bit long, but it’s a good one.
While she was reading it I laughed at a joke in the chapter I hadn’t caught before: Brown University. See if you can catch the joke in the reading. The book is absolutely filled with little things like this that you don’t get unless you read it with care.
I’d say that Roy is the Thomas Pynchon of woodworking novelists, but as this is the first-ever woodworking novel, he’s also the Danielle Steel of woodworking novelists.
Anyway, enjoy Megan’s scolding of her cat JJ at the beginning of the video.
“Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!” is available from the Lost Art Press store and our other retailers.
— Christopher Schwarz
Dirty Shops and Slovenly Workmen
Charles Reade has asserted that workmen are a dirty set and a reckless set. Is this true of American workmen? His observations have been confined to English workmen; would he have occasion to modify the general character of his statement were he to visit and inspect American shops?
Candidly we must say there would be too much in the general want of cleanliness and order in our workshops to justify the assertion. The shops in which cleanliness and order prevail are rather the exception than the rule; and the individual workman who, in the midst of all the carelessness which prevails in this regard, maintains a scrupulous care for personal cleanliness, order in the arrangement of tools, and method in the performance of his work, may be regarded as a rising man.
(more…)
The Aumbry Makes the Cover
The aumbry from the upcoming “Furniture of Necessity” book is featured on the cover of the February 2015 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, which will mail to subscribers later this month.
My article discusses the history of the aumbry and how to build it. The book version will be much expanded and more detailed, as I’ll have about 10 times the space. Still – I think it’s a good magazine article; even beginners will be able to tackle the project with the magazine article.
I have to thank Editor Megan Fitzpatrick personally for taking a gamble on this project. Few people have ever heard of an aumbry, and fewer people would tell you they love Gothic furniture. I think the stuff is the cat’s meow. It’s fun to build and uses simple geometry and basic tools to design and construct.
I was allowed to read over the entire February issue before it went to press and was quite impressed (perhaps a bit professionally jealous). There’s a fantastic myth-busting article on teak oil, an excellent piece on making your own copper hardware with simple tools and Peter Follansbee shows you how to build his cool Chinese firewood carrier.
If you don’t subscribe, or if you have let your subscription lapse, this is the time to rectify that. Megan is steering the magazine to explore areas outside the traditional Shaker, Arts & Crafts and Period styles (though those will always be part of the magazine’s fabric). Look for some Japanese, Mid-century Modern and Ruhlmann stuff in forthcoming issues.
OK, back to the shop. I’ve got another project to build for Popular Woodworking.
— Christopher Schwarz