We have the Lie-Nielsen folks in this weekend for the first Hand Tool Event in at least three years. So we are not able to answer questions online today.
If you are in the area, stop by the storefront and a whole host of people will be happy to answer your woodworking questions.
Megan and I will return next Saturday for Open Wire (I’ll be teaching in Florida next Saturday, but will answer questions in the evening.)
— Christopher Schwarz
I’m always on the lookout for local materials I can use to build stick chairs. Elm is my favorite wood, but it can be difficult to find for purchase.
Last month Shea Alexander of Alexander Bros. gave me a couple boards of honey locust to try out for a chair seat. It looks a lot like elm, with green undertones and slightly shimmering grain.
After surfacing it, I took a chunk and rived it out to see how it split. Unfortunately, it splits easily and cleanly. So it’s still OK for a chair seat (if I’m careful), but not as ideal as elm.
In the video above, I rive out some honey locust, white oak and American elm to show the differences.
Thanks for the wood, Shea. It really is beautiful and interesting stuff.
— Christopher Schwarz
Typically, I’m not a fan of Print on Demand (POD) publishers who take low-quality scans of books in the public domain and sell them alongside antique books. I have been fooled a couple times and ordered a POD book by accident.
But here is one exception. The Forgotten Books website in the UK is a massive collection of public domain works that are well-indexed. There I have found about a dozen woodworking books I had never heard of thanks to the site.
There are school manuals for woodworking, William Fairham’s “Woodwork Joints” and more than 100 others.
If you really want to buy one of these books, go ahead. I can offer no promises on the print quality. However, you can preview each title as a guest, and you get to see quite a lot of the interior of the book. More than enough to decide if it’s a book you are willing to chase down on the secondhand market, or perhaps find through archive.org or one of the many other sites that archive scans.
It’s a big list. I think you’ll enjoy paging through it.
— Christopher Schwarz
The following Covington Mechanicals classes go on sale today at 10 a.m. Eastern. They will likely sell out quickly – some in seconds – so be ready to register. (But before you do, please check your calendar to make sure you can attend the class for which you want to register).
If you don’t get into your desired class, do sign up for the waitlist – because I can’t remember a class in which we didn’t have to fill at least one slot.
• Comb-back Chair Class with Chris Williams, June 24-28
• Carving Oak – 17th-century Style with Peter Follansbee, July 8-11
• Make a Magic Mora Knife with Jögge Sundqvist, Aug,. 26-27
• Karvsnitt: Chip Carving Scandinavian Symbols & Patterns in Wood with Jögge Sundqvist, Aug. 30-31
• Make a Dovetailed Shaker Tray with Megan Fitzpatrick, Dec. 7-8
– Fitz
We are thrilled to host Lie-Nielsen Toolworks this weekend for a Hand Tool Event at our storefront at 837 Willard St. in Covington, Ky. (Details here.)
If this is your first trip to Covington, or you haven’t been here since the pandemic, there is a lot to chat about.
During the last five years, the city has blossomed in many ways (not our doing), and there are somehow even more places to eat and drink within a 5-minute walk of our front door. Here is an updated list of places close by that we recommend and love.
Breakfast
The Anchor Grill: Cash-only diner that is open 24 hours. No yuppies or hipsters.
Pike Street diner: Upscale diner for fancier lads and lasses.
Cedar: Still fancier breakfast spot for brunchers.
Coppin’s: The fanciest breakfast. It’s at the Hotel Covington. Dang good. (Also great for lunch and dinner.)
North South Baking: Great pastries, breakfast sandwiches and coffee.
Point Perk Coffee: All manner of coffee.
Left Bank Coffee: Also good coffee.
Lunch
Olla: Best Mexican food in town. (Also great for dinner.)
Guiterrez: Mexican deli run by the same family that runs Olla.
Empanada’s Box: Fantastic selection of delicious empanadas.
Gyros on Main: Just like it says.
Kung Food: Good Chinese with good beer. (Also good for dinner.)
Thai Pavilion: Good Thai with decent beer.
The Standard: Burgers and fries in a converted gas station.
Kealoha: Healthy and delicious Hawaiian food.
Lorenzo’s: Good sandwich spot.
Dinner
Otto’s: Southern classics.
Libby’s: Fried chicken and other Southern specialties.
Frida 602: Very good gringo Mexican.
Mama’s on Main: Sturdy Italian food.
Larry’s: Our fave dive bar with tater-tot-based cuisine
Dewey’s: Excellent pizza. You can get it at the stand-alone restaurant, or order it from inside Braxton Brewing, the city brewery.
Juniper’s: Gin bar with a great rotating tapas menu.
Zola’s: Straight-ahead, no-apologies bar food.
Riverside Korean: A Covington staple for 20 years.
Drinks
Crafts & Vines: Our local. Great people and good small bites, too.
OKBB: Probably the best bourbon bar in the world.
Vintage: A wild place that sells vintage bourbon.
Braxton Brewing: Solid beer, with a great pizza place inside. Rooftop bar.
Knowledge or Coppin’s: The multiple bars at the Hotel Covington are all excellent.
Second Story Bar: Very nice bar above the Flying Axes bar on Sixth Street.
Fun Stuff
Earth to Kentucky: Toy store on our street. Amazing selection of cartoon-based stuff.
Hail Records and Oddities: If you need vinyl, weird taxidermy, occult stuff, stickers etc., go see Neil.
Hierophany & Hedge: A city landmark and magic shop. Not to be missed.
And then there’s Cincinnati – a whole other world of good food and drink. It is no wonder that it’s difficult to stay thin here.
— Christopher Schwarz