I love all the little custom touches people add to their Dutch tool chests – drawers, tissue dispensers (no lie) and the various tool racks. On Saturday, I got to see a new variation on the lid.
During our most recent open day, we had a bit of an invasion force from Canada, with a supporting force from their U.S. friend. Jeremy (@jmawworks) bought along his Dutch tool chest and a chair he’d recently built with Caleb James. Ric (@fairwoodworking) brought along a bunch of of his lathe-less pencils and pens.
This isn’t the first time that people have turned our open day into a show-and-tell event. And we love it.
The lid on Jeremy’s Dutch chest is interesting because it is hinged from the front edge. You pull the lid toward you. And there’s a massive chisel rack on the inside of the lid. Clever.
In the second video, he shows off the drawer in the compartment below and uses the word “unit” one too many times for my tastes.
At parties put on by my wife’s co-workers, who are television journalists, people sometimes ask me what I do for a living (and sometimes they don’t – the black beard is off-putting). After I explain the woodworking and writing thing, they follow up with:
Like sports? Nope.
Play golf? Nope.
What church do you go to? None.
Belong to any clubs? Nah.
Politics? Please no.
Hobbies? Woodworking.
I then salute them for trying. I honestly am the most boring person in social situations. To be fair I enjoy music and food at a deep level. But that never comes up when the Reds are in last place in the league (information that Lucy has supplied to me).
Here’s how twisted it gets. As a relief from the stress of making furniture for a living, I make furniture. I usually keep a chair or two in parts under my bench that I can pull out when I have a few minutes at the end of the day. Working out a crazy angle or joint gives me immense peace.
It’s a guilty pleasure. These pieces rarely make me any real money – I give them away or sell them for the cost of materials. But I honestly think they keep me out of therapy and off medication. And I can honestly see how our craft helps people who suffer from PTSD, depression, addiction or worse.
I know it sounds like I’m warming you up for a book like “Shopcraft as Soulcraft,” or some such. But scratch that idea. I don’t think those “why we make stuff” books are for people who actually make stuff. Those books are intended only to create more thinking about making – not actual making. (Apologies. I know people love those sorts of books, but they don’t do much for me.)
If you really have the urge to make stuff, nothing can stop you. And honestly, you don’t need a book (not even a Lost Art Press book) to get started. A knife and a stick of wood is impetus enough. The rest will follow. It always does.
OK, I need you to sod off now. I have a tricky angle to work out on this Irish chair tomorrow (after I do 100 other things to make some money). And I need to dream of sticks, holes and really weird drilling angles.
The No. 1 complaint we get these days is from people who are impatiently waiting for a book or tool that we’re still working on. While we try to answer as many of these questions as possible, I thought it time to update our readers on why things seem slower than usual.
Printing Plant Woes We use two printing plants, and both are experiencing difficulties. Our Tennessee plant has been purchased by new owners (a private equity firm) and they threw out the printing schedule for the first half of 2019. Our Michigan plant is dealing with a different challenge. Because of the closure of other printing plants, the Michigan plant has been slammed with work, slowing all the jobs.
We have been looking for alternatives, but finding the right quality at the right price takes time. Switching printing plants isn’t as easy as changing your underwear. It’s more like changing spouses (or so I hear).
Changing House Both John and I are in the midst of selling our houses and moving to new digs. Lucy and I are getting our Ft. Mitchell home ready for sale and are working to make the apartment above the Lost Art Press storefront livable (or at least not completely like camping). So patching, painting, dealing with contractors, real estate agents and the like have slowed me and John significantly.
Other Family Stuff I try not to let my personal life leak into the blog, but the last two years have been a trial. Taking care of my father until his death last February was part of it. But just as significant has been trying to settle his estate, sort out all his possessions and take care of my duties as the executor and a trustee of the trusts he set up. I spend a significant amount of time each week working with attorneys, bankers, tax accountants and money managers. The estate and trust do not represent a lot of money, but they are a huge black hole of time and energy. And I don’t see that black hole closing up soon.
So all this is to apologize. Projects that should be done (“Make a Chair from a Tree,” “The Anarchist’s Design Book” expansion and the other 21 active book projects in our queue) are moving at a slow pace. And things will be slow until John and I are settled in our new homes, the printing plants get their schedules evened out and the lawyers stop sending me emails every day asking for form 27B/6.
I suspect this blog entry will generate a host of comments along the lines of: “Any word on Andrew Lunn’s saw book….” and the like. My answer is going to be: Please re-read this entry.
I hope this helps explain why we’re behind schedule and allays any concerns that we are losing interest in the business. Nothing could be further from reality.
You can now buy “The Book of Plates” by A.-J. Roubo for just $49 – a significant savings from the regular $120 price. This the first sale we’ve had since we started Lost Art Press in 2007, and it likely will be the last.
This is a huge book – 11” x 17”. Printed in the United States on #100 Mohawk paper. Sewn and bound in Michigan. Beautifully made.
The book features all of the drawings (called “plates”) from André Roubo’s masterpiece “l’Art du menuisier.” There are detailed drawings of every kind of furniture form, plus tools, interior trim and architectural woodwork, carriage making, marquetry and garden furniture. It’s a fascinating and illustrated look into the 18th century world of material culture and woodwork.
Why is it on sale? We ordered way too many – a huge mistake. And the storage fees are significant for this book because of its size. Our choice: recycle the books for pulp or try to sell them at a crazy low price. We chose the latter because we hate to see such workmanship destroyed.
This is the last chance you’ll have to buy this book new. We won’t be reprinting it. So order now (or email us in 10 years begging us to reprint it….).
Recently I wrote about the vintage chalkboard protector I use for laying out precise angles in woodworking. Now Ed Sutton at FirstlightWorks makes a version that is far nicer than my old screen-printed tool.
The Firstlight protractor is laser cut from 6mm birch ply and is 12” long along its baseline. The large size is what gives these tools their advantage. Suddenly, marking an angle to a third of a degree is child’s play.
Ed sells them to customers inside the UK plus those in Europe and the U.S. After the currency conversion, the protractor cost me a bit more than $40 (which includes shipping). It’s a small price to pay for the precision.
I ordered one today. Full confession: This is a tool we had considered making for Crucible. Ed beat us to it. Nice work, Ed.
