Robert Wearing’s “The Essential Woodworker” is back in stock in the Lost Art Press online store. We went out of stock last year after a surprising rush of sales on the title.
“The Essential Woodworker” was the second book we published, and it is still one of the first books I recommend to people who want to learn to work with hand tools.
While there are lots of good books that show how to buy the tools and set them up, “The Essential Woodworker” is fantastic because it shows you how the whole system works. Using handsaws, planes and chisels in your work is not just swapping things out for your table saw and sander.
The processes and the order of operations are fundamentally different – especially layout. Once you know when to plane, when to cut joints and when to assemble, then handwork becomes much more efficient. The book is a quick read – mostly hand-drawn illustrations – but it will change the way you think about hand work.
If you haven’t checked out this book, it’s just $29 and available now in our store.
The Lost Art Press storefront in Covington, Ky., will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday for all your book-browsing, woodworking-question needs.
We have our entire line of books on display, and they can be purchased with cash, check or credit card. We’re also available to answer questions, demonstrate woodworking techniques and even teach you a skill or two. Kids and pets are always welcome.
We have lots of projects ongoing in the shop. Megan is finishing a tool chest. Brendan will be finishing a five-legged staked chair. And I’m deep in a huge campaign chest commission.
If you need some sweetener to get your family to come along, we have one word for you: brunch.
Saturday Brunch in Covington
We are surrounded by some of the best brunch places in the city. Here’s a quick list of our favorites.
Ottos’s. Getting in for brunch at Otto’s is tough on Sundays. Not so much on Saturdays. The lemon ricotta pancakes are amazing, as is the breakfast casserole.
Main Street Tavern. As we are furniture makers and writers, we love the bargain brunch at Main Street. Really, everything is great. The waffles are fantastic. The hash special is always good. My personal favorite is the biscuit sandwich with fried chicken.
Libby’s Southern Comfort. This place just opened. We tried it for lunch and we cannot wait to try brunch.
Coppin’s at Hotel Covington. Breakfast and brunch at Coppin’s are a real treat for us. I could eat the Benedict with goetta and spinach every day.
Here are a few images that have been sitting in the “misfits and miscellaneous” drawer of my digital files.
Dog bone lifts are perfectly fine, but why not take a hint from a sailor’s sea chest and liven up the lifts on your tool chest? Fashion the cleat in the form of a lady’s hand, carve symbols on the cleat and add a knotted becket. Quaffing a tot of rum is optional.
Constantin Brancusi.
Constantin Brancusi returned to using wood for his sculptures in the mid-1910s when he was in his mid-to-late thirties. He salvaged huge oak beams from demolition companies in Paris. I happen to like Brancusi, but I sure some woodworkers look at the photo and think “that could have been used for workbenches!”.
‘Bottega di mio padre’ by Bruno da Osimo, 1937, imuseiofficinecreative.it.
Bruno da Osimo paid tribute to his father, a carpenter, with this xylograph of his father’s shop.
Raffaele da Brescia, 1507, Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Siena, Italy.
This detail is from a Choir’s desk and is a masterpiece of marquetry work. An imperious tabby cat is framed by columns lined up like soldiers and an archway that recalls the sun. The artist did not forget the cat’s whiskers, a most important detail.
From ‘The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents’ by Edward Topsel, 1658. From Duke University Libraries on Internet Archive
Topsel (or Topsell) used woodblock illustrations from earlier works by Swiss physician Konrad Gesner. The book repeats many fanciful ideas about cats and other animals, but I think the figure of the cat is spot on. And this phrase, “The tongue of a Cat is very attractive and forcible like a file…” is certainly true.
Photo by Stephani Diani, New York Times, 8 July 2017.
Lynn Ahrens pointed out this folk art cat as one of her favorite things in her New York apartment. The reason: it reminded her of her late cat Alfie. I can sympathize with her as I am currently cat-less. Cat figures are fairly common in folk art collections and they always bring a smile. The head may be too big or the tail inordinately long, but they are all unmistakably cats.
Now for something that is just wrong, wrong, wrong. While researching information on Biedermeier chairs this popped up.
Chair socks.
Do you have a problem with your chairs scratching the floor or making too much noise? Put some chair socks on them! You can choose from five patterns and be matchy-matchy with your cat. Is this a portent of the coming apocalypse?
I just completed this staked armchair this morning and it will go out to a customer tomorrow (I hope).
When I designed this chair for the revised edition of “The Anarchist’s Design Book,” the goal was to make a staked armchair that was decently good-looking but as easy as possible for a new chairmaker to build.
As a result, many of the details of the chair are based on what sort of material is available to every woodworker. For example: The crest rail – sometimes called the “comb” — is cut from 8/4 solid material. I think it looks quite good as-is, but my typical instinct is to make combs from something thicker or to steam-bend them. But 8/4 material is simple to come by. In fact, the entire chair is built from one board of 8/4 oak and seven dowels.
Yes, the sticks start out as dowels that have been selected for dead-straight grain. Again, dowels are not my first choice when designing a chair, but using them removes a barrier faced by many beginning chairmakers. Beginners might not have access to a shavehorse, lathe with a steadyrest or even rived material. The dowels are scraped and shaved so they have a little entasis, but yeah, they’re dowels.
I’ve now built a bunch of these chairs and have (I hope) made almost all the common mistakes this design presents. So I’m ready to teach classes on how to build it (the first class is in March) and complete the chapter on this chair for “The Anarchist’s Design Book.”
I’m also ready to push this design in a different direction. My sketchbook is clogged with details related to this chair that I have put off as I refined this single form. My next stick chair will be in black walnut and have significant changes to the armbow, doubler, stick arrangement and crest rail. I hope it’s not a complete fiasco. If it is or it’s not, you’ll find out here.
This song is dated 1873-1900 and was taught in kindergartens associated with the International Kindergarten Union.
We have the lyrics but not the score. Is anyone familiar with the song? Although the records show the song was taught in the United States the origin may have been Germany (where the kindergarten movement started).
The hands at the top indicate the possibility of hand movements to go along with the progression of the song (as in Itsy-Bitsy Spider or Here’s the Church-Here’s the Steeple-Open the Doors and See All the People).
We are surrounded by some of the best brunch places in the city. Here’s a quick list of our favorites.
