Good news: We have 250 more sets of Design Curves in stock in our store. They are $37 a set plus shipping.
If you make chairs or curvaceous furniture, you’ll find these curves a nice addition to your tool kit. They are designed for woodworking – not drafting. Unlike drafting curves, ours don’t have the weird ink ledge, which is designed to prevent ink from smudging. The ink ledge also makes the curves less accurate (thank you, parallax).
Plus, ours are wood, not plastic. Well, actually they are a seven-layer bamboo ply (bamboo is a grass). They are durable, stay fairly flat and the world ain’t gonna run out of bamboo.
These curves are laser-cut here in Covington, Ky. Then I sand them on both faces to #220 grit to remove all the burn marks and dress the edges by hand to remove the extra carbon from the laser-cutting.
In other Crucible news, we are working on our next batch of lump hammers. We hope to have another group ready in the next week or so. Stay tuned for more news.
Also, if you have a question about Crucible Tool stuff, be sure to send it to help@crucibletool.com (not to Lost Art Press). We have different people managing each site, and we want to make sure we get your question answered promptly.
(Jonathan Fisher’s) notebooks are also full of artistic flourishes. For Fisher, mathematics was more than raw numbers – it explained the beauty of the world around him. – JONATHAN FISHER MEMORIAL.
Fisher’s biographers have dealt extensively with his academic interests, especially mathematics and science. The archives at the Fisher House are full of notebooks of geometry lessons, surveying formulas and navigational methods from his studies at Harvard. Notebooks from his time in Blue Hill also show elaborate calculations and scale drawings – even for simple projects such as outbuildings.
Fisher made an orthographic projection of his barn in one of his notebooks 30 years after it was built. – JONATHAN FISHER MEMORIAL.
His fascination with natural science is evident from weather records, drawings and notes about animals he studied, and the almost-clinical observations he made in his journal about his ailments and physical condition. One of the most vivid examples of his analytical mind can be seen in a journal entry from Nov. 29, 1824, only days after the death of his daughter, Sally. Here he wrote, “In the evening while calm in mind and not then thinking particularly of my deceased daughter, a great heat came over my breast, which followed with restlessness; then a prostration of strength, or nervous debility and faintness, from which I was gradually restored within 2 or 3 hours. A sympathy, I suppose, between the nervous system and the mind, but in a manner to me inexplicable; something similar but less in degree I experienced several times after the death of my eldest son. We are fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Fisher’s geometry exercises retain the foot holes and scribe marks of his dividers during layout. The parson was trained in geometric design, and his body of woodwork reflects it. – JONATHAN FISHER MEMORIAL.
His time alone in his study was sacred. This wood-paneled room, opposite the front parlor, was where Fisher spent much of his time. Most mornings he sat near the fireplace working on his Hebrew or on sermons.
His daughter, Nancy, recorded once how his “little room [was] consecrated to learning, Devotion and perhaps sometimes to the Muses.” Fisher commended academic pursuit not only to his own children but to the community he ministered. His involvement was critical in bringing about the Blue Hill Library and Blue Hill Academy. He also served as a trustee and regularly gave money to Bangor Theological Seminary, “the palladium of truth in this region.” He wrote several books and broadsides, the most ambitious of which, was his 350-page self-published, “Scripture Animals” (1834), which contained descriptions of every animal recorded in the Bible, accompanied by a woodcut that he engraved. Besides his native English, he was proficient (or at least moderately so) in several languages: Latin, French, Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and Malay, as well as that of the local Passamaquoddy tribe. He preached all throughout Massachusetts and Maine, and devoured newspapers and books, saving or transcribing interesting anecdotes or recipes for future use.
Opposite his parlor, Fisher spent much of his time in his study preparing sermons, performing mathematics and learning new languages.
His preaching tone was heavily influenced by his academic training and was described as more instructive than inspired. An excerpt from his conclusion to “Scripture Animals” illustrates this well. In defending the good character of God despite the existence of predation in the natural world, he writes, “To illustrate the subject, I will suppose that by means of the several kinds of carnivorous animals, three animals subsist where otherwise but two could have subsisted. I will suppose that each of these animals enjoys as much as either would have done; if there had been but two; in this case the enjoyment is as three to two. I will next suppose the comparative enjoyment of animals to be, on an average, nine degrees, for one degree of suffering; this gives eight degrees of positive enjoyment for each animal. If there are three animals for two, there are eight degrees of enjoyment for twenty-four. Let us suppose the suffering under this economy diminished one third, which I think probable, then in the case of three animals the degrees of suffering will be but two, and the degrees of positive enjoyment by means of rapacious animals twenty-five, instead of sixteen. Is it not then real evidence of benevolence in God, that there are rapacious animals?”
We are pleased to announce that after years of work, revisions, agita and waiting, that you can now watch the great video “Make a Chair From a Tree” streaming on virtually any device.
The video, shot by Anatol Polillo, has been digitized and is available through our store for $25. When you order the video, you will be able to stream it to almost any internet-connected device. You also will be able to download it to watch it on your phone, tablet or desktop machine without an internet connection.
We offer this two-hour video without any Digital Rights Management (DRM), which means you will be able to play the file on any device without any passwords, keys or other inconvenience.
This video was based on the second edition of Jennie Alexander’s “Make a Chair From a Tree” book and includes many of the improvements she developed after teaching this post-and-rung chair for years.
The chair itself – what we call the “Jennie Chair” – is the most comfortable wooden chair I’ve ever sat in. And I say that as a chairmaker. The chair is made from an economy of both tools and materials. It really is an astounding piece of work.
In addition to the video, we have produced a packet of updated drawings that illustrate the important bits of the chair and the jigs that Jennie discusses in the video. You’ll receive a link to download the pdf at checkout. Or you can download these drawing here. These drawings are the latest and most accurate – we were working with Jennie on these up until her death in 2018. If you own a copy of the DVD, please feel free to download these updated drawings.
On a personal note, thanks to all of the people in Jennie’s life who allowed us to move forward with this important project, from Jennie’s heirs to her woodworking colleagues to her family, friends and caregivers. We think Jennie’s legacy and her influence on woodworkers will not end with her death. And that’s why we will offer this video and a third edition of the book “Make a Chair From a Tree” in the coming months. With any luck, there will be future generations of woodworkers who will be inspired by her simple (but elegant) designs and methods.
I am not a cratengineer. So I am certain that the way you build crates is better than mine.
My method is the result of a few things:
Observing how hundreds of shipments of books, machines and furniture have been damaged during my last three decades in publishing and furniture making (I have not experienced any damage with my crates, by the way).
Asking my trucking company what I should do to ensure my shipments aren’t damaged.
Using as little material as possible to add as little weight and cubic footage as possible.
Setting a goal of building a crate in less than one hour.
Spending $40 to $50 on materials on average.
My crates are made primarily from 5mm-thick sheets of underlayment, which I can buy for $13 to $16 a sheet. All the interior bracing is made from 1-1/4” x 1-1/4” pine strips that I rip down from 2x4s. And the skids are 4x4s, which I usually salvage from dumpsters in our neighborhood. The crates are assembled with No. 8 x 1-1/4” self-tapping construction screws. No pilot holes are necessary with these screws. The interior cardboard and bubble wrap are usually salvaged from dunnage that we receive here.
I’m going to do this in a lazy photo-essay style. Here we go.
Measure the piece with care. I don’t skimp on time with this step. Take careful measurements of the depth, width and height of the piece. Then add 2-1/2” to all those measurements to create the size of the “shell” of your crate.
Create a cutting list. Again, you’ll get to the automatic, bang-that-crap out in a moment. Take care. I make a cutting list and even a quick plywood optimization sheet so I don’t get turned around when cutting down the plywood. After this, I cut the parts to size. Then I take the 2x4s (I used two in this case) and rip them into 1-1/4” x 1-1/4” bracing strips.
Cut the bracing strips to length and screw them to the top and the bottom of your crate. Don’t measure. Put a strip up against the plywood, mark it and cut it. I use a bench hook and carcase saw. A chop saw is not faster here.
Cut the skids to length and screw the bottom to the skids. Use lots of screws. Don’t skip the skids. A flat-bottomed crate is much more likely to get fatally forked by a forklift. Skids don’t add much expense, but they add a lot of insurance.
Once I get the base made, I do a quick check to ensure my measurements are correct. I do these “reality checks” with every project – sometimes several times a day – in order to avoid errors. It helps.
Install one of the side pieces. Here you can see how I use the top piece to prop up a side piece as I screw it in place.
Then I start adding more interior bracing strips. Here you can see how I use spring clamps to holds the bracing strips in place while they are screwed down.
Keep working around the base, adding side pieces until you have this sort of enclosure. The top and front should be open so you can add the bracing that immobilizes the object.
Wrap the project in cardboard and bubble wrap where you plan to brace the project to the crate. I usually use three braces: One to restrain it from moving up, and two to restrain it from moving front to back. I haven’t found it necessary (so far) to worry about things moving left and right. The three braces keep things locked down.
The interior bracing is 1” x 1” pine. Place it against the cardboard and bubble wrap and press the brace in place. Trace its position on the wall of the crate. Shift the position of the brace and drill some pilot holes through the traced silhouette. Now put the brace in place and screw it down. Don’t get aggressive – you are screwing into end grain so it’s easy to split the brace.
This is what it looks like before I screw the the top and front in place. Don’t forget to include contact information on the inside of the crate in case the label gets ripped off your crate.
If I have any of my one-hour time limit left, I spray paint the Lost Art Press logo on the crate. Just for fun.
To make things easier for you, I’ve collected all of the supplemental information I’ve released for “The Anarchist’s Design Book” (so far) into a pdf with a short introduction and an appendix on making your own seat templates.
This is available as a free download to anyone who has purchased “The Anarchist’s Design Book” anywhere in the world. We’re on the “Honorable Tortoise” system here. Don’t download it if you haven’t bought the book.
I’ve arranged all these pages into a book that you take to any “print on demand” service to print and bind it as a book for you. You can also download the color cover for it. Here are the links:
You have my express permission to print out a personal copy or two for yourself. If you sell them, however, I will phone the tortoise.
Here’s what’s in the 70-page supplement:
A short introduction to the sometimes drug-addled world of chairmaking
A chapter on building a Staked High Stool
A chapter on building a Staked Armchair
An appendix on making your own seat patterns for the chair.
I hope you find this information easy to use and interesting.
The next project is a settle chair, which I have been sketching for months now. Like all good chairs, it has a secret code I need to crack that will make building it a cinch.
By the way, our next tool at Crucible Tool will be a Chairmaker’s Decoder Ring.