Lost Art Press

Blue Spruce Toolworks is known mostly for tools that cut – knives and chisels – and not tools that lay out. That’s a shame because the Blue Spruce bevel gauge and try square are excellent tools with some special features.

We’ve had the try square in our shop for more than two years now, and it is the tool we all use in the machine room to check things for square. I chose the Blue Spruce for this difficult task for a couple reasons. One, if it gets dropped on the concrete floor and is knocked out of square (this has happened twice) it is easily returned to perfection in moments thanks to its internal mechanism.

And two, the ceramic coating on the tool stops rust. Our machine room is climate controlled, but it is a much harsher environment than the bench room.

In use, I quite like the ceramic coating on the tool. I wasn’t sure I would. I have an aversion to anodized aluminum for some reason. The ceramic doesn’t look like fancy aluminum foil around a Christmas package. It’s matte and smooth.

You can customize the look of the square – there are currently nine color options (including an anodized finish). You can choose the finish on the blade, the wood infilled into the handle and the hardware. Chances are that no one you know will choose the same combination as you do, making your square easy to spot in a class or bench room. At $150, this square is a steal. The quality and engineering are outstanding.

Bevel Gauge
The bevel gauge is the latest addition to my tool kit. As I delve into teaching chairmaking and other staked pieces, I have students asking for my recommendations for bevel gauges (also called sliding bevels and siding T-bevels).

Of course, I love the bevels from Chris Vesper. Always have. But the waiting list for those can be months at times. Lately, I’ve been recommending vintage Stanley No. 18s, which are great but can be difficult to find, depending on the weather.

The Blue Spruce bevel is as outstanding as its fixed-blade brother discussed above. You get to pick all your colors and stuff (it’s like your wedding!). The bevel locks crazy well. Better than the Stanley No. 18. I haven’t compared it to the Vesper bevel, but it’s fair to say both lock plenty hard for tough workshop use.

The bevel is $175. That might seem steep compared to the cheap bevels at the home center or the woodworking store, but those don’t lock for crap. And they have several fundamental design flaws that make them suitable for melting or burning. The Blue Spruce is one of those tools that you’ll fall in love with the first time you use it.

Both tools are highly recommended.

— Christopher Schwarz

Standard disclaimer. I buy all my tools at full retail with my own money. I’ve never been sponsored or accept free tools for review. I’m not an affiliate of any website. I hate that stuff.

Chris and I have been as busy as Santa’s elves over the past few months, building all manner of chairs. A month or two ago, faced with the dilemma of wanting to build more chairs but already having a through-the-roof “chair-per-capita” count in our homes, we thought we’d put together a little show and sale at one of the Lost Art Press Open Houses – and this weekend is the one!

To further entice your presence at the show, here are some of the chairs that I’ll have in the show. With the holiday season approaching, we thought we’d combine a gallery-style show with a furniture sale – many of the pieces below will be for sale, as noted, and all will be available for examination and sitting!

Tage Frid inspired stool: This three-legged stool, in the style of Frid’s classic design, was my first chair, made while I was a student at The Krenov School (then the College of the Redwoods) from some lovely curly tanoak. It is not for sale – some lucky Arkansas-born anarchist has got it at his house and is kindly bringing it to the shop for this show.

Staked Dining Set: This four-piece set of white-oak staked furniture (two chairs, a bench and a table) were my first foray into staked furniture, with milk-painted accents and solid joinery. The set makes a nice breakfast nook setup, which had been its use in my house until I started down the rabbit hole of building far too many chairs. This set will be for sale, as a complete unit, for a handsomely low price.

Settin’ Chire: This greenwood ladderback chair was made in the style of Chester Cornett, with carved pegs, octagonal posts and rungs and a three-slat design, all made from green red oak from Eastern Kentucky earlier this year. It’s seat is woven with Danish cord in a plain weave. It will be for sale.

Jennie Chair: This Jennie (or “JA”) chair was built using white oak posts, rungs and slats that were salvaged from Jennie Alexander’s garage last month during our trip a few weeks ago. It has a simple Danish cord seat. I’m just finishing it up today and tomorrow, so this will be the newest piece from me in the show. This piece is not for sale.

Twin Bookmatched Stools: This pair of three-legged, braced-back stools made from a single slab of olive ash were just finished, with a unique bookmatched pair of slab seats. These are low stools, akin in seating style to the classic “cockfighting” stools popular in 19th-century Britain. They’ll be for sale as a set, it would a shame to split them up.

Five-legged Staked Chair: This is a new design that I came up with for my upcoming class at the storefront and at Port Townsend School of Woodworking later in 2019. It has a braced-back crest with flying supports akin to the bookmatched stools, and a massively sturdy five legged stance, made from some mighty red oak. It, too, will be for sale.

Høj Footstool: This simple footstool, made from red oak and Danish cord, is a blending of Danish modern and Appalachian post-and-rung styles, thus the name, “Høj,” a rural word in Denmark for a hill. This stool will be for sale at the show.

I’ll also be showing various projects and tools I’ve been working on, have a few other small items for sale and demonstrating some of the techniques used in the construction of these chairs. We’ll also have a variety of fun activities, including some “Chiremaker Crown” craft activities. And, a “Chairmaker’s Sighting Square” might just be getting raffled off…

So, I hope you can find the time to come join us!

— Brendan Gaffney

We get asked on an almost-daily basis why we don’t ship things overseas. The answer is: We do. We ship our books to our international vendors so they can sell them to customers with a reasonable shipping cost.

But what about T-shirts, bandanas, chore coats and the like? That’s where it gets complicated.

Shipping directly to Europe is a tax nightmare for us (thank you, EU). And on advice of our attorney and accountant, we have decided to sell only through our international vendors so that we don’t end up doing a lot of paperwork.

Shipping to Canada, Australia and other countries is a different kind of problem. It’s insanely expensive. Even with a fully automated, high-tech warehouse with accounts with all the international carriers, we can’t get shipping rates that are even close to reasonable. The cost of shipping a book is usually more than the retail price of the book or bandana or sweatshirt.

We have tried many schemes (too many to list here) to sell shirts and the like outside of the U.S., but they all failed or were too complicated to maintain.

Lost Art Press might look like a big company at times, but are only two guys who run the thing. There are physical limits to what we can do – and publishing books will always be at the top of the list.

I offer a couple solutions for those outside the U.S. who want some of our specialty products:

1. Use a parcel forwarding service. Many LAP customers have had great success with these services. Here is a list of five recommended by Huffington Post. I wish we could get rates as reasonable as they get. It must be magic.
2. Print your own shirts and sweatshirts. You can download our logo file here. There are thousands of services all over the world that will let you print your own shirt, jacket or (shudder) thong with the logo.

I wish at times we were a big company that could have a person dedicated to shipping. And that we shipped a million parcels a year so we could qualify for the dirt-cheap rates. And that I had to attend marketing meetings three times a week to get harangued to sell more of the things that suck. And then I had to meet with the executive types above me to explain why we needed a $500 digital camera to continue making books. And that I had to fill out performance reviews and attend classes on how to harass your employees legally. And then I wake up from the bad dream.

— Christopher Schwarz