Lost Art Press

Intelligent Hand (Insane Process)

Posted on by Lost Art Press

DS_rowden_IMG_9424

Books are a lot like meat. The way we make books at Lost Art Press is like braising – we cook things low and slow. We poke at the piece occasionally, and give it time to simmer in its own juices. And we don’t call it done until it’s done.

Setting aside the meaty metaphor for a second, that means most books take about four years from the day we sign a contract to the day the book is released.

IH_dustjacket_FINALOK, back to meat. David Savage’s “The Intelligent Hand” was a lot like making dinner in a pressure cooker on a Tuesday night for a famished family. It had to get done quickly. It had to be really good. And no one could get hurt.

The reason for the pressure was David’s cancer diagnosis. On the day he received the grim news, David started writing this book, even though neither of us knew exactly what it was going to be about.

It begins with some of the best lines to ever kick off a woodworking book:

“Well Mr. Savage, I am sorry to tell you the results of your tests are not good. If you play your cards right you may have two years, three at best. Play them badly and we are looking at months not years.”

So, I begin this book with the hope and intention to reach the conclusion before you do.

And it ends… well we don’t really know how it ends. Our hope is to get this book into David’s hands so he can see the result of months of crazy hard work by him, his staff at Rowden, Megan Fitzpatrick and me.

05_DS_1

So what’s it about? On the one hand, “The Intelligent Hand” is the story a boy with a stammer who became one of the leading furniture designers in the U.K., working for clients all over the world, including Saudi Arabia and China. It’s a story of extreme failure – bankruptcy – and how you can build a new life using the debris from the broken one.

It’s a practical and iconoclastic guide to getting started in woodwork. David has always had pointed opinions about the tools and methods his students should use to get good results. And he shares – in great detail – his recommendations for tools, sharpening, cutting dovetails and building a proper workbench.

24.9.BenchFrontView

It’s a primer on design. If you have ever wondered how to train yourself to create pieces that break out of the typical or expected (what David calls the “Mark I Eyeball”), this book is an excellent start. David’s advice is both general (how to keep a mental record of your ideas) to specific (smudge the ink in your drawings with spit to create shadows) and it will make you want to take up pen, pencil and watercolors before you design your next piece.

But perhaps most of all, “The Intelligent Hand” is a peek into a woodworking shop that operates at the highest level of craftsmanship – what many can only dream of. To show how the shop functions, David spins a thread that ties all the book’s disparate parts together – he designs a desk and chair for his wife, Carol.

Like many furniture makers, David and Carol’s house is filled with prototypes or factory-made items. All the good stuff goes to clients. For this book, David shares the process for how these special pieces were both developed and built. It’s a remarkable and challenging process – and something you won’t find in any other book.

In the end, this book is an interesting read on many levels. Beginners will see clearly how to get started in the craft and how far one can go. Intermediate woodworkers will devour the sections on design. And the professional will see “The Intelligent Hand” as a guide to how to run a good business – and sometimes how not to (plus some practical workshop hints).

chest edit

The book is funny, sometimes tragic and very helpful. And it’s filled with beautiful photos and drawings of David’s pieces from his long career.

Like all Lost Art Press books, “The Intelligent Hand” is produced and printed entirely in the United States. It is 304 pages, 8-1/2” x 11”, and printed on #80 matte coated paper. The pages are sewn together for long life. The hard covers are covered in a cotton cloth and then wrapped in a #100 beefy dustjacket. The book is printed in full color. And it is made without any compromises. Like David. And like our barbecue here in Kentucky.

— Christopher Schwarz

Now in Store ‘The Intelligent Hand’

Posted on by Lost Art Press

IH_dustjacket_FINAL

Note: This book will be released in October.

“The Intelligent Hand” is a peek into a woodworking life that’s at a level that most of us can barely imagine. The customers are wealthy and eccentric. The designs have to leap off the page. And the craftsmanship has to be utterly, utterly flawless.

How does one get to this point? And how do you stay there?

One answer to these questions is in this book. Yes, the furniture can be technically difficult to make. But a lot of the hard labor involves some unexpected skills. Listening. Seeing. Drawing. And looking into the mirror and practicing the expression: “And that will cost 20,000 pounds.”

DS007_1-2

As you will see, it’s a personal struggle – like the production of this book. On the day David began work on his manuscript, he received a cancer diagnosis with a grim prognosis. He wasn’t sure what the book was going to be about or if he could finish it. But David attacked the work with the fervor of a younger, healthier man.

So what is it about? On the one hand, “The Intelligent Hand” is the story of a boy with a stammer who became one of the leading furniture designers in the U.K., working for clients all over the world, including Saudi Arabia and China. It’s a story of extreme failure – bankruptcy – and how he built a new life using the debris from the broken one.

It’s a practical and iconoclastic guide to getting started in woodwork. David has always had pointed opinions about the tools and methods his students should use to get good results. And he shares – in great detail – his recommendations for tools, sharpening, cutting dovetails and building a proper workbench.

DS003_1

It’s a primer on design. If you have ever wanted to train yourself to create pieces that break out of the typical or expected (to defy what David calls the “Mark One Eyeball”), this book is an excellent start. David’s advice is both general (how to keep a mental record of your ideas) to specific (smudge the ink in your drawings with spit to create shadows) and it will make you want to take up pen, pencil and watercolors before you design your next piece.

But most of all, “The Intelligent Hand” is a window into David’s workshop in Devon. To show how the shop functions, David spins a thread that ties together all the book’s disparate parts by designing a desk and chair for his wife, Carol.

DS_desk_DSC_9482

Like many furniture makers, David and Carol’s house is filled with prototypes or factory-made items. All the good stuff went to clients. For this book, David shares the process for how these two personal projects were developed and built.

In the end, this book is an interesting read on many levels. Beginners will see clearly how to get started in the craft and how far one can go. Intermediate woodworkers will devour the sections on design. And the professional will find advice on how to run a good business – and sometimes how not to (plus some practical workshop hints).

DSCF0003-53

The book is funny, sometimes tragic and helpful. And it’s filled with beautiful photos and drawings of David’s pieces from his long career.

Like all Lost Art Press books, “The Intelligent Hand” is produced and printed entirely in the United States. It is 304 pages, 8-1/2” x 11” and printed on #80 matte coated paper. The pages are sewn together for long life. The hard covers are covered in a cotton cloth and then wrapped in a #100 beefy dustjacket. The book is printed in full color.

All customers who place a pre-publication order will receive a free pdf download of the book (DRM-free).

— Christopher Schwarz

PS_Edit-137LoRes

Lost Art Press Pillow Kits (Kinda)

Posted on by Lost Art Press

LAP_pillow_IMG_2674

Take two bandanas, sew them together and you can make a nice throw pillow. Recently Megan Fitzpatrick and researcher Suzanne Ellison did just that, and their work now adorns our office.

Suzanne even went a step further and embroidered the bees and skep on both sides. The pillows are surprisingly comfortable, and now I can throw out the “Live, Love, Laugh” pillows that were really just an emotional crutch.

We are nearing the end of our run of bandanas. If you want one, you can order them from our store. Customers in the European Union can order them here from our Swedish distributor, Rubank Verktygs.

— Christopher Schwarz

pillow_detail_IMG_2684

Characteristics of Timber

Posted on by meghanlostartpress
13.1
Figure 13.1. Straight grain illustration.

This is an excerpt from “Cut & Dried” by Richard Jones.

The word grain brings to mind several characteristics of wood. It is an indistinct word requiring context. If someone says, “That wood is beautiful,” what do they mean? They might be referring to the patterns, colours, striking illusory figuring or the lustre. Alternatively, the comment may be in response to touching the polished wood, and it is a reaction to its smoothness or roughness.

I think every person, whether they be a woodworker or lay person, has an instinctive concept in almost any circumstance of what they think the nebulous word “grain” means. In truth, it is really necessary for the sake of accuracy and the ability to communicate effectively to provide some context when discussing the subject. Perhaps most commonly inferred or understood amongst woodworkers when we say grain is a reference to its orientation within the longitudinal axis of the trunk or limb, e.g., long grain, with the grain, across the grain or cross-grain. This really summarises the primary characteristic of grain – its direction. The word grain holds fuzzier meanings for laypeople. They recognise the wood displays patterns and shapes visible on the surface along with concepts such as lustre and colour. They generally have an indistinct concept of such characteristics as strength as it relates to grain direction or the importance of allowing for expansion and contraction.

13.2
Figure 13.2. This ash veneer sample is straight grained, uneven pored and is ring porous.

A parallel exists when I deal with inexperienced woodworkers. Their inexperience sometimes leads them to make elementary construction errors. They sometimes inadvertently make two sides and a top of a solid-wood box where the long grain runs conventionally up and down the sides and left to right on the top. Then they add a bottom where the long grain runs front to back. In the same vein, new woodworkers will mistakenly fix a solid-wood table or cabinet top down to a framework. Both these examples of construction errors are likely to lead to failure because neither allows the wood to expand and contract across the grain.

Grain
Terms used to describe grain putting the subject into context are “end grain,” which is a transverse crosscut surface, e.g., the view of the end of a board; “side grain,” which is a tangential cut parallel with the growth rings, and “flat grain,” a plank cut out of a log at right angles to the growth ring, i.e., radially cut.

Further definitions adding specificity to grain descriptions in the log or trunk of a tree are as follows:

13.3
Figure 13.3. Straight-grained red pine. Red pine in British timber trade terminology refers to Scots pine.

Straight grain. The fibres run parallel to the long axis of the tree. An example of a correctly sawn tangentially cut board shows centred-arching grain patterns in which the legs of the arches are of roughly equal length as is their angle from the centre line of the board (figures 13.1, 13.2 and figure 13.3).

13.4
Figure 13.4. Diagonal grain illustration.

Oblique grain, cross grain or diagonal grain. The fibres show as anything from a slight deviation to a severe deviation from straight grain. The least deviation is usually described as oblique grain; the most severe, diagonal grain. However, many sawmill operators, wood sellers and woodworkers themselves make no distinction between the names and describe all deviations as cross-grain, oblique grain or diagonal grain depending on their preferred nomenclature and local custom. In a cut board, this may be caused by tangentially sawing a spiral-grain log, or through a poor choice of cut made by the sawmill operator. Boards cut from crooked logs and logs with significant sweep frequently show cross-grain defects. Another cause of cross-grain is because of the sawmill operators choice of cut when milling heavily tapered logs, i.e., a log that has a small diameter at one end and a much larger diameter at the other. Cutting parallel to the pith results in cross-grain boards, many of which are tapered in their width. To win straight-grained boards the solution is to “taper cut,” wherein the log is cut parallel with the bark. This too results in some planks tapered in their width, particularly as the cuts approach the pith. However, this form of cutting does result in more clear, straight-grained boards because the greatest majority of the knots in a log are clustered around the pith, the tree’s original stem. A mature tree in a forest with a trunk of sizeable girth puts out relatively few side branches compared to a young sapling.

— Meghan B.

Lump Hammers on Sale Wednesday

Posted on by Lost Art Press

crux_assembly_lump_IMG_7673

We will start selling Crucible Lump Hammers at noon Eastern on Wednesday. You can read all the details here. If you have questions or need assistance with Crucible, please use the help@crucibletool.com address. Sending questions to Lost Art Press will only delay the response.

— Christopher Schwarz

lump2_IMG_7722