Lost Art Press

Chairfaker

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Sometimes I get asked if I use dowels for the spindles in my chairs. And sometimes I answer: “Sometimes.”

Dowels can be a crappy way to make a chair, just like lumberyard wood can be a crappy way to make a seat. Or cow tongue can be a crappy way to make a nice goulash.

For me, it all comes down to how the material is cut and dried. I cannot always get rivable material for my chairs, and so I will cut it out on the band saw, making sure the grain is arrow straight through the thickness and length. This wastes a little wood, but once you get good at picking stock at the lumberyard (hint, look at the edges), you can find dang straight stuff.

And if I can find dowels (home center dowels even! For shame!) where the grain is arrow straight, then what’s the harm? I will dry them, compress the ends and shape them with a gunstock scraper to taper them – just like its rived cousin.

I know this ain’t pure, and the Greenwood Gods are frowning or whittling out a spear to chuck my direction. But I think this is a pragmatic and valid path to build a folk chair. If you select your stock with care – in the forest or at the home center – and your understand the material, you can build a chair.

Don’t let your limitations stop you from making a chair. Work with what you have. If you can get a log, get a log. If you can’t get a log, get straight stuff.

Today I went to Home Depot to check out their selection of 5/8” oak dowels. I pulled out all 30 and rolled them on the floor, looking for defects and poker-straight grain. (Yes, you will get Evil Eye for this.) I found eight dowels that were either completely straight or had long straight sections. I need only six to build a chair.

I bought them. This saved me about three hours of shaving.

— Christopher Schwarz

Prototypes & Excess Furniture for Sale

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Lucy and I are soon moving to Covington to live above the storefront, and we need to divest ourselves of lots of excess pieces of furniture – mostly prototypes of mine – that have been stacked up.

Similarly, Brendan and Joss have a small apartment in Covington and don’t have room for many excess pieces.

So Brendan and I have decided to sell several of these pieces this Saturday at our monthly open day. As always with prototypes, these pieces are somewhat less than we would sell them for normally but that is for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they were interim designs as we developed new ones (but were too nice to burn). Or they are pieces that have sat around and got scratched or bumped in the process.

All of these pieces will be at the storefront this Saturday (837 Willard St., Covington, Ky. 41011) for you to inspect. Here are some details.

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Tage Frid-inspired Stool
Brendan built this stool at the Krenov School (formerly College of the Redwoods) from tanoak. It’s inspired by Frid’s iconic three-legged stool with some of Brendan’s improvements. It’s a lovely piece. Solidly joined and surprisingly lightweight. Price: $800. Note, Brendan is willing to ship this piece (shipping not included). You can contact him here.

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Three-legged Backstool
This is the fourth three-legged backstool I built for “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” Unlike the stool in the book, this one has round, tapered sticks. The final backstool had octagonal ones. I actually prefer these sticks but opted to go with octagons because they would be easier for readers to make. Poplar and oak with an acrylic finish. Price: $200.

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Madrone Staked Coffee Table
Brendan built this table about a year ago and has no room for it in his apartment. It’s a lovely piece of madrone with airtight staked joinery. Today Brendan stripped the tabletop and added a new coat of Osmo. Price: $300.

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Staked Worktable
Another prototype from “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” This table was the foundation for the worktable shown in the book. This one features a square top and through-tenon joinery (unlike the table in the book. The base is painted poplar. The top is white pine with a soap finish. This worktable has seen quite a bit of use in the last few years, but it looks even better with the miles. Price $300.

Dovetailed Wall Cabinet
Another piece that Brendan built at The Krenov School, this cabinet has a lot of involved joinery and interesting woods. It’s perfect for a set of tea cups or other treasures. Brendan has been carrying this one around and has no more room for it. Price: $400. Note, Brendan is willing to ship this piece (shipping not included). You can contact him here.

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Staked Drinking Table
Yup, another prototype from “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” This is a charming piece that was just too odd to include in the book. The top is made from two very wide boards of oak (a bog oak butterfly secures a minor split). The legs are dead-straight red oak. Finished in shellac. Price: $300.

Come by and check them out.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Other Roubo Bookstand

Posted on by fitz

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No doubt many of you are familiar with the famous one-piece bookstand from plate 331 of Roubo’s “With All Precision Possible” popularized by Roy Underhill. This past week, we decided to build a nice bookstand for the shop copy of the incredible deluxe edition of the Roubo text on furniture, and while looking at the same illustration found a second bookstand on the same plate that seemed a more fitting design for the hefty tome.

Using some mystery wood that I picked up at the final closing of Midwest Woodworking (I believe it’s a rosewood, or possibly Pao Ferro) I built a slightly redesigned version of the bookstand illustrated in the Roubo text. I’ll be making a measured drawing for the blog in the next few days for those who might be interested in making their own but I wanted to share a short video Chris and I shot that shows off the details of the piece. UPDATE: The measured drawings can be found here.

Stay tuned for more details on building one of these bookstands – it can be easily scaled to any size of book and I think it’s a rather poetic build for those of you who might have one of the deluxe editions already (or maybe a good reason to buy a copy!). There’s some fun chisel work, careful joinery and simple shaping, which all lend themselves to make a bibliophilic piece of kit. I had a blast making it, and look forward to building more for my bookworm friends and clients.

— Brendan Gaffney

Roubo Bookstand from Christopher Schwarz on Vimeo.

 

 

Lost Art Press at the Lie-Nielsen Open House

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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John, the quieter half of Lost Art Press, will represent us at the Lie-Nielsen Open House this weekend in Warren, Maine. Look for the Lost Art Press flag – it’s dark blue with a white compass on it. You’ll find John nearby.

Please do stop by and say hello. Though John is the less visible half of this company, it wouldn’t exist without him. He’s the guy who makes sure you receive your books and – with the help of Meghan B. – fixes problems when shipping goes awry. He’s also the guy who makes sure everyone gets paid, from vendors to authors.

Without John’s backbone, I’d probably still be working at a magazine somewhere.

Also, several Lost Art Press authors will be demonstrating at the Lie-Nielsen event:

  • Peter Follansbee of “Make a Joint Stool from a Tree”
  • Joshua Klein of “Hands Employed Aright”
  • Matt Bickford of “Mouldings in Practice”

The event is definitely one of the highlights of the year (unless you are a lobster).

— Christopher Schwarz

Designing an Armbow

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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One of the parts of my next armchair that I’ve struggled with is the shape of the armbow. On my most recent chair, I used a maple arm that was cold-bend hardwood. It’s a sleek look, but I decided that it was too complex for “The Anarchist’s Design Book.”

So I decided to go back to the first stick chairs I built in 2003 and use a three-piece armbow. This form of arm is chunkier, but you don’t need to bend anything, and it can be really strong if you orient the grain so it follows the curve of the arm.

The armbow is 7/8” thick and 2” wide for the most part. Then it swells to 2-3/8” at the hands. Well, swells isn’t the right word. I began expanding the radius of the outside of the arm along the front 4”. How did I do this? French curves.

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Then I used a second french curve to make the front edge of the armbow.

This was not all one flash of inspiration. This was four iterations. Draw it on paper. Cut it out in 5mm underlayment plywood. Stare at it until I hate it. Repeat.

I kept doing this until I didn’t hate it.

Then I cut out the arms in some air-dried locust (thanks Brendan!).

Tomorrow it’s back to working on the seat.

— Christopher Schwarz

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