Now that temperatures are starting to cool, Katherine has been cranking up her soft wax production. Shipping in the heat of summer is like shipping a stinky liquid – not fun.
Katherine has just listed a large batch of soft wax on etsy.com – click here for more details and to order. She’ll be sealing these jars with tape, just in case they end up in a hot USPS truck.
Also, we have changed her production process to remove all water from the system. Before, she was cooking the wax with a water bath surrounding the chamber. That’s a great way to do it, but a small bit of water gets introduced into the wax through condensation, which can rust the bottom of the tins and make some of the product unusable.
As of this batch, we’ve switched to a temperature-controlled cooker that does not require water, but it still keeps the wax at a safe temperature to avoid scorching. For the next batch, we plan to switch to plastic containers with a screw top, which will eliminate any chance of rust and will keep the contents safer during shipping.
Thanks for all your support – Katherine loves the title of Wax Princess (not really).
When I took my first class in making Welsh stick chairs in 2003, the instructor asked if we wanted to trace his seat and arm templates.
It would be fair to say that John (the other guy in the class) and I freaked. We quickly grabbed cardboard, paper and pencils and began tracing all the templates. I still have those templates down in the basement, but I’ve never used them.
When I returned home from the class, I took a good look at the templates and realized that almost everything about the templates could be described with rectangles, squares and simple arcs. The rest could be easily sketched in with French curves.
Since that realization, I’ve always made my own templates. And I would rather show you how to make your own templates instead of providing a silly gridded drawing or something that had to be blown up 478 percent on a photocopier and then printed on a plotter.
Here are the tools you need:
A big sheet of paper (I use cheap newsprint sheets). You also can draw these templates directly on thin MDF.
Trammel points with one end being a pencil.
A yardstick
Drafting triangle
Pencil
Draw the Seat Most of my chairs use a D-seat, which looks like a more complicated shape than it really is. It’s simply a rectangle with a half-circle attached to one edge. To make the seat, first draw a rectangle that is 20” wide and 6-1/2” high. Draw a centerline though the rectangle’s 20” width.
Set your trammel points to a 10” radius. Scribe the half-circle arc where the centerline intersects one edge of the rectangle. That’s it.
All of the other parts of the chair – the arms, doubler and the crest all evolve from the seat shape. So, I’ve shown the seat in the illustrations to make this clear.
Make the Arms The arms for my stick chair are 2” wide and start about 4-1/2” back from the front edge of the chair. Here’s how to lay them out. Start with the seat plan you just drew. The first arc is a half-circle with a 10” radius – just like the seat. Scribe that. Then adjust the trammels to describe a 12”-radius circle and scribe that on your paper.
Now add 2” x 2” squares to the front of your arms to make them longer and to match the shape of the seat. The illustration above shows this clearly.
Now you have the basic shape of the armbow. You can alter this shape to suit yourself. I decided to widen the arms at the front and add a curve to the front area of each arm. This part of the armbow is called the “hands.”
Create the Hands I made my hands 3” wide at the front. Then I wanted the additional 1” to flow into the original arm so the armbow ended up 2” wide at the back.
This is the only difficult part of the exercise. I used French curves to create this irregular curve. You also could draw an ellipse, but using French curves is faster (for me). Then draw the arc at the front of the hands. It can be a simple arc or an irregular curve. Your call.
The Doubler The “doubler” is a piece of wood that beefs up the armbow and helps strengthen any short grain. It has the same basic shape as the armbow but is only 12’ wide. Scribe two the arcs – one at a 10” radius with the second at 12”. Then use your yardstick to create endpoints that are 12” apart. Use these endpoints to connect your two arcs.
The Crest The crest begins just like the doubler – by scribing a 10” arc. Then set your trammels to draw an 11-1/4” arc. Use your yardstick to create endpoints that are 10-1/2” apart. Join the two arcs using the endpoints as a guide.
All the text above is much more difficult to follow than by simply studying the drawings. Everything flows out of the 10”-radius arc that is the back edge of the seat. Once you get that in your head, everything else is easy.
After you make your templates, you can transfer them to MDF or hardboard. Cut them out and smooth the edge with files and sandpaper. And put them in a safe place. While templates are easy to make, remaking lost ones is a grumpy affair.
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.
OK, 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.
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.
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).
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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).
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).
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.
OK, back to meat. David Savage’s “
