Lost Art Press

Job Centres were government-operated employment agencies intended to help people find gainful work instead of spending their days watching telly while sponging off the dole. At least, such was the image of their unemployed compatriots entertained by many supporters of Margaret Thatcher, prime minister at the time. Her cabinet ministers (well, some of them) were less dismissive regarding the plight of their jobless constituents. There were jobs out there, they insisted; you just had to put some effort into finding one. “Get on your bike” became an oft-heard exhortation after Norman Tebbit, Secretary of State for Employment, told attendees at the Conservative Party Conference in 1981 that he’d grown up in the 1930s with an unemployed father. “He didn’t riot,” Tebbit said; “he got on his bike and looked for work and he kept looking ‘til he found it.”

The Job Centre certainly made it more convenient to find employment. But I would have found a job with or without it. I was raised by parents who, despite the haziness of their hippie years, impressed on me the importance of hard work and self-reliance. At the same time, they also supported the provision of social services and safety nets, knowing that things can go wrong for anyone, despite diligent work and the best-laid plans.

My friend Beatrice, on the other hand, had graduated from Cambridge with a degree in drama. Finding herself unable to secure paid employment in her field, she didn’t hesitate to sign up for the dole. “But surely you could get a job at a sandwich shop, or cleaning houses?” I offered, shocked that this bright, resourceful, relatively well-off friend had sought government assistance.

“If I take a job unrelated to my area of expertise it will count against me the next time I apply at a theatre,” she explained over Lapsang Souchong in her cozy London flat. Seeing my stunned expression, she added that taking just any job “would suggest that I’m not serious about my profession.”–Excerpted from Making Things Work by Nancy Hiller

The Lost Art Press storefront will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday with lots to do and see. In addition to giving free sharpening lessons, we have:

• Eight blemished Crucible dividers at half price ($90, cash only)
• Four prototype (fully functional) Crucible holdfasts for half price ($60, cash only)
• A bunch of blemished Lost Art Press books (also cash only)
• T-shirts, stickers etc.
• Copies of the deluxe “Roubo on Furniture” to examine and buy.
• Our complete line of Lost Art Press books (credit, cash or check)

The store is located at 837 Willard St. in Covington, Ky., 41011. If you are coming with a spouse or family, consider brunch at Otto’s or Coppin’s (in the Hotel Covington). Get a beer at Braxton Brewing down the street and marvel at all the development along Pike Street (we got in here just in time!).

— Christopher Schwarz, editor, Lost Art Press
Personal site: christophermschwarz.com

For those customers who pre-ordered a copy of deluxe “Roubo on Furniture Making” and want to pick up their copy at our Covington, Ky., storefront on Saturday, here’s how.

1. Send an email to help@lostartpress.com with the subject line of “Deluxe Pickup.” Let us know your name and address and any other identifying birthmarks (just kidding about that part).
2. Come to the storefront on Saturday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Let us know your name and we’ll hand over your deluxe copy, plus a special treat because you saved us some shipping costs. (No, it’s not a hug.)

IMPORTANT: We need to know by 9 a.m. Friday, Sept. 8, if you are going to pick up your copy at our storefront. We’re going to transfer stock from our Indiana warehouse to Kentucky and will need an exact count.

If you’d like to purchase a copy of the deluxe Roubo on Saturday, please let us know your intentions and we’ll transfer a copy for you.

— Christopher Schwarz, editor, Lost Art Press
Personal site: christophermschwarz.com

We have been flooded with requests for us to sell our blemished tools and books on our website. There are many reasons we don’t do this – and don’t plan to. Here is a short explanation.

With these products, we have already lost money on the sale. We had to pay to have it shipped back to us, then we had to pay for the replacement item and ship it to the customer. Add to that all the other charges for picking, packing and the boxes and tape. Oh, and paying our customer service people to handle the problem.

These problems happen. And we are happy to fix them and try to make the customer happy.

So when dealing with the damaged goods left in our hands, we have to be careful. We don’t like pulping books or recycling tools. But if they are damaged beyond the point where they are useful, we will do that. So those items are a total loss for us.

For those items that have cosmetic damage, we want to recover our losses as much as possible. And we don’t want a damaged product to disappoint a customer. So we sell them in cash and in person only. Why cash? So we don’t lose 3-4 percent on credit card fees. Why in person? So the individual can inspect the damage and decide if they can live with it.

Why not sell these items on the website? We’d lose even more money. We’d have to spend time describing and photographing every item so the customer would know what he or she was getting. We don’t have the time do it ourselves, and we don’t want to pay someone to list them (we’d lose even more money).

I know that commenters will have a million suggestions for how we could do this differently (drones! Robots! AI! Crowdsourcing!). Chances are we’ve thought of it. And this is how we’ve decided to deal with damaged goods.

— Christopher Schwarz, editor, Lost Art Press
Personal site: christophermschwarz.com