Lost Art Press

Get Thee to Charleston Next Week

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If you are in the Southeast and love furniture, I highly recommend you take a couple days off to attend a special tour of the Aiken-Rhett House Museum in Charleston, S.C., and a lecture by Russell Buskirk that is being arranged by Lie-Nielsen Toolworks.

The tour is at 2 p.m. April 7 at the circa 1820 house. The Aiken-Rhett house is filled with more Charleston furniture than I’ve ever seen before (most of it was stripped from the city after the Civil War). Charleston furniture is quite distinct, not only in the way it looks but in the way it was built.

I took this tour in 2014 and it was hands-down the best home tour I’ve taken. Read details about that visit here.

After the tour, woodworker, furniture conservator and artist Buskirk is leading a lecture on his work at the American College of the Building Arts. Then everyone will head to the Craftsman Tap House for beer and dinner.

Then the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool event takes place that Friday and Saturday at the American College of the Building Arts (be sure to check out the school’s incredible library).

I wish I could go to all these events, but I’ll be shooting a video that week and then minding the Lost Art Press storefront that weekend.

But you should go. Charleston in the Spring is the best. You can get details on the event at the Lie-Nielsen site here. I’ve also reprinted them below.

— Christopher Schwarz

Date & Time: April 7th, 2016 (2:00pm to 3:00pm)
Location: 48 Elizabeth St. Charleston, SC 29414
Cost: $12 per person
Tour Details:
We’ve arranged a special tour of the Aiken-Rhett House Museum, a landmark historic home located at the corner of Judith and Elizabeth streets in Charleston.The Aiken-Rhett House was built in 1820, and remained in the hands of family and decedents for 142 years. Its rooms retain objects and decorations original to the home and its early occupants. Visitors will tour the home and its outbuildings, and experience the history contained therein.

We will meet at the Aiken-Rhett House Museum at 1:30pm on Thursday, April 7th. The tour starts at 2pm and lasts about one hour. If you are interested in joining, please call us at 1-800-327-2520 or email us at: toolworks@lie-nielsen.com to reserve your spot. Cost of admission to the museum is $12 per person. After the tour, at 4pm, we’ll head over to the American College of the Building Arts for a presentation by local furniture conservationist Russell Buskirk, followed by dinner and beers at the Craftsman Tap House at 6:30pm.

Two Reviews of ‘The Anarchist’s Design Book’

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ADB_black_10x12Though it is painful, I try to read all of the reviews – good, bad and indifferent – of my work.

Reviews don’t really change what I write about in the future, but they do let me know if I am communicating my ideas. Sometimes what I think is obvious is not so obvious to a reader.

This week, I spotted two reviews of “The Anarchist’s Design Book,” which finally seems to be making its way into the hands of readers. You can check these out for yourself:

Greg Merritt of the blog “By My Own Hands” published this review.

And Norman Reid at “Wood News Online” published this one. In the interest of full disclosure, Wood News Online is published by Highland Woodworking, which carries our books. But Norm is nobody’s tool.

Note: Unlike many publishers, we do not send out free copies of our books to reviewers. We don’t ask for book reviews from magazines, blogs or anywhere else. Heck, we don’t even advertise our books. I know I’ve said all this before, but it bears repeating every now and then.

In other news concerning “The Anarchist’s Design Book,” we have had to go back to press for a second printing already. We corrected about a dozen typos (sorry about that) and two small factual errors (very sorry about those). I’ll put up an errata on those in the coming days. Right now, I have to make dinner, or Lucy will punish me.

— Christopher Schwarz

Coming Soon: Staked Chair DVD

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I am not a visual learner. DVDs (and to some degree personal instruction) have always been frustrating for me because I like to speed things up, slow things down or stop dead in my tracks and think when I learn a new task.

That’s why I like books and seem to learn best from them.

But I’ve come to the conclusion that a fair percentage of the population prefers video. And so I have agreed to work with Popular Woodworking Magazine on a third DVD this year, this one on how to build the staked chair from “The Anarchist’s Design Book.”

The gist of the DVD is how to get started in building chairs without a lot of chairmaking tools. Many woodworkers are intimidated by the materials, tools and geometry needed to build their first chair. This DVD (and the book, by the way) seek to show you how to get started mostly with tools you already have. And to remove all math and numbers from the angles.

We begin shooting the DVD on Monday, and so I am preparing parts for two chairs that we’ll be building during the week. We’ll be bending wood without a steambox, making legs and spindles minus the traditional green woodworking tools, and we’ll be making seats without an adze, inshave or travisher.

I also hope we’ll have time to show how to use a soap finish – but no promises on that.

If all goes to plan, the DVD (and streaming video) will be released by Popular Woodworking Magazine in early summer. This most likely is the last DVD I’ll do for 2016. I have a sketchbook full of designs that is making me crazy – I’m staring at some drawings for a staked sitting bench that I simply have to build. Oh, and “Woodworking in Estonia” and “Roubo on Furniture” are also up on my screen.

Crap, it’s almost 11 a.m. and I have holes to bore.

— Christopher Schwarz

More Chests: Slanted and Enchanted

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Suzanne Ellison turned up more images of chests from the 14th and early 15th centuries that have lids that may or may not be slanted.

Whether the lid’s cockedness is the result of the builder or the illustrator is immaterial to me – I’m going to build some. I have been impressed by the slant-lid Dutch chests I’ve been building for the last three years for three reasons:

  1. You can’t stack junk on top of them.
  2. They keep the rain off (surprisingly I have found this to be true and helpful).
  3. The slanted lid provides easy access to the contents of the chest. I think most people who have built Dutch tool chests will agree with me that snatching tools out of the top compartment is a breeze thanks to the 30° slant on the lid.

Here are notes on the images from Suzanne:

The top image is from the “Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal,” dated 1300-1400. She is sitting on a flat-top chest but the lid of the chest to the right looks to be slanted.

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This one is is from the Morgan Library, dated 1380.

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This one is also from the Morgan, dated 1405.

— Christopher Schwarz

14th-century Slant-lid Chests

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This is like the part in the forgettable movie “The Patriot” when you can only pay attention to Mel Gibson’s questionable woodworking skills. Indexer Suzanne Ellison passed on a bunch of details from a 14th-century illuminated manuscript of “The Romance of Alexander.”

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As per usual, I am not interested in the Siege of Byzantium in the Alexander Romance but instead focus on the slant-lid chests shown in the book. Why have I not built these? They are similar in form to a Dutch tool chest. The slanted lid prevents one (one Lucy, that is) from stacking things on top of it. And it can be nailed together with a nice frame-and-panel lid – ooh, and nice blacksmith hardware.

The only thing preventing me from starting tonight is that I’m steam bending parts for an upcoming DVD  – with a hot deadline breathing down my skinny neck.

But soon.

— Christopher Schwarz