Lost Art Press

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

‘The Minimalist Woodworker’ a Great Way to Start

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This post is way overdue. One of the books I’ve been itching to read is Vic Tesolin’s “The Minimalist Woodworker” (Spring House Press), a newly published guide for woodworkers looking to explore the craft without a shed-load of tools.

Vic, who works for Lee Valley Tools by day, is one of my favorite guys in the craft. He has a no-bull-pucky way of approaching life, work and the craft. And my hope was that “The Minimalist Woodworker” would capture Vic’s spirit and his voice. And it does.

The 152-page book is a great single-point introduction to the craft. It skips all the hand-wringing parts of the craft (waterstones or oil? Band saw or table saw?) and just lays out in as few words as possible what you need to get started. Beginners don’t need a fire hose of information to build a workbench – just a good plan using simple tools and straightforward techniques.

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The first 60 pages of the book introduce you to the tools and how to set up and use them. Vic lists 27 tools as the core kit with another eight that are “nice to have.” It’s a good list – one I’d be happy to pass onto a friend looking to get started.

The remainder of the book is about building the projects that will allow you to enjoy hand-tool woodworking in a space as small as the nook under the stairs. Vic begins with building a sawbench and a “bent” a sawhorse-like buddy to the sawbench.

The other projects, all built from common materials, are equally useful: a shooting board/bench hook, a mallet, and English-style workbench and a hanging cabinet for your tools. The projects include clear drawings, a cutlist and lots of step photos to guide the reader through each operation.

If you’ve ever met Vic, you know that he doesn’t mince words or waste time. And this book is like having a casual conversation with him. He calls out any bunk (or deftly sidesteps it), and he doesn’t use 30 words when four will do. You can read this book in one sitting – a point I greatly appreciate.

I’m often asked what books would be ideal for a beginning hand-tool woodworker. And we publish a few of them, including Robert Wearing’s “The Essential Woodworker.” But I’ve now added a new book to that list of highly recommended “first books.” And if you are at the beginning of the craft or know someone who is, “The Minimalist Woodworker” is a great place to start.

— Christopher Schwarz

Shop Hats for You & the Apprentice

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Headgear in the traditional shop was both practical (keep the dust out of your hair) and hierarchical (journeymen wore particular hats to separate themselves from the apprentices).

Paper hats were common in many trades, including printing and woodworking. Tools for Working Wood used to hand out paper hats and the instructions to make them at shows (Joel Moskowitz writes about them here).

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Recently Jeff Burks dug up some vintage instructions for making paper hats, including this nicely illustrated example he cleaned up from Scientific American, Dec. 14, 1872. It’s a fun little exercise – and you can torture your cats with the result.

— Christopher Schwarz