Lost Art Press

Instead of a Face-painting Station…

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…we’re going to offer a spray-painting station at “The Anarchist’s Design Book” book-release party Saturday night. I made this stencil years ago. And I have a can of spray paint.

For these photos I tried to get Megan Fitzpatrick to stencil my bare back, but she wouldn’t do it, saying the safety wanks would have my head. All I have to say to that is that if we didn’t have body painting then we wouldn’t have had Mel Gibson in “Braveheart.”

Um. So never mind on the body paint.

We’re wrapping up little details all week – installing doors, making sure we have electric lights, just little stuff. The place won’t be ready for the opening, but it will have to do.

One other quick reminder: The store will be open only on the second Saturday of each month. We’ve had lots of requests from people who are passing through Cincinnati to stop and visit or to pick up orders. I wish we could accommodate those requests, but we cannot.

This company is two people – no employees – and John lives two hours away. So it’s on me to run the store, and I have lots of editing, writing and furniture commissions to work on. Maybe someday we’ll have more help and can offer more hours, but until then I ask you to please not ask us to do what we cannot.

Hope to see y’all this weekend.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Deadly, Knee-hating Drawknife

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The only serious injury I’ve sustained in the workshop was with a drawknife. In 1997, I was sharpening my grandfather’s tool with an oilstone at work. My hand slipped, and I gashed a finger.

It took a dozen stitches to close the wound. And as it was a workers’ compensation claim, I had to go through a very interesting series of interviews with the government.

Nice government lady: “What was the tool that caused the injury?”

Me: “A drawknife.”

Lady: “Hmmm. We don’t have a code for that tool. Is it a pocketknife?”

After a long series of questions (No, it’s not an axe. Nope, not a corn knife), she decided to create a new code for the tool to enter into the government forms. This, of course, required more interrogation about my boo-boo, and the case dragged on for many weeks.

In the 19th century, drawknife injuries were much more common. Jeff Burks has compiled this amazing array of news accounts of people who hurt themselves with the tool. Some wounds were self-inflicted. Some very odd. And many of them to the knee.

The knee?

The weirdest one is the guy who burst his bladder with a drawknife.

— Christopher Schwarz

Just Like the Library of Congress

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After almost six months of donkey work on the new storefront, today we began the real donkey work of moving the Lost Art Press library to 837 Willard St. I don’t know if we’ll even get a quarter of it moved down there in time for the opening next weekend, but we managed to get the core books in place today.

Most of the woodworking books I refer to every day are in a 7’-tall bookcase I built that is based on Thomas Jefferson’s shelves at Monticello. (See my shelves here; see the reproductions at Monticello here.)

Jefferson sold much of his library to the government in 1815 and it became the backbone of the Library of Congress, a story you can read about here. Because of the modular nature of the bookcases, Jefferson’s slaves were able to stuff the units with paper, nail on lids and put them in carriages bound for Washington, D.C.

Today we moved the books to Willard Street in the same way, but without the nailed-on lids. Or slaves.

Tomorrow is more moving of books. Predictions for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday: moving books. Thursday: Wondering if I have too many books. Friday: Back to scanning AbeBooks.com.

— Christopher Schwarz

Yellow Glue Can Save Your Life

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While I’m a huge fan of hot hide glue, it is one culprit in many examples of death and disfigurement when combined with shavings. Perhaps we can blame handplanes for the problem.

Jeff Burks sent me the following grisly gallery of news accounts involving shavings, fire and sometimes glue pots.

I feel a Titebond/Festool PSA coming on.

— Christopher Schwarz

I’m in Love with a Toolbox

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For the last four months I have been working out of two shops – my shop at home and my shop at our new storefront. I don’t want to buy a second set of tools during this transition period, and so I have been ferrying my tools back and forth in a Trusco tool box from Hand-Eye Supply.

I never thought I could love a metal toolbox. After all, I make several varieties of wooden tool chests as part of my living. But after a month with this Trusco, I can officially say I am totally and completely in love with it.

The Japanese-made Trusco looks like a jewel with its semi-translucent paint job. And it works like a jewelry box when you spread the top leaves of the lid open to reveal the trays and lower storage area. We owned a toolbox similar to this on our farm, but it was a herky-jerky affair and a struggle to open and close it.

Inside, the Trusco has movable dividers in its trays so you can quickly reconfigure the box for tools of different sizes. This is not a dumb feature – I move these things all the time depending on the tools I’m transporting that day.

Most of all, I love how dang tough the thing is. It’s thick sheet metal – just the right gauge so it can take a hit but not so thick that it adds significant weight. All the parts fit seamlessly and move smoothly. I frankly cannot understand how they made this thing for this price.

If you need a toolbox for moving your stuff, or something to hold your mechanic’s tools for working on machinery, click forth and buy.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, Hand-Eye Supply approached us recently about distributing our books. However, I’ve never received anything free or at a discount from them. In fact, they have way too much of my money.