Lost Art Press

Just Like the Library of Congress

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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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

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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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.

Shipping Update for ‘The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years’

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tools_IMG_2253John has been inundated with customer emails asking when their copy of “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years” will ship, so here’s an update.

The books arrived in our warehouse yesterday. John is preparing all the shipping labels, and the warehouse employees are preparing for an assembly-line packing process. They plan to have all books in the mail by Thursday, March 10. After that, it’s in the hands of the carrier.

If you have a problem with any Lost Art Press order, feel free to send an email to help@lostartpress.com. If you are trying to find out the status of your order for these books, the above update is all we can tell you right now.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. Most of the books ordered by our retailers left the docks at the printer at the same time ours did. We have no way of knowing when the book will arrive at Lee Valley, Lie-Nielsen, Highland Hardware or any of our other retailers I’m afraid. Nor do we know when they will begin shipping.

March 12 Book-release Party Details (and Guest List)

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The book release party for “The Anarchist’s Design Book” will be at 7 p.m. (EST) March 12 at 837 Willard St., Covington, KY 41011. It’s a 10-minute walk from Braxton Brewing Co., which is where the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool event is being held that day.

The party is, alas, completely full. We cannot take any more guests because of the fire marshal’s regulations. We have to be strict about this because I don’t want to pay fines. Apologies.

We’ve had a lot of questions from people who have signed up for the party wondering why we haven’t emailed them with details. That’s because we didn’t ask for your email address. I hate asking for personal information unless we need it. If you would like to see if you actually RSVP’d, you can download the guest list here.

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So what will we be doing during the party? Eating pizza (more on that in a future post) and drinking beverages (feel free to bring some along; it would be much appreciated). As a party favor, we have 2,500 “Disobey Me” stickers to give out. (Note, if we have any left over we’ll find a way to put them in the store.)

Briony Morrow-Cribbs, the copperplate artist for the book, will be there to sign books and show off some of her original prints, which will be for sale on site.

We’ll also have special store-only T-shirts for sale. Plus a very cool poster I haven’t shown anyone. And all of our books – including the two Charles H. Hayward volumes.

And, like the Ronco commercials say, that’s not all.

Briony, Megan, John and I will all be on hand to sign books and talk shop. I also will have several pieces of furniture from the design book on display, including some of the wire models and prototypes – plus French workbenches and tool chests.

All in all, I am sure the evening will remind me of why I am a hermit by nature!

— Christopher Schwarz