Lost Art Press

In a Twist of Fate, ‘The Woodworker’ Ships

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All morning John and I struggled to get “The Anarchist’s Design Book” from the bindery and into our hands. Then this afternoon we got a simple message: “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years” (the other book we’re working on) has shipped from the printer and is on its way to our warehouse.

With any luck, “The Woodworker” books will arrive in the warehouse tomorrow and we can begin shipping our pre-publication orders on Friday or Monday.

Plus we should have copies of both volumes at the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event and the opening of our storefront on March 11-12.

Setting my ego aside, “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years” is a tie with our Roubo translation for the most important work we’ve published. The two volumes of “The Woodworker” are more than 800 pages of detailed information you simply will not find anywhere else.

Editing this project was both an obligation and a delight during these last eight years. And I cannot wait for you to see them.

— Christopher Schwarz

Decorative Joints

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Perhaps because it is such an everyday material many people do not realise the importance of PAPER as a munition of war – not merely newspaper, but paper and cardboard of every kind. It is used in the manufacture of shell containers, fuse components, mines, radio sets, machine-gun belts, etc. and it is needed now. Woodworkers can make a definite contribution by using shavings to light their fires, and saving the paper. They can also exchange shavings for paper with their neighbors and add to the collection of paper to be used directly for the war effort.

We therefore appeal to all readers to go carefully through their rooms, drawers and cupboards and turn out every scrap of unwanted paper. Stack it in a dry place, and separate white paper from cardboard and brown paper. All local councils have organised schemes for collection. Please then do it now.

— The Woodworker, January 1942. The exhortation to turn in all unneeded paper is on page 4; the graphic is on page 5.

Check out “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years,” the first two volumes of writings from the English magazine while Hayward was editor.

The Storefront Nears Completion (of Killing Me)

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The last few weeks have been a death march of painting, trim and general freaking out to get the Lost Art Press storefront ready for the March 12 opening and book-release party.

This week I hope to share details of some of the cool stuff we have in store (literally) for the opening: a special store-only T-shirt, stickers, a poster that just arrived on my doorstep today and the copperplate prints from Briony-Morrow Cribbs from “The Anarchist’s Design Book.”

Oh, and my daughter Katy is launching her own line of soft wax under the name “The Anarchist’s Daughter.”

Some of these items will make it onto the LAP website; but some are too nichey, weird or in tiny quantities. Some are experiments that will fail.

For those of you who want to crap on my finish carpentry skills, I offer these photos. Installing the casing was easy with a nail gun. But the baseboard has been making me hate bricks.

Our building is a rare example of North American masonry construction. No studs. So installing the baseboard has been tricky. Typical masonry construction has “wooden bricks” every 24″ or so to allow you to install baseboard. But because of the plaster restoration and a variety of other complications, I’ve located only about a dozen wooden bricks.

So the baseboard has been installed with a combination of long finish nails, Tapcon screws and construction adhesive. It’s a laborious process to do well on plaster walls that wave like your grandma.

Luckily my eyesight gets worse every year, so it will look fine (to me).

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. Special thanks to Megan Fitzpatrick who painted the interior facade white and gray during the weekend. Friends are good things to have.

‘The Anarchist’s Design Book’ Delayed at Bindery

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ADB_mockup_loOur printer informed us this morning that “The Anarchist’s Design Book” has been delayed (again) at the Michigan bindery. The book was supposed to ship last week. Now it looks like the first 1,000 copies will ship to our warehouse on March 8 and the remainder will ship about March 11.

The delay is a result of us staining the edges of the book’s pages black. To do this, we had to send the books to a bindery we’ve not used before. Our usual bindery is reliable….

What does this mean?

First off, we’re sorry for the delay.

We plan to have books for sale and for pickup at the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event and the book-release party on March 11-12 (even if we have to drive to the bindery with a truck). On March 15 (the first day I can get to our Indianapolis warehouse), I’ll personally sign the first 1,000 copies and then our warehouse will mail out all the pre-publication orders.

Apologies again for the delay. I hope you find the book was worth the wait.

— Christopher Schwarz

‘Build a Hand-crafted Bookcase’ DVD

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If you liked the Boarded Bookcase from “The Anarchist’s Design Book” but would like more details (a lot more details) on its construction, read about this new DVD in our store, “Build a Hand-crafted Bookcase” for $29.

R1574Before you head to IKEA to buy another Billy bookcase, take a moment to read this important message.

Store-bought bookcases with adjustable shelves stink. They are made from flimsy materials, they’re shoddily constructed using questionable fasteners and they can be too-easily configured to tip forward and crush you.

Traditional bookcase construction, a topic covered in “The Anarchist’s Design Book,” is something I’m passionate about. If you are smart, you don’t need adjustable shelves. If you do your research, you can choose fasteners that will outlive you. And if you are frugal, you can build a completely excellent bookcase using home-center pine and a handful of simple hand tools.

In early 2016, I made a 126-minute DVD that explores building the bookcase from “The Anarchist’s Design Book” entirely by hand using surfaced home-center pine.

The DVD begins by throwing out the modern idea of using adjustable shelves and discusses how the design was created and can be modified. From there we explore a bunch of different skills in detail suitable for the dead-nuts beginner (there’s way more detail than in the book).

Topics include:

  1. Surfacing boards with handplanes.
  2. Cutting through-dados with saws, chisel and a router plane.
  3. Making stopped grooves with a chisel and router plane.
  4. Making a tongue-and-groove back.
  5. All about cut nails, forged nails and wire nails.
  6. Why furniture makers should use hide glue.
  7. On using milk paint and why you shouldn’t use the instructions to mix it.

I built and finished the bookcase shown in the DVD with only two days of shop time – and I had to slow myself down so the film crew could get additional shots for the DVD. In other words, this is a quick project. But don’t be fooled by that. If you choose your fasteners, adhesive and joints with care, this bookcase will outlast everyone you know.

— Christopher Schwarz