Lost Art Press

Indexing The Anarchist’s Design Book: Butts? Bambi?

Posted on by saucyindexer

imageIn the first 90 pages of “The Anarchist’s Design Book” Chris has used “butt” or “buttocks” thirty-seven times (that might be a slight exaggeration). I know, disturbing isn’t it? Especially when you consider the huge number of other terms he could have used. To name just a few: arse, behind, bottom, bum, derriere, duff, haunches, hinder, rump, tush. Just for clarification there was also some mention of furniture to go along with all the butts.

Your twelve-year old self is probably giggling and thinking, “Butt! Buttocks! That’s my kind of book!” But, I’m a little concerned. Is this a developing theme or concept? Will “Butt” and “Buttocks, see butt” have to go in the index? Well, it wouldn’t be my first time for an unusual index entry; “cupcake” and “tube top” are in the index for “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.”

Putting all the “butts” aside, I was a bit startled when Bambi arrived in Chapter 2. That’s Bambi, as in the cute little fawn, not the cocktail waitress. At this point you might think I’m reading Guillermo del Toro’s remake of Tim Burton’s “Nightmare in Wonderland.” Maybe I am. Those weird wired-legged models are in the book, but so far no white rabbits or clowns.

I may be in for some very disturbing dreams tonight.

–Suzanne Ellison

How Much Does it Weigh or Cost?

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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While I was an editor at a woodworking magazine, I received a lot of questions about the projects we published. Here are two questions that were tricky to answer:

  1. How much does that project weigh?
  2. How much does that project cost to build?

These aren’t really questions that I ask myself as a builder unless I’m making something for NASA or a customer on a crazy tight budget. But readers deserve an answer better than, “I dunno.”

So here’s how to spitball both.

Weight
There are lots of published statistics of the average weight of each species. Usually this is listed as the “weight per cubic foot” of that wood. Let’s take koa as an example. A cubic foot of koa is 38 lbs. If you divide that by 12, then you know the weight of one board foot of koa – 3.16 lbs.

Note that this an average weight at an average moisture content.

Here’s a list of species and their weights that I like to use.

Now you need to know how much board footage of wood is in the project. Luckily, there are lots of nice web-based board-footage calculators out there. You simply punch in the dimensions of each part and they spit out how much board footage is in there.

For example, a tabletop that is 3/4” x 26” x 96” is 17.33 board feet.

Here’s a simple board footage calculator that I use.

So if I build that tabletop out of koa, it will weigh 17.33 x 3.16 or 54.88 lbs.

Cost
This is tricky, because every lumberyard is different. I can buy ash for $1/board foot. Perhaps you cannot. So I use WoodFinder to look up average prices. Type in the species and it will call up places that carry that species. One of the places I looked at tonight had koa at $36/board foot.

So I can use the board footage calculator to determine that 17.33 board feet of koa will cost me $623.88.

Hmmm. Maybe koa isn’t right for me.

— Christopher Schwarz

Time to Order ‘Mortise & Tenon’ Magazine

Posted on by Lost Art Press
Joshua Klein during a visit to Jonathan Fisher's Maine home.
Joshua Klein during a visit to Jonathan Fisher’s Maine home.

Joshua Klein, a woodworker and conservator in Maine, is now accepting pre-publication orders for the first issue of Mortise & Tenon Magazine, which looks to be very interesting reading.

You might have heard of Klein through his blog, The Workbench Diary, or some of the stories I’ve written about his research of Jonathan Fisher (Klein is writing a book about Fisher for us, by the way).

In addition to his conservation work, a young family, taking apart a house for later reconstruction and writing a book for us, Klein has poured an enormous amount of energy into Mortise & Tenon Magazine to make sure it is a high-quality, well-made publication.

Take a look at the table of contents for the first issue here.

Then click on the “Pre-order Now” button. The first issue is just $24 – a bargain for such a labor of love. I ordered mine as soon as I got up this morning.

Whether you like old furniture, handwork or conservation, you’ll find a lot in the first issue to love.

— Christopher Schwarz

Three New Upcoming DVDs

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Because I’m not teaching anytime in the near future (and because I quite enjoy eating), I have time to film three new DVDs with the crew at Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The first one, which we begin filming Monday morning, is the bookcase project from my upcoming book “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” It’s a contemporary bookcase built entirely by hand using nails, dados, rabbets, tongue-and-groove joinery and hide glue.

I spent a lot of time rethinking book storage when designing this piece. As a publisher, book collector and woodworker, I have a lot of things I like and dislike about book storage. I hate sagging shelves. And I think a lot of our choices when using adjustable shelves are ill-conceived.

This project is as much a treatise on bookshelves as a lesson in building something by hand.

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The second project is on making chairs without chairmaking tools. It was inspired by the stick chair I built for “The Anarchist’s Design Book,” but I’ll be designing a new (but similar) chair for the DVD.

Many woodworkers are intimidated by chairmaking because of the angles, tools required and the tradition of using green wood. After building chairs for almost 12 years now for customers, I have developed methods for building chairs using cabinetmaking tools.

I don’t have a shavehorse, froe or many other traditional tools. And you can make a gorgeous chair without those tools if you use your noggin.

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The third project is the my ambitious yet.

After many years of putting it off, I’ve decided to do a DVD on building “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” from start to finish on DVD. This project will probably eat up a month of time to do right – and I will do it right. During the last five years of building this chest over and over in classes, I’ve learned a few things about making it easier for beginners to build.

And because people actually seem interested in making this chest – which I love as much as my bench – I feel obligated to do this for all those who cannot afford to take a class and need a little help in getting started.

Those of you who know me personally know that I really dislike being on camera. I’d rather have a double colonoscopy. (What’s that? From both ends? Shudder.) But I’ll take a stiff drink in the morning and muddle my way through.

— Christopher Schwarz

An Uncanny Resemblance

Posted on by saucyindexer

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It has been about three months since I became a blog minion so it must be time to lob a mudball towards Chris. Afterall, in my first post I revealed Chris’ “special” relationship with a certain jack plane. You can read about Schwarzlandia here.

The Harry Potter-Chris Schwarz connection came to me while working on the post Fear and Anarchy in Fort Mitchell (and thanks to all of you who joined in and twisted some literature with me). The opening sentence to the first Harry Potter book just didn’t work for that post. Next, I tried the second chapter and things got a bit more interesting and uncanny.

“Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their anarchist on the front step…” And a few more pages into Chapter 2 we find this passage, “…Chris had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair and bright brown eyes. He wore roundish glasses held together with a lot of hide glue because of all the times Wally the cat had punched him on the nose. The only thing Chris liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a swooping A.”

When I showed the Harry Potter photo comparison to Chris his response was not about his resembleance to Harry but about his smile. His exact comment was, “Oy, I look so manic in that photo. I hate smiling with teeth.” My response to that nonsense:

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A little tilt to his head and Chris and the Cheshire Cat are simpatico.

Chris, there is nothing wrong with smiling with teeth. There is no mania, or at least not very much. Smile, Chris, smile.

Now, I must get back to reading (and preparing to index) the portion of “The Anarchist’s Design Book” that Chris sent me a few days ago. Except for some artwork the first two-thirds of the book are done. As for the first two chapters, Chris is….feisty.

–Suzo Ellison

P.S. Thank you to whoever took the smiley photo of Chris.