Lost Art Press

Van Gogh’s Carpenters and Handsaw Quiver Varieties

Posted on by saucyindexer
Sketches by Van Gogh, 1881-1882.
Sketches by Van Gogh, 1881-1882.

This summer I bought a new book about Vincent Van Gogh and came across a couple of his sketches of carpenters. Like most artists, when Van Gogh wasn’t painting he was sketching and produced  many studies of working people. His carpenters could be journeymen on an obligatory Dutch version of wandergesellen or they may be itinerant craftsmen.

I sent the sketches to Chris and his reply was, “I WANT TO KNOW HOW THAT SAW BACKBACK WORKS.” Thinking there was some static on the email line I figured he meant BACKPACK, checked the Van Gogh sketches again and started searching…and searching. I tried several variations of ‘saw backpacks’, ‘saw back racks’ then threw ‘hand’ in front of ‘saw’ and still found nothing.

Getting creative, and thinking about archery, my next try was ‘handsaw quiver’ and then the pain started. I had found the 34 pages of “Handsaw Quiver Varieties and Finite W-Algebras” by Hiraku Nakajima. I read Hiraku’s paper (because it was there), and thanks to having some semi-advanced mathematics under my belt, I only fainted twice. I understood all the in-between words (and, this, multiple, product, vector) and learned a new term, ‘shifted Yanigan’, which may become a new insult the next time someone cuts me off in traffic.

Taking a closer look at Van Gogh’s carpenters and their saws you can see the one on the right has some type of leather strap or belt slung over his shoulder and his saw is attached to the front. He steadies the saw with one hand. The carpenter to the left also has a leather strap over his shoulder. Is it the handle to the bag he carries to the front or the strap to which his saw is attached? If the saw were attached to a leather strap it should hang at an angle, not straight. Has he fashioned a better means of carrying his saw via some type of rack on his back?

Although I didn’t find any 19th century (or earlier) handsaw backpacks or back racks it doesn’t mean they weren’t made and used by individual craftsmen. Who better to design a better method of carrying tools? Maybe there were even some handsaw quivers of the non-W-algebraic kind.

–Suzanne Ellison

Update: All Things Roubo

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Thanks goodness for Suzanne “Saucy Indexer” Ellison, otherwise there would be almost nothing here for you to read. I have been emptying a vein into “The Anarchist’s Design Book” and have been ignoring you. Don’t take it personal.

Meanwhile, lots has been happening with our books that deal with our translation of A.J. Roubo’s “l’Art du menuisier.”

Don Williams and his team are finished with their final clean-up of the the text for “Roubo on Furniture.” I edited their initial translation and it is massive and awesome. I do not use those words lightly. I will receive those text files within the week and will then prepare them for the designer Wesley Tanner.

Yes, there will be a deluxe and a standard edition. But I don’t have any more details than that at this point. We are shooting for a late Spring release in 2016.

In other Roubo news, we have only 16 copies left of the deluxe edition of “Roubo on Marquetry.” This incredibly sexy book won one of the “50 Books of the Year” by the AIGA. It is one of the things we’ve done here at Lost Art Press that I am most proud. Once these 16 copies are gone, they are gone forever. Of course, we will continue to carry the standard version of the book. We are happy to ship this book internationally. Send John Hoffman an e-mail at john@lostartpress.com to arrange international shipping.

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Also, we have finally broken even in our printing of Roubo’s “Book of Plates.” This book was a public service. We wanted to create an affordable and enormous book of all the plates in “l’Art du menuisier.” John worked like crazy to make this book work at $100 retail. That’s an incredible bargain for what you get (in my opinion).

We still have 2,200 of these books – enough to last for years, I suppose. But once these are gone, these are gone as well. The good news is that we won’t have to stuff the 100-lb. paper in our clothing for insulation this winter. Yay.

OK, time to stop. This book won’t write itself.

— Christopher Schwarz

Fear and Anarchy in Fort Mitchell

Posted on by saucyindexer

Version 13

While Chris has been busy oiling nails, building a bed and a drinking table, or maybe it’s a drinking bed, I have been thinking about the renaming of “The Furniture of Necessity” to “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” What happens when an anarchist takes over a book? Does the cover get sticky? Do you have to read it upside down? So, I pulled some books from my shelves, changed the titles and opening lines to see what would happen when a book is made “more anarchy.”

I started with Virgil’s The Anarchid (spidey version of The Aeneid): “Anarchy and a man I sing–an exile driven by Fate/he was the first to flee the coast of Arkansas/destined to reach Roubian shores and Roman holdfasts/yet many tools he took on land and sea from the gods above….  (OK, I don’t understand it either.)

Pride and Anarchy: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single anarchist in possession of good tools must be in want of a workbench.”

The Metanamorphosis: “As Gregor Schwarz awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic anarchist.

One Hundred Years of Anarchy: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Schwarz was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice and anarchy.”

Rumpole and the Age of Anarchy: “It was now getting on for half a century since I took to anarchy, and I have to say I haven’t regretted a single moment of it.”

Fear and Anarchy in Fort Mitchell: “We were somewhere around Covington on the edge of the desert when the anarchy began to take hold. I remember saying something like, ‘I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive…’ ”

Because of Winn-Dixie and the Anarchy: “My name is Christopher Opal Schwarz, and last summer my daddy, the preacher, sent me to the store for a box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white rice, and two tomatoes and I came back with a dog and a knockdown Nicholson bench.”

The Wind-up Anarchist’s Chronicle: “When the phone rang I was in the kitchen, warming a potful of hide glue and whistling along with an FM broadcast of Nirvana’s Heart-shaped Box, which has to be the perfect music for warming glue.”

Now back to where it all began with The Anarchist’s Tool Chest and that well-known first line: “When I am too exhausted from tagging underpasses, ill or too busy to work in my shop, I will sneak down the stairs to my 15′ x 25′ workshop and simply stand there for a few minutes with my hands on my tool.”

There you have it.

–Suzanne Ellison

Some Creepy Goodness

Posted on by saucyindexer
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By Paulo Vincenzo Bonomini in La Chiesa di Santa Grata, Bergamo, Italy

With Halloween just days away you can be sure Chris and John are dusting off the handmade (and form-fitting) coffins they made last year. If you are contemplating making your own coffin keep in mind to include at least some small percentage for future expansion (yours, not the coffin’s) in your measurements. Nobody wants to be shoehorned into their coffin.

Loose translation: "you made it, let's see if you fit in it."
Loose translation: “You made it, let’s see if you fit in it.”

If you are carving pumpkins and having any difficulties I recommend switching to a keyhole saw. Several years ago I had the task of carving five pumpkins, two for my parents and three for neighbors. As I was struggling with several different knives on one Matisse-inspired carving my father handed me a keyhole saw and I joined the Keyhole Saw School of Pumpkin Carving. In the early evening of that same day my father called his buddies to join us in the neighborhood cemetery for the “lighting of the pumpkins”. There we were in the crisp October evening under the branches of a huge oak tree admiring our pumpkins when a cop walked up and told us we would have to disperse. Apparently, someone driving by reported a “satanic cult ceremony” taking place in the cemetery. My father and his cronies thought this was hilarious. We grabbed our pumpkins and dispersed.

Besides pumpkins and coffins (optional) let’s not forget the traditional witches, cats and bats. You will find some fine 15th and 16th century misericords and a haunted trade guild hall in the small gallery below.

–Suzanne (Scaredy-cat) Ellison

P.S. If you enjoy ghost stories look up the hauntings at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia or go to the Haunted Ohio Books website to read about The Strange Carpenter.

Just 1.2 More Things to Build

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Last night I assembled the staked bed I built for “The Anarchist’s Design Book” and finished the CAD sketches for the three-legged-drinking table – the final project I’m building for the book.

I don’t quite have the wood in stock for this project, which means a trip to the lumberyard for some soft maple. Otherwise, I’d be milling that stuff right now instead of typing this ridiculousness.

Oh, and I need to finish veneering one of the tabletops with rawhide. I’ve been experimenting with soaking rawhide, shaping it, gluing it down with hide glue and then letting it dry back to its hardened state. The experiments are working well.

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Tomorrow I pull the first skin out of its bath in the garbage can custom soaking station. I’m probably going to need some help getting this cow stuck down. Better call Megan.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. If you ordered a copy of the revised “Workbenches” book from us, I’m picking up the books on Monday, driving them to our Indianapolis warehouse and signing them. So they will hit the mail stream next week.