Lost Art Press

SAPFM’s Mid-year Conference Looks Crazy Good

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Though I can’t attend the mid-year conference of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers in Knoxville, Tenn., next month because of family obligations, I urge you to check it out. The program, which runs June 11-15, is pretty fantastic.

Check out the full listing of events here. Of course, the historical stuff is great, including the house tours and inspections of period pieces, I am most interested in the presenters who are discussing the nitty-gritty how-to.

At the top of the list: Al Breed. You might not find a better living, professional cabinetmaker today. His work is as good as I’ve seen. And he’s a great instructor. Al will show how he veneers curved surfaces and might have time to show some of his carving as well.

Don Williams (you know Don, right?) will be there to step back into the finishing realm after finishing up the exhibit of the H.O. Studley tool cabinet and workbench. Don’s true passion is on historical finishing methods. Just ask him. No, strike that. You don’t even need to ask. Just stand near him and it will all come out.

Don will show his methods for making new finishes look old. Expect cool chemistry stuff.

And then there’s Jeff Headley and Steve Hamilton, who will show how to construct a Shenandoah Valley Tall Case Clock. Even if you have no interest in clocks, do not miss a chance to see Jeff and Steve work. These guys are fantastic, smart and hilarious. I’ve seen them present about five times and could go another 100 times.

There’s tons of other stuff going on during the four-day weekend, so check out and get registration information here.

And if you aren’t a member (I am), please consider joining. It’s a great group of dedicated woodworkers.

— Christopher Schwarz

Present Duties Well Performed

Posted on by fitz

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Many boys in the machine shop lose their opportunities of becoming skilled mechanics through waiting for a better job, just as men die waiting for something to turn up. There is no job to begin to do good work on like the one in hand, and no mistake greater than supposing that the very best mechanical skill cannot be shown on what would be called a very ordinary piece of work.

Nothing is more common than to hear complaints from apprentices that they don’t get an opportunity to learn the trade at which they are working, but generally speaking no one gets the opportunity; he makes it. There is no conspiracy to keep any one out of the position he ought to fill, but he must get into that position by his own exertions.

If a boy demonstrates that he is capable of doing a simple job of work better than anyone else, he is morally certain to get tried on a better one, if there is a better one. If he fails to do the present job right because there isn’t scope enough for his ambition, he makes it appear that it would be unsafe to trust him with better work. There is no other sure road to advancement than through present duties well performed.

American Machinist – November 10, 1883

—Jeff Burks

The Perils of Furniture Delivery

Posted on by fitz

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A motor furniture delivery truck, belonging to R. J. Horner & Co., New York, caught fire as it was being driven out to Hastings-on-the-Hudson last Saturday morning. The driver was apprized of the fire by people looking and pointing at the truck, till he realized something must be wrong. He was driving at about 12 miles per hour at the time.

The entire body back of the driver’s seat, and the contents, consisting of about $1,100 worth of furniture, were consumed, but the chassis was practically uninjured and was driven back to New York under its own power.

It is supposed that the driver or the helper was smoking, and that the sparks from the cigar ignited the inflammable material with which the furniture was packed, but the driver denies this, and says he has no idea how the fire originated. The fact that the gasoline tank was intact and the chassis uninjured would seem to prove that the fire was in no way due to gasoline or anything about the mechanism of the truck.

The Horseless Age – August 25, 1909

—Jeff Burks

The Skill in Saw-Making

Posted on by fitz

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An Industry That Requires Intelligent Labor and Many Delicate Processes.

How the Large Steel Plates Are Taken And Made to Suit the Uses of Man—Saws of All Sizes and Descriptions.

The complexity of the industries to-day found in this city will, in a very few years, cause it to rank with the greatest manufacturing centers of this country. They are as varied as opportunity and science can suggest or capital establish. In any one of them there is a lesson that few, except those engaged in the work, know anything about, but it cannot be without interest even to those whose fancies or likings tend very little to mechanicism.
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