Lost Art Press

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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Common Woodworking Tools—Saws

Posted on by fitz

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It often occurs that an amateur, with a taste for mechanics, determines to go in for a small set of tools, and after having laid out four or five pounds at an ironmonger’s, finds by-and-by, to his sorrow, that his judgment has been at fault in two respects—first, in not selecting the tools most suitable for his purpose; and next, in selecting tools of inferior quality.

A few practical hints on these matters may therefore be of use to such as are not trained artisans, but who simply seek, in their workroom, the means of recreation from the real occupation of their lives. Yet even among that former class, of which I am proud to acknowledge myself a member, I trust there will be many who will derive both pleasure and profit from the perusal of the following papers.
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This is Not Your 15th-century Ancestor’s Table

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Though it might seem like it, I’m not writing a book about medieval furniture. I’m leaving that task to the capable hands of Derek Olson at the Oldwolf Workshop. Check it out here, it’s going to be cool.

The stuff in my book, the “Furniture of Necessity,” has its roots planted in the past, but the leaves are new. The writing, which is about halfway done, is more in the vein of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” Yes, the book is about one thing, but also another thing. Which means the Lumberjocks will hate it.

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I am drawing inspiration from early furniture because the rules for what was acceptable – “Indeed, Burlington Cockletit, that’s a table and that’s a chair” – were much looser than they are today. And they would use joints in ways that proper furniture makers today do not.

As to the aesthetics of the individual pieces, I want them to look comfortable in an artisan’s home. Simple. Sturdy. And not trying to be a social steppingstone.

More later. I have to pack my truck for Handworks.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Tiniest Tool Chest at Handworks (Natch)

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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This photo is kind of difficult to interpret. The big chest is 1:4 scale (about 9” long). The small one is 1:10. It is Marco Terenzi’s work, of course.

Both will be at Handworks this weekend, along with so much other cool stuff that I won’t be able to see it all.

By the way, Marco makes micro tools for sale, so follow him on Instagram. You never know when you might be zapped by a shrink ray and need a 1:4 scale hammer to fight rabid chipmunks.

— Christopher Schwarz