Lost Art Press

‘Book of Plates:’ Free Shipping Extended 2 Days

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This is not a marketing stunt. Historically we offer free domestic shipping on all pre-publication orders until the day the title ships. And due to a busy bindery, “The Book of Plates” will ship to us on Friday, two days behind schedule.

So free shipping on “The Book of Plates” now ends at midnight EST Nov. 21, 2014.

The good news is that our warehouse is planning a dedicated assembly line to fulfill all of the pre-publication orders as soon as the book is delivered there. So everyone should get their book in plenty of time before Christmas.

Today I took possession of the only advance copy of “The Book of Plates” now that our box vendor has measured the final product and is busy making 2,500 custom boxes for the book.

In my total glee, I prepared a 10-minute tour of the book, which you can watch below. In it I show the different parts of the book and explain some of the challenges in bringing it to press.

I am quite pleased with the printing job. The resolution is outstanding and the paper is sweet. I think you will get many hours, days or weeks of pleasure pondering these plates or using the images to amplify the text.

In fact, that’s what I plan to do tonight.

— Christopher Schwarz

The three Roubo volumes we have produced so far – for scale. On the top, the standard "To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry." In the middle is "The Book of Plates." And on the bottom is the deluxe edition of "Roubo on Marquetry."
The three Roubo volumes we have produced so far – for scale. On the top, the standard “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry.” In the middle is “The Book of Plates.” And on the bottom is the deluxe edition of “Roubo on Marquetry.”

All Sweatshirt Sizes in Stock (Whew), But Wait…

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At long last, we now have all sizes of our Lost Art Press USA-made sweatshirts in stock and ready to ship. Yes, there is still time to order one for Christmas – John is fulfilling these personally to make sure they get out.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that our current supplier has become unreliable. Why? We don’t know. But we know we can’t wait on them anymore.

So once this batch of sweatshirts is done we will be switching to a different supplier of USA-made sweatshirts: Royal Apparel of New York. These sweatshirts are a bit heavier, have a metal zipper and cost more. So prices will go up once this current batch is sold out, though I don’t know what the increase will be yet.

So if you want an USA-made Lost Art Press sweatshirt at $45 to $46, act now.

— Christopher Schwarz

How to Become Immortal (and Help the H.O. Studley Book)

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Don Williams and I are deep into the guts of his book on H.O. Studley’s tool cabinet and workbench – doing everything we can to get the book out in March 2015 – just in time for the exhibit of the chest at Handworks.

We have found a hole in the visual record of the cabinet that we would like to fill. The cabinet was on display at the Smithsonian as part of the exhibit “Engines of Change: The American Industrial Revolution 1790-1860” in a vignette with several other tool chests for various trades. Though the exhibit lasted almost 20 years (late 1986 to mid-2006), the Studley tool cabinet was included for perhaps only a third of that time, probably 1994-1999.

We know that thousands of woodworkers saw the cabinet during this exhibit. But we do not have a photo of the cabinet in the display. Do you?

If so, please send an e-mail to Don Williams. If your photo fits the bill it could end up in our forthcoming book on the cabinet and workbench.

Thanks in advance for any help in this matter.

— Christopher Schwarz

You Aren’t Sharpening Enough (And I’m not, Either)

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If a students shows me a tool during class and asks: “Should I s….”

I cut them off. “Yes.”

I have found that when you ask yourself if a tool is dull, the poor pathetic thing is way past being dull and is on its way to getting chipped and trashed. I think you need to sharpen an edge before it actually occurs to you to sharpen that edge. Sounds impossible, but it’s not.

I sharpen a lot, and it is part of the rhythm of my day. As I finishing planing up panels with a jointer plane, I stop to sharpen the tool before I take on the parts for the lid – even if the plane is performing well.

When I chop dovetails, I touch up the tool between each corner of a carcase – even if the chisel is keen and cutting well.

This is the opposite of the way I was taught to evaluate edges. I was told: “The surface of the wood will tell you how your edge is performing. If the wood looks bad, it’s time to sharpen.”

While that makes sense on one level, I don’t want the wood to ever look bruised or scraped or chunked out. So I sharpen the smoothing plane several times a day if this is the day I’m smoothing things.

This approach not only ensures my parts will look their best, it also removes most concerns about what steel your tool is made of. If you keep an edge wicked sharp (and nothing less) then it really doesn’t matter if A4 steel holds an edge longer than Q4.

So shut up and sharpen.

— Christopher Schwarz