Lost Art Press

The Year of the Ankle-biters

Posted on by Lost Art Press

dutch_DVD1_IMG_9932

The state of Maine has some amazing wildlife. And it, whatever it is, is biting me.

This week I’m in midcoast Maine to film a DVD on building a Dutch Tool Chest and attend the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks Open House on Friday and Saturday. Details here. If you live within driving distance, I highly recommend the experience. John Hoffman and I will be there with T-shirts and our full line of books. And we’ll be making Wierix squares.

Anyway, back to the biters. Something is feasting on my ankles. And while that’s inconvenient, my ankles will not be shown in the DVD (sorry, ladies). So really, my itchy ankles are of no consequence to you.

However, have you ever seen my “Sawing Fundamentals” DVD? If you watch it on a big screen, you can make a drinking game out of counting the flies shown in the DVD (the last guy to guess correctly the number of flies is now on a waiting list for a liver transplant).

We shot that DVD during the cold months, but something about the lights used during the shoot woke them up from their slumber. After every hour or so, we had to sweep up hundreds of the suckers.

We tried to scare the flies off by putting a few of their heads on tiny spikes (OK, the “spikes” were toothpicks), but the flies kept coming. Waves and waves of them.

Best thing I can say about them: They didn’t bite my ankles.

— Christopher Schwarz

On a Higher Level

Posted on by fitz

?????????????????

No man ever finished his work, for each task is but a preparation, which, being completed, should be put under our feet, that we may thenceforward labor on a higher level. Thus, no true worker was ever satisfied with what he accomplished, for, by doing that, he had qualified himself to do something better.

George Houghton

The Hub – August, 1875

—Jeff Burks

De Dorpstimmerman – Tony Lodewijk George Offermans (1854-1911)

The Canadian Gravity Latch

Posted on by Lost Art Press

gravity_latch_IMG_9919

Ric “Formerly Anonymous” Archibald made a cool little locking system for his Dutch Tool Chest. He calls it the “Gravity Latch.”

Ric, like a fair number of students, made a Dutch tool chest before taking the class on making the Dutch tool chest. Yes, I think it’s curious, too.

— Christopher Schwarz

18 Chests, 144 Dovetails and 0 Clamps

Posted on by Lost Art Press

LN_dutch_chests_IMG_9916

Today we had to assemble 18 dovetailed Dutch tool chests during a two-hour period. We had glue. We had mallets. But we didn’t have any clamps that were long enough.

So we fetched the hammers and the nails.

When you look at lots of old furniture, you’ll come across a fair number of them where the dovetails are nailed. If you are a regular visitor to The Furniture Record, then you have seen this joinery method before.

Sometimes it is obvious that the nails were added later for some reason – waffle-headed roofing nails on an 18th-century piece are a clue. Other times the nails look like they are as old as the piece and were added by the maker.

nail_dovetail_IMG_9913

When I announced we were nailing the dovetails during this class at Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, I saw a few raised eyebrows. But as there were no clamps, so everyone dove in.

To assemble these chests, we used 6d cut hinge nails from Tremont. The hinge nail is a headed nail, so it is ideal for fastening chores such as this. All the chests went together in less than two hours and are all as tight as ticks.

— Christopher Schwarz

Jonathan Fisher. Begin the Begin

Posted on by Lost Art Press

fisher_desk_IMG_9860

People often ask: “Where do you get your ideas?”

And people often ask: “Do you really like to travel so much?”

The answer to each question is wrapped up in the other question. Then dipped in batter. And deep fried. The truth is that traveling is impossibly stimulating. The world is made of wood, and if you will allow yourself to be consumed by it, it will reward you with both insight and a way of life.

fisher_chest_IMG_9819

For the last two days I have been immersed in the world of minister Jonathan Fisher, an 18th-century Renaissance man who traveled to the wilds of Maine in the name of God and tamed them in a way that has touched generations of people in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Thanks to woodworker Joshua Klein and Thomas Lie-Nielsen, I’ve spent the last two days examining Fisher’s tools, furniture, paintings, house, lathe, workbench and camera obscura (for starters).

I could write a few sentences about Fisher here, but they would be weak. (Here’s an all-too-brief account.) Fisher was a polymath in a way that no blogger could condense or compile. He was astonishingly industrious. He left a long legacy of tools, furniture, maps, architecture, drawings, schools, paintings and writing that all give an amazing glimpse into the early American mindset.

He was, in fact, the prototypical American. He did everything. And he tried to do it well.

During the coming weeks I hope to post photos of Fisher’s tools and work here on the blog. I think you will like what is to come. His efforts represent what many of us hope to achieve in our own lives. But when you look at Fisher’s body of work, you can say only one word.

Dang.

So stay tuned.

— Christopher Schwarz

fisher_bed