Lost Art Press

New Hats from Lost Art Press

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Many of you told us that “blue” was not a manly enough color. And so we now offer our hats in battleship gray with black thread.

These hats are – like everything in the Lost Art Press store – made in the United States. The soft and unstructured hat is made by Bayside and embroidered in Indiana. The hat’s size is adjustable by a steel clasp and headband. It fits everyone except Sean Thomas.

They are in stock and available for immediate shipment. The cost is $17.

You can order your hat here.

— Christopher Schwarz

Of Buildings, Repairs, &c.

Posted on by fitz

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The farmer being often neceſſitated to build as well as to repair his Houſes, Barns, Stables, &c. and that not only upon the Account of Decays, but of damages done by Storms and other accidents; I thought it might be of uſe to give him ſome ſhort general Rules about Building and Repairs, and likewiſe of the Coſt and Charges of Buildings, and of ſuch Materials as are uſeful upon ſuch Occaſions, that he may the better compute his Coſt and Charges himſelf, and not wholly truſt to workmen to do it, (who often are very deceitful in ſuch Calculations,) and know how to Let his Work to them, which is much the beſt way, where the Owner underſtands it; provided he minds one Caution, which is not to change or vary from his firſt Contract, which Workmen are very apt to perſwade Men to do, if they have undertaken the Work at a low rate, or with deſign to ingage them in Building.

Not that I ſhall here pretend to give a full account of all the particulars relating to Building, and the ſeveral prices thereof, which would require a Volume of it ſelf; but what I propoſe, is only ſo much as may give an inſight unto thoſe that underſtand any thing of common Arithmetick, to compute the ordinary prices of Buildings and Repairs by, and to inſtruct them in the moſt material Rules of Architecture, ſo far as it may fit them for their common Occaſions, without committing thoſe very groſs Faults that many Builders run into.
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Panel Saws Sharpened by Matt Cianci

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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My Dutch tool chest isn’t big enough to hold full-size handsaws, so I’ve been on a long search for the right panel saws that fit the chest and suit the work I do on the road.

After searching three tool-swap meets without success, I grew tired of the hunt and asked Matt Cianci at the SawWright.com to find some panel saws for me and fix them up so they were good to go.

I’d met Cianci in person for the first time last year at a meeting of the Early American Industries Association (no good panel saws there, either). There I watched him sharpen a few saws and tried out several of the saws he had sharpened or made. The guy is dead serious about saws, and his filework is both crisp and precise.

The panel saws arrived this week, and I’ve been breaking them in. For those who are curious about the configurations of my saws, here are the details of what I like in toolbox saws.

Crosscut Panel Saw: Matt found a 22” Disston D8 that he restored for me. The saw is taper-ground (.035” at the toothline; .025” at the spine). Matt filed it as an 8-point with 15° of rake and 25° of fleam. That is a good general filing configuration for a crosscut saw – a filing I also have on my full-size handsaw.

The saw was made during the early years of the 20th century – check out the Disstonian Institute to learn a crazy amount of information on dating Disston saws.

Rip Panel Saw: Spear & Jackson No. 88, also with a 22” blade. Matt estimates it’s circa 1930. This saw is also taper-ground, though not as much as the Disston. Matt refiled this one with 7 points, 0° rake and 0° fleam. That is a fairly standard filing for someone who is comfortable with rip saws. If you are a new sawyer, you might like 3° to 5° of rake to make the saw easier to manage.

I file my own saws and am good at it. But Matt is embarrassingly better. If you have some old saws that need to be refiled or restored, I highly recommend you drop Matt a line. I am a satisfied customer. Matt’s filing job will be an excellent foundation for me as I file these saws in the future.

Thanks Matt – not only for digging up these saws for me, but for making sure the “art manual” of saw filing isn’t lost. After Tom Law died, I was worried. Now, not so much.

— Christopher Schwarz

No More Crack!

Posted on by john

What’s wrong with this picture?

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I have found a number of ways to crack the stuff I am working on. Namely half-blind tail sockets in the drawer fronts. I have been chopping them out and been cracking the board. The first way I achieved this was chopping over a dog hole. So to fix that I decided to use a scrap piece of sugar pine placed under the board. The next crack came from the scrap board being out of flat, thereby causing a lack of support at certain places. The third way I cracked the board was from hammering the chisel too far into the socket. (Please see the picture above.)

This is the angle that the chisel went to. As we all know the bevel of the chisel causes it to drift in the direction of the flat part of the chisel. Knowing this I held the chisel firmly to avoid its back from crossing the nice baseline I had. Because I was over-eager in applying force to the chisel via Dave Jeske’s awesome mallets, the chisel canted to the angle shown, and I cracked the board again. Three drawers fronts done and three cracks.

To fix one crack I used dental floss to spread the glue. I learned this trick from David (Guitar Dave) Fleming the world-class chair maker in scenic Cobden, Ontario. Chris and I spent a week building Welsh Stick Chairs with him and on the flight back I dropped the arm bow for my chair. During the next leg of the flight, the crack opened up a lot. It may have had something to do with the cabin pressure, but when I got home I called Dave for a fix. He calmly instructed me to put some glue on the crack and use dental floss to work the glue into the crack. Brilliant!

This brings up Chris’s statement a while back that good woodworkers aren’t good because they know how to fix mistakes, they are good because they avoid mistakes. We know which category I am in but now I know three things to avoid when using my chisel.

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Best,

— John Hoffman