Lost Art Press

Woodworking, San Marcos Style

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This weekend I’m in San Marcos, Texas, at the Wortheffort school of woodworking. Haven’t heard of the school? It’s new. But I hope you will hear more soon.

The school is the brainchild of Shawn Graham, who wanted to create a hand-tool school with a community focus. The storefront school is located in the small college town of San Marcos – halfway between Austin and San Antonio. It’s on the same strip with lots of tattoo parlors, locavore restaurants, boxing clubs and college bars.

Today I arrived at the school as Shawn was finishing one of the French workbenches for the school in order to accommodate 13 students in the classroom. It’s a big, open and airy room, with a digital projector, whiteboards and lots of benches.

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And it’s all sourced from Craigslist.com, Shawn says.

After dumping my tools off, I headed over to the Root Cellar Cafe, an incredible little subterranean restaurant, for a late lunch. Then it was back to the school to help prep the stock for my class tomorrow while Shawn held a free open house for members of the community.

During the 2-1/2 hours, Shawn showed the residents (of all ages and genders) how to build a small Roubo bookstand suitable for a cellphone. He cajoled them with humor and geometry to understand the important lessons.

And I sweat like a pig in the corner while sawing up (by hand) the poplar and pine planks for the class on Saturday.

One of the locals looked over and asked Shawn what I was doing.

“He’s the teacher for the weekend class; he’s just sawing up sticks,” he said.

“A teacher? I thought he was just the hired help,” she said.

Well, I really am the hired help. This school is clearly Shawn’s baby. It has the feel of Roy Underhill’s The Woodwright’s School, but done in a Texas style. As I grew up just one state north (but a world away) we’ll see how I do when I start teaching in the morning.

Perhaps Shawn will see fit to send me back to the corner to saw wood. And I’m OK with that.

— Christopher Schwarz

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New Book in the Works from Lost Art Press

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Thanks to a generous British reader, we have a new book in the works here at Lost Art Press that fills an important gap in hand-tool knowledge.

The story of this new book starts only about six weeks ago when John Hoffman and I went to England to research campaign furniture and to attend the European Woodworking Show at Cressing Temple.

Woodworker Richard Arnold pulled us aside at Cressing Temple and showed us two booklets from the turn of the last century. Titled “Doormaking for Carpenters & Joiners” and “Window-making for Carpenters & Joiners,” these two little booklets represent exactly the sort of thing we seek out at Lost Art Press.

These books were written by an experienced practitioner who wanted to preserve in print the hand-tool methods used for making doors and windows. Unlike many books out there on doors and windows, these little gems are aimed at the novice. They begin with the very basic stuff that you almost never see written down. Both books cover layout in an exhaustive manner (using ticking sticks I might add). And both books begin with very simple projects and progress step by step to more complex doors and windows.

I read both booklets in a day. They are outstanding, and we want to share them with you.

The bad news is that these booklets are rare. There is even a low-quality reprint of both booklets from the 1970s that is also rare. Booklets do not survive as well as books.

The good news is that Richard has loaned us two pristine originals that we are sending to a professional scanning service. We are going to combine the two booklets into one durable, hardcover book so that this sort of knowledge isn’t lost. This book deserves to be in print.

If you have ever been interested in how to make quality doors and windows in an efficient manner, I know you’ll like this book quite a bit.

I don’t have information on pricing or the release date yet. My best guess: Less than $20 and in March.

Thanks again to Richard. Readers like him make our job easier.

— Christopher Schwarz

Shipping Update: ‘To Make as Perfectly as Possible’

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John Hoffman says that – except for a few international orders – all of the pre-ordered copies of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” are in the hands of the U.S. Postal Service.

That means if you ordered a deluxe or standard copy of the book before the book was released at Woodworking in America, your book is on its way.

We apologize for the time-consuming process. John and his son, Jacob, have been personally packing every box since the minute John returned from Woodworking in America. For the deluxe editions, we had to use a special box and packing materials that required some custom cardboard fabrication (thanks, band saw).

John and Jacob are now shipping out all the other orders that have come in since WIA, including T-shirts.

If you have had a problem with your shipment and have not reported it to us, please let John know at john@lostartpress.com. If you have reported it, we ask for a little patience during this busy time of year.

Speaking of busy, “The Art of Joinery: Revised Edition” is on its way to John’s garage as I type this.

I should probably send them a case of Red Bull and vodka.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. If you want to make the publisher happy, rip the plastic condom off your deluxe edition and start reading it. The book is tough enough to withstand even the sharpest gaze.

Interview with Andrew Detloff at Ravinheart Renditions

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ravinheartAndrew Detloff has just posted a 30-minute chat session we recorded last night. We discussed why Don Williams’ Roubo translation is so important, the machinery in my workshop and (no surprise) workbenches.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Detloff interviews a lot of woodworkers. Check out his blog’s main page for chats with planemaker Scott Meek, Jim Heavey and Hendrik Varu.

— Christopher Schwarz

Roubo T-shirts for Canada

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Canadians can now order our “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” T-shirts through our Zazzle.ca store.

The T-shirts use exactly the same design as the shirts we sell in the Lost Art Press store. The images are printed on 100-percent cotton American Apparel T-shirts. The shirts are $35.25 (Canadian) each with reasonable shipping (about $6 on average).

You can order the shirts directly through Zazzle.ca using this link.

We will be opening other Zazzle portals in Europe and Australia in the coming months.

As these T-shirts are being made by a third party, we do not have complete control over the quality (this makes us a little nuts). If you have a complaint about a shirt – and we hope you don’t – let both us and Zazzle know.

— Christopher Schwarz