Lost Art Press

For a Rainy Day (or a Nuclear Apocalypse)

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Today I was riveting the heck out of the seats for these folding campaign stools I’m building. And after the 25th rivet, I realized something bad was going to happen. I was going to run out of “burrs.”

Burrs are the copper washers that get compressed against the leather and hold the rivet tight. You need one burr for every rivet. And I was five burrs short of finishing the seat.

This is generally not my way. I always buy too much hardware – I have boxes full of knobs, screws and doovlackys galore. But today I was five burrs short.

So I abandoned the project until I could buy some more copper rivets and burrs. I made dinner. My mind wandered.

Growing up in Arkansas, our garage was home to three things: my dad’s workshop, kids’ toys and my father’s private collection of canned tuna fish, Tostitos and toilet paper.

We belonged to one of those early warehouse-style food store where you buy food stacked on pallets and box it yourself. My dad, keen on the idea, bought boxes and boxes of tuna, Tostitos and TP. I often wondered if he tried to keep the tuna in balance with the TP. As in: Do I have enough TP to accommodate this amount of tuna?

But our family’s humor has always leaned toward the scatalogical.

When my friends saw the stack of tuna, TP and Tositios, they’d mock me and ask to see the fallout shelter and so forth. I just shrugged my shoulders. I’ve always liked Tostitos and a clean bum.

Somehow today this image (of the Tostitos, not the clean bum) wandered through my head, and I scolded myself for not buying more burrs the last time I was buying buckles.

But wait, I thought. I did buy some more burrs. They were with the buckles. In the bag with the buckles.

I rushed to the shop. Sure enough, the bag was full of buckles and burrs.

Ha! Time for a tuna fish sandwich.

— Christopher Schwarz

Reason No. 2 to Attend Woodworking in America – Plate 11 Bench Co.

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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2. If you want a French workbench but don’t have the machines or time to build it yourself, I’d like you to meet Mark Hicks of the Plate 11 Bench Co.

Mark took my campaign chest class at Marc Adams School of Woodworking this year. Not that he needed it – he runs his family’s furniture business in Ozark, Mo. This year, Mark has expanded his business to start making workbench kits.

If I were to buy a workbench, this is exactly how I would want it.

The parts come unfinished. All the joinery is cut. No vises. All you need to do is do the final fine-fitting, assemble the bench and then add the vises of your choosing. The bench comes in two heights (which can be trimmed to a wide variety of custom heights) and with two joinery choices when it comes to the joint that fits the top to the legs: a tenon, or the sliding dovetail/tenon in French benches.

Here are the specs:

Material: Kiln-dried 16/4 silver maple
Weight: 200lbs
Top Dimensions: 23” wide x 84” long x 3-3/4” thick
Leg Dimensions: 5-­1/2” wide x 3-3/4” thick
Two standard leg heights: 38” (adjustable to 34”) or 33” (adjustable to 29”)
Leg Joinery: Bare Faced Tenon

Mark is still working out the pricing, but he thinks the base bench will be about $2,000.

He will have a booth at Woodworking in America and prototypes of his benches to show and sell. Do stop by, meet him and check out his benches.

If you can’t attend Woodworking in America, you can read more about the benches at his web site: Plate11.com.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Harmonic Scarecrow

Posted on by fitz
Saw Setter or Harmonic Scarecrow Music hath charms to sett the teeth on edge.
Saw Setter or Harmonic Scarecrow
Music hath charms to sett the teeth on edge.

SAW, an instrument which serves to cut into pieces several solid matters, as wood, stone, ivory, &c. The best saws are of tempered steel ground bright and smooth: those of iron are only hammer-hardened: hence, the first, besides their being stiffer, are likewise found smoother than the last.

They are known to be well hammered by the stiff bending of the blade; and to be well and evenly ground, by their bending equally in a bow. The edge in which are the teeth is always thicker than the back, because the back is to follow the edge.

The teeth are cut and sharpened with a triangular file, the blade of the saw being first fixed in a whetting block. After they have been filed the teeth are set, that is, turned out of the right line, that they may make the fissure the wider, that the back may follow the better. The teeth are always set ranker for coarse cheap stuff than for hard and fine, because the ranker the teeth are set the more stuff is lost in the kerf.
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Update on ‘To Make as Perfectly as Possible’ Deluxe and Standard Editions

Posted on by Lost Art Press

roubo_proofs2_IMG_7016If you have ordered either the deluxe or standard edition of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry,” here is a quick update on the books and your order.

Both the standard and deluxe editions will be released first at Woodworking in America. We didn’t plan it this way, but that is when both books are going to be in-house and available. If you are coming to Woodworking in America, you can pick up your copy there in person.

If you are not attending Woodworking in America, your order will ship immediately after Woodworking in America. We’ll be shipping the deluxe versions first. Then the standard editions.

If you ordered the deluxe edition, we know this has been a long wait for you (it has been a long wait for us, as well). To thank the people who bought the deluxe edition, they will all receive a coupon that will allow them to download the electronic version of the book at no additional charge. This will be a high-resolution pdf that will work on computers or ebook readers.

None of the books – deluxe or standard – that ship out will be autographed. If having a book autographed is important to you, we encourage you to pursue this on your own.

Publishing these editions has been the most complex, expensive and time-consuming venture I have ever been involved in. As someone who has read these books at least six times over in the last year, I can say that it will be worth the wait.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. There is still time to order the standard edition with free domestic shipping. Orders before Oct. 10 receive free shipping. To place an order, visit our store here.

Off-the-rack Hardware for the Folding Stool

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Several readers have asked about the hardware-store solution to the three-way bolt needed for the three-legged folding stool. While I am working on an old-school solution, here is how to accomplish the job with about $3.50 of easy-to-source metal.

Note that this is for 1”-diameter legs. If you bump up to 1-1/8” or 1-1/4”, you will need a longer hex bolt and eye bolt.

One 5/16” x 2-1/2” hex bolt
One 1/4” x 2” eyebolt (if your store carries 5/16”, use that instead)
One 5/16” acorn nut
One 1/4” acorn nut
Two 5/16” washers
One 1/4” washer

When I use this hardware arrangement, I drill 21/64” through-holes in the legs. And I usually coat most of the threads of the eyebolt with some epoxy. This coating prevents the threads from chewing up the hole in the leg.

I’ve had this arrangement in a stool that my 13-year-old daughter has been using daily since last year. So far, so good.

— Christopher Schwarz

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