Lost Art Press

Barefaced and Burly

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You don’t see bareface tenons discussed much, but they can sometimes be the right joint when you need some extra strength.

For those of you new to joinery, a bareface tenon is a tenon that is missing a face cheek. Instead, the face of the workpiece acts as a tenon cheek.

The primary disadvantage is you give up the face shoulder that can conceal the rim of your mortise. And you might be giving up a little strength against lateral forces – sometimes called racking forces.

But you get some real advantages, too. You can use a thick tenon and still have a beefy mortise wall. This is helpful with workbenches and many table constructions in my experience. It makes a joint that is robust enough for drawboring with little risk of you cracking the tenon or the mortise wall.

Plus, you have one less shoulder to fit – there’s no chance that an inside shoulder can interfere with the fit of the shoulder on the outside. Oh, and the joint is less work to make.

I wouldn’t use a bareface tenon when you could easily see the inside surfaces, and a ragged mortise wall might be evident. But for apron tables and the like, it’s definitely a joint to consider.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Reason No. 3 to Attend Woodworking in America – Roubo Book Signing Event

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Roubo Triumph

3. If you are planning on picking up your pre-ordered copy of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” at Woodworking in America (or perhaps buy a copy at the show), please stop by the Lost Art Press booth at noon on Saturday, Oct. 19.

We will have many of the people involved with the project available to chat about the book and sign your copy. We’re not sure how long the event will run — it depends on how many people show up and what other obligations the authors, translators, etc. have.

Soon we also will be announcing details of a book-release party on Thursday, Oct. 17, at a local Cincinnati restaurant. We’re still running some numbers.

Sign up for Woodworking in America, Oct. 18-20. I mean come on, do you really need to weed the garden that weekend?

— Christopher Schwarz

Good Thing I Didn’t Wear a Skirt

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This was taken during French Oak Roubo project for the Highland Woodworker show. I am disgustingly dirty, sweaty and wearing some nasty shorts.

Judging from the camera angle, it’s a good thing I didn’t wear a miniskirt to the shop that day.

— Christopher Schwarz

‘Art of Joinery’ in the Birth Canal

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Our revised edition of Joseph Moxon’s “The Art of Joinery” is only a couple weeks away from going on press and will be released in November – just in time for the holidays.

“The Art of Joinery” was the first publication of Lost Art Press in 2008. That book has been out of print for several years now, and used copies are fetching obscene prices on eBay and Amazon. We originally sold the book for $17; we’ve seen it sell for $300.

The fully revised second edition will sell for about $21 (a significant savings over $300) and will be twice as thick. What’s in it?

1. The text from the first edition – a lightly edited adaptation of the original 17th-century text that made the odd grammar, spellings and sentence structure easier to digest.

2. Commentary. I’ve written about each section of the book, trying to amplify Moxon’s writings with photos and additional drawings from other sources (such as Randle Holme’s “Academy of Armory”) to put Moxon’s work in context and make it understandable to a woodworker. The revised edition will reflect a lot of things I’ve learned since 2008.

3. All the illustrations have been paired with their text explanations – no flipping back and forth between text and drawings.

4. The unedited and unchanged text, exactly as Moxon wrote it. We reset it in an historically appropriate font so you can get the real-deal old-school stuff.

5. A selection of plates from Andre Felebien’s earlier work, which Moxon might have copied for his work (you decide).

6. A complete index by Suzanne “Saucy Indexer” Ellison, who made the excellent index for “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.”

The book is ahead of schedule at this point thanks to designer Linda Watts. I was planning on designing the book myself (which is what I do with my own work), but I realized that I had been ready to design the book for almost two months and had not done squat. So I called in Linda, who designed the entire book in about 10 days. Yay Linda!

So tonight I’m proofing Linda’s layout and we will have this to the printer in less than two weeks. We’ll have complete details and a pre-publication free-shipping offer in mid-October.

— Christopher Schwarz

Reason No. 4 to Attend Woodworking in America – Food

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4. OK, because I like you (most of you, anyway), I’m going to give you the dirt on where to eat in this town. Though Cincinnati seems like a sleepy mid-sized Midwestern city, it is actually a hotbed of fantastic food and drink. I’ve lived here since 1996 and have spent as much time investigating food as woodworking.

So if you want to eat yourself sick, here is my shortlist.

1. Eli’s BBQ. Crap. I let the pig out of the bag. I’ve spent most of my life in the South and so barbecue is more important than a blond-hair blue-eyed Jesus. Eli’s is the real deal. When you go, simply order the pulled pork sandwich with slaw. And get the jalapeno cheese grits. Bring your own beer (it’s OK). And when you are there, pull out one of the vinyl LPs and put it on. It’s all good.

2. Tacocracy. You need a car to get to this taco joint in Northside (one of the neighborhoods north of downtown), but holy mackerel is it worth the trip. The photo above says it all. It’s a taco filled with mac-and-cheese and braised beef.

3. Rookwood. This gem of a restaurant is high above the city in Mt. Adams. It is in the building used by Rookwood Pottery during the Arts & Crafts heyday. The food will kill you – chicken-fried bacon with chipotle honey – and you will die happy. Get the Grippos fries. Eat in a kiln. And ask for Rom – one of the mixologists who is also a hard-core woodworker.

4. Sotto. I so hate to give this to you. This is my favorite place in the world. Buried beneath the streets of downtown, this restaurant is where I have had the best three meals of my life (and I’ve eaten there only three times). Go. Eat what they recommend. Thank me later.

5. A Tavola. I’ve written about this place before. It’s the best pizza in the Tri-state. The owner, Jared Wayne, made all the furniture himself. Everything is as it should be.

And sign up for Woodworking in America, Oct. 18-20. There are 100 more wonderful places to eat in this town. We love our food.

— Christopher Schwarz