Lost Art Press

The Specialist

Posted on by fitz

the_specialist

Today it is the specialist who is sought after. This is particularly true of the professions, and in those trades that ought to be called professions, where a high degree of skill and technical knowledge are required. It is well known that no man “knows it all,” though it is quite possible that a man may know all that is known about one branch of trade or profession, if he follows it closely.

Every day, as it closes, leaves the world richer in knowledge, and the aggregation of many days produces a store of learning which vastly increases the quantity which the beginner must master ere he approaches proficiency. A couple of centuries ago all the world knew of the healing art was within easy grasp of any average intelligent person. Now there is no living physician, however eminent, who pretends to have mastered, or even to be moderately versed in all the details of medicine and surgery. So it is with science, with law, with mechanics, and, of course, and particularly so in the building trades.
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For Those with a Good Library

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Jennie Alexander has asked for help getting a full cite on a quotation that gets thrown out a lot in the world of hand-tool woodworking.

Here’s the quote: “Because people are dead, it does not follow that they were stupid.”

This is often attributed to David Pye and is said to be from his book “The Nature and Art of Workmanship” (Cambridge University Press, 1968). I don’t have this book (shame on me, I know).

If you own this book, could you check the above quote to make sure it’s accurate and report back the page number?

Your help is much appreciated.

— Christopher Schwarz

Selling Atkins Saws

Posted on by fitz

atkins
Importance of Getting Your Article Right First and then Advertising it Emphasized by the Experience of the Manufacturers—How E.C. Atkins Started a Business that Now Employs 1200 Men in the Home Plant—Sought Publicity Through the Trade Papers First—Now Uses General Magazines and Weeklies.

“Get something worth selling— then use printers’ ink.”

This is the Golden Rule of business which E. C. Atkins & Co. followed for many years before they got the “something.” Then they applied the stimulant which produces business wealth — printers’ ink. The sum total is, the company is now one of the greatest producers of saws in the world and some say the greatest. Year after year the Atkins output increases in volume and the expenditures for advertising space grow apace.

The story of Atkins advertising is necessarily the story of Atkins saws, of the man who made both possible. As a maker of saws, the Atkins plant in Indianapolis is a pioneer in the development of the industry as it is known to-day. It was among the first to turn raw steel into a finished saw that the railroads, the trail-makers of civilization, might cut their paths through the woods of the Middle West.

With the Atkins saws, too, was produced some of the first lumber for homes, wagons, bridges, barges and boats of the pioneer settlers in the Mississippi Valley, for there was still much of a trackless forest about him when E. C. Atkins began to make saws. The Atkins works was doubtless the first in its line of industrial activity to see the wealth that is to be wrought out of printers’ ink.
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‘Shaker Side Table’ DVD Now in Stock

Posted on by Lost Art Press

shakerside“Shaker Side Table,” my latest DVD with Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, is now in stock through the Lost Art Press store.

It is $40 plus domestic shipping. Click here to see it in the store.

The reason this DVD is so expensive is because it is more than four hours long. In it, I show every operation in building this table completely by hand, from tapering the legs to applying the finish. The DVD is, in essence, all the demonstrations I would show students during a week-long class on building this table.

Also, I am not a quiet worker. During every operation I continue to talk, explaining the method I’m using and the pros and cons of alternative methods.

As a result, the DVD is dense with information. And like a growler of imperial IPA, it is not designed to be consumed all in one sitting.

When the DVD came out, I was terrified that viewers would recoil at the length of the program. It is longer than any woodworking DVD I’ve been involved with. To my surprise, reaction has been good. Very good in fact.

My next DVD with Lie-Nielsen, which they are editing now, will be a similar approach to building a boarded chest entirely by hand. So if you like the side table DVD, you’ll probably like the boarded chest video as well.

As always, these DVDs are possible only because of the good people at Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. Left to my own devices, I would never appear in a DVD (or teach a class, or talk to a woodworking club, or attend a show). I look like a lab animal and sound like a barking dog. But Thomas Lie-Nielsen is of the mind that many woodworkers like to learn using video, and he’s right.

— Christopher Schwarz

Swedish Double Bench

Posted on by fitz

swedish_single_bench

The Bench.—The tool most frequently used is the bench, and of this many varieties or patterns exist. Whatever pattern is adopted, however, the embodiment of these common principles must be ensured, if the maximum of utility is to be obtained :—

(a) It must be rigid and stable, by being suitably and securely framed, put together, and fixed.

(b) It must be level on the top of the planing board, which should not be less than 10″ broad.

(c) It must be of such a height as best suits the work and the height of the worker—30″ or 31″ being high enough.

(d) Details of construction must ensure that natural shrinkage and wear shall limit its usefulness to as small a degree as possible.

(e) It should have a clearance all round of at least 2½ or 3 feet.

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