Lost Art Press

A Dream Shop in Singerhof

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Singerhof_shop_door__IMG_6267

Today I wanted to move to Germany. Buy some lederhosen. Raise some sheep.

Because of an unfortunate flood in eastern Bavaria, Dictum GmbH had to move my Roorkhee chair class to Munich. But the Munich workshop didn’t have enough lathes for the 10 students. So we had to move today’s class to Dictum’s shop in Singerhof, which is located two hours northeast of Munich.

And boy was it worth the drive. The Singerhof shop is located in an old farm (the students guess it dated from the 1700s). The farm was large enough that it had its own chapel. And all the buildings surrounded a common courtyard.

Dictum’s shop on the grounds is in a stone room with vaulted ceilings and stone columns. And for the first time during all my visits to Europe, I wanted to move here.

I told Petra Steinberger, the director of Dictum, that I wanted to purchase the farm.

She shook her head.

“After me,” she said.

It was a great day of turning – introducing many students to the lathe for the first time. Tomorrow we return to Munich to start making the leather for the seats.

If, of course, the rivets we ordered actually arrive.

— Christopher Schwarz

Carpentry Under Modern Conditions

Posted on by fitz

millwork_shop

It does not follow that because most wood-work used about a building may be obtained at the mill, machine made, that the carpenter should not equip himself with the knowledge necessary to make by hand every piece of wood-work required to complete a building. There is a sameness about millwork that always impresses itself unfavorably on the artistic sense, and this quality is so well understood in high quarters, that many very rich men will not permit finished machine made work to be introduced in their residence.

While it may be true that machine made work is, in many cases, superior to hand-made work, yet it is characterless and inartistic, as it is the machine, not the workman, that leaves its impression on the finished product, and each piece is a facsimile of each other piece. For utilitarian purposes machine made work occupies a high rank, as it is generally well made, solidly put together, and costs much less than hand-made work, qualities that recommend it for general use.

By hand-made work I do not mean work that is sawn from the rough by hand, or manipulated at every stage by brute force with saw and plane. The circular saw, the planer, the mortiser and tenoner may and should be employed in preparing material for hand work, thus relieving the workman of the present from the drudgery that his forefathers were forced to undergo.
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The Art of Mahogany and Veneer Sawing

Posted on by fitz

Pit-SawMy father-in-law was by trade a sawyer, and a good workman; in fact, Thomas Leaf had the reputation of being the best veneer-sawyer in that part of the country. I, being destitute of employment, and no prospect of obtaining any, except by leaving England, which I was unwilling to do, Mr. Leaf undertook to teach me the art of mahogany and veneer sawing.

From the commencement of that business I gave promise of success, and it was not the least consoling to know, that at length I had found a trade wherein I could become respectable, and at least, something more than mediocre. It was soon my father’s boast, that with his “ big lad”—for I was too boy-like to pass for a man—with his lad “he could turn more veneers out of an inch plank than any other pair of craftsmen in the town.”

Thomas was an original in his way ; he had superior qualities as a workman, and seldom forgot to talk about them. He was generally upon good terms with himself; he had an unflinching independence of action, and a deep sense of honour and integrity regulated all his dealings. In a pecuniary point of view, my new trade was not so remunerative as it had been before the invention of the circular saw.
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Strong Beer, that he might be Strong to Labour

Posted on by fitz
printing_pressBenjamin Franklin writing about his time spent working at Watt’s Printing House in London, about the year 1725.

At my first admission into the printing-house I took to working at press, imagining I felt a want of the bodily exercise I had been used to in America, where presswork is mixed with the composing. I drank only water; the other workmen, near fifty in number, were great drinkers of beer. On occasion, I carried up and down stairs a large form of types in each hand, when others carried but one in both hands; they wondered to see, from this and several instances, that the Water American, as they called me, was stronger than themselves who drank strong beer!

We had an alehouse-boy, who attended always in the house to supply the workmen. My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner; a pint in the afternoon about six o’clock, and another when he had done his day’s work. I thought it a detestable custom; but it was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer, that he might be strong to labour.

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Hints for Staining Elm of a fine Mahogany Colour

Posted on by fitz

desk Extract of a Letter* from the Reverend Mr.—— to —————, Member of the Society for encouraging Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce; and by him ſent to Dr. Templeman: Containing Hints towards attaining a Method of ſtaining Elm of a fine Mahogany Colour.

* This letter was read before a committee, on Sept. 12, 1763

You know very well, my dear ſir, in what manner I ſpend much of my time, I agree with you that philoſophical enquiries are very amuſing; but ſhould not we ſometimes indeavour to benefit the world by our reſearches, as well as entertain ourſelves? I have been for ſome months thinking of a novelty, at leaſt, in the arts; whether, if compaſſed, you would allow it to be an improvement, I cannot ſay.

The world of England has been, for ſome years paſt, running mad after mahogany furniture: an inferior artiſan thinks it a great misfortune, if he cannot have his two or three mahogany tables, or whatever elſe you pleaſe to call it, the wood is abſolutely, as I am very well informed, grown ſcarce in our Weſt-India iſlands, ſo that a great deal of French mahogany is yearly imported *, notwithſtanding which, the price, the dealers ſay, is of late very much riſen. What I would propoſe is that the hard cloſe-grained English elm ſhould be ſubſtituted in its place. I know it will take a good stain, but I have not yet found out a method of giving it a true mahogany colour.

* A great deal of mahogany, of a very inferior quality, has been lately imported from the Havannah: It is much ſofter and paler than the Jamaica wood, and will ſooner decay.

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