Lost Art Press

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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A Botcher

Posted on by fitz

joiner_tool_bassA botcher is a clumsy bungling workman. He is found in every trade and profession, and he is one of the direct causes of the high cost of living. A botched job is expensive at any price. Sooner or later it has to be done over. No one can afford to keep very long in his employ a man who doesn’t take pains to do his work neatly, thoroughly and well.

We recently watched a boy in the act of blacking his shoes. He was particular about getting a high polish on the toes. The heels got no blacking at all, not even a rub of the brush. It is pretty safe to predict that a boy who forms the habit of shining half his shoes, and slighting the other half will grow up to be a botcher in other kinds of work.

We know a man who always blacks the heels of his shoes first. He says his father insisted on his doing it that way when he was a boy. It is now a habit with him. However pressed for time he is, having first polished the heels he never slights the fronts of his shoes. There is always time for the toes. Similar characteristics are found in every thing he undertakes to do. He is just as painstaking in piling up wood in his cellar as he is in the making of a mahogany sideboard.

The habit of painstaking is a good financial investment. It must be found in every genius. It ought to have a place in every man’s life whether or not he is engaged in work that is open to inspection. He, who when a boy, practices doing to a finish every job he undertakes and not slighting part of it because it is more or less concealed, will find, when he has grown to manhood, that he has escaped the curse which falls on some workmen, namely, of being a botcher.

E. W.

Our Paper – Concord Junction, Mass. – October 25, 1913

– Jeff Burks

Give Yourselves a Pat on the Back

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Roubo_web_loTo all of you who have supported and encouraged us along the path of completion for “To Make As Perfectly As Possible: Roubo On Marquetry,” please congratulate yourselves on making André-Jacob Roubo one happy man. Here is a revealing paragraph from the Conclusion of the original treatise.

“One of the biggest obstacles that I have had to overcome is the cry of the public against big books, which they will not buy because they are too expensive, or they buy but do not read because they are too voluminous.  But how could I do otherwise?  Should I fool the Public in pandering to their taste but against their interests by giving them an abridged and consequently less expensive edition, but where they will learn nothing, or at the most learn only words or names of the arts? ”

Well said, Monsieur Roubo. In an age where far too many want to know everything without bothering to learn anything, I am happy you have found a home at Lost Art Press.

— Don Williams, Michele Pagan and Philippe Lafargue