It’s true (I eat eggs).
OK, actually I just gave myself an early Christmas gift and deleted my web browser’s links to a couple woodworking forums.
— Christopher Schwarz
The Tool Convention
There was some commotion in the Tool Chest. “Well,” the Hand Saw was heard to remark, “I know I am superior to you all. As Julius Caesar once said, ‘I came, I saw;’ and when I settle down to work you can hear something drop.”
“But,” said the Hammer, “there is no steadiness in your character. You shift forward and backward, while I am distinguished for always hitting the nail on the head. (Here the Nail was seen to furtively rub his cranium.)
“Mr. Hand Saw,” remarked the File, in a rasping voice, “have you lost any front teeth lately?” “Silence!” cried the Hand Saw. “It’s a shame that gentlemen must associate with such an ugly, cross-grained character as you. You try to scrape every one’s acquaintance.”
The Plane tried to smooth things over, and stated that he would have something to offer before the meeting adjourned.
“Oh, Shavings!” growled the File. Whereat the Paper of Tacks laughed till it burst its sides.
“Gentlemen,” said the Glue Pot, “while you can all saw, chop, hammer and destroy, remember! that I am the only one who can mend and restore. In me are the elements of true greatness.”
“I say,” said the File, “ain’t you somewhat stuck on yourself?” At which the Glue Pot fairly boiled with indignation.
“Permit me,” said the Spirit Level, “to direct your attention to the even disposition which I ever display. I make all things straight.”
“When you have a drop of alcohol in,” suggested the File.
“Your work, gentlemen,” continued the Spirit Level, with an emphasis on the “gentlemen” which was intended to crush the File; “your work is never accepted until I have examined it, and this I say on the—”
“On the dead level,” sneered the File.
The Sand Paper essayed to speak, but was promptly laid out flat, and advised that no unnecessary friction was desired. He had plenty of sand, however, and was only silenced by the Mallet, who rapped loudly for order.
“Where do I come in?” asked the Ten-Penny Nail.
“You don’t,” said the Claw Hammer, reaching for him. “You come out.”
The Jack Knife, who was something of a blade, opened up, and declared that he had a point which he would like to present, but was greeted with loud cries of “Shut up!” which he did, with a click, after threatening to cut the acquaintance of every one present.
At this moment the Auger commenced to stagger ’round, and vow that he would “let daylight” through every one, when the Lid-of-the-Chest, a slam-bang sort of fellow, came down with a whack, and said:
“Boys, I’m onto the whole crowd.”
And the hush thickened.
— James F. Doyle, from the March 26, 1890, issue of Puck – America’s first successful humor magazine and dug up by the official Lost Art Press burrow owl, Jeff Burks.
The Last 156 Copies of ‘The Art of Joinery’ – Sold Out
I’ll try to make a long story short enough. While looking under my bed for some shoes, I found an unopened box of 52 copies of “The Art of Joinery,” our first book at Lost Art Press. Then while, doing inventory, I found another sealed box of 52 that was mixed in with “The Essential Woodworker.” And we had another box of them that we had pretty much forgotten about.
So we are going to sell these last 156 copies for $20 each plus shipping – way below the market rate for this book. If you want a copy of the first edition, now is your chance.
Before you order, please read this: One copy per customer. Sorry scalpers. If we find out you ordered more than one, we will simply cancel all your orders. As of 11 p.m. we are sold out.
In 2013 we are going to come out with a revised edition of this book with a new design, a new font, a few text changes and the addition of the entire original text from Joseph Moxon – unaltered for the purists.
— Christopher Schwarz
5 Tools for Sale
Tools should be used. And when I have some that are doing more sitting than cutting, I give them to friends or sell them.
After 15 years at Popular Woodworking and purchasing tools for review, I still have more tools than I want. Today I’m getting rid of five of them. Here are the terms. Please read them before sending me a message.
The first to say, “I’ll take it,” gets it.
I only ship to addresses in the United States.
No, you cannot come to my house and dig through my basement.
After I receive your payment (PayPal or personal check), I’ll ship your item.
If you want an item, send an e-mail to chris@lostartpress.com and be sure to say which item you want.
So here’s what I’m selling:
Lie-Nielsen No. 4-1/2 in bronze anniversary edition. Made in 2006. Price: SOLD.
This plane is virtually unused. Sharpened once. Signed. And stamped with my mark. I’ll need to grind and sharpen it again for you before shipping it. I do not have the box or the papers – sorry collectors.
Lie-Nielsen No. 62 Low-angle jack plane. SOLD.
No apologies on this tool, other than the fact that it is stamped with my owner’s mark. The iron is O1 – I bought this before the A2 craze.
Gramercy Hammer, 9 oz. head. Price: SOLD.
It’s a great hammer. I just have too damn many hammers. No apologies, other than it has my owner’s stamp on it.
Gramercy Hammer, 4 oz., Price: SOLD
Again, too many hammers. This one is great for adjusting plane irons and driving sprigs.
Wood Joy Razor Shave. Price: SOLD
I bought this shave for a review that never materialized. It’s in new, unused condition.
— Christopher Schwarz
18 Days Left to Order ‘To Make as Perfectly as Possible’
This week I am putting the finishing touches on the first third of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” and something has become quite clear to me.
It’s not really a book on marquetry alone.
These four huge chapters from A.J. Roubo’s “L’Art du Menuisier” in our forthcoming book are about much more. And I can already feel the lessons in the book seeping into my work – and I’m not big into marquetry.
The book opens with a discussion of the different woods used by cabinetmakers – both for casework and for veneering/marquetry. If you read a lot of old books, this is a section you can usually skip – most of the writers just copied one another and so the text is rather boilerplate.
Not Roubo. He collected a bunch of these woods from the Tropics and tried to make careful observations about the species based on visits he made to the Office of Natural History of the King’s Garden to observe woods there.
The text is fascinating because it is the foundation for Roubo’s discussion on color – how to combine the five different colors of woods in marquetry, veneer and solid casework. And that leads into Roubo’s discussion of how to color different woods using dyes.
If you have any interest in historical finishing techniques, this is a fun section of the book. It opens with Roubo visiting a scientist to see if they can figure out how to dye wood all the way through the material – not just on the surface.
Roubo laments that other woodworkers have this knowledge and won’t share it. And that much of the information is lost. Roubo then details how to make many dyes from scratch – including a, ahem, “water-based” one made from horse dung and horse urine. (And you need a bucket with holes in the bottom.)
From there, Roubo discusses sawing logs into veneer. How to build a bench and a saw that are suitable for the work. And he goes into great detail on his “German” workbench, which he says is well suited for high-end work.
This is actually the first time I’d ever read the section on the German workbench. Roubo details its then-controversial details – a tail vise, drawers below the stretchers, square dogs. It’s very cool stuff.
Oh and there’s a whole section on planes with iron soles (author Don Williams makes one a la Roubo for the book). And a whole section on – wait for it – the advantages and disadvantages of bevel-up and bevel-down planes. Oh, there’s also a whole discussion of variable-pitch planes. And what we call a “Moxon” vise.
And all that’s just the first chapter.
The sections on marquetry will likely change they way you build and use a shooting board and introduce you to a whole world of jigs and devices that will dispel the idea that marquetry or inlay is a skill outside of your reach. Plus there is even more information on finishing later on in the book, including information on the polissoir, a tool I now use thanks to Williams’s research.
I’m telling you all this because several of our customers have told me that they are going to skip this first book because it’s about marquetry and wait for the next book on furniture. Well this book is about furniture, too.
We are publishing two versions of this first volume – a very special 12” x 17” edition with full-size plates, color photos and a gorgeous binding that will cost about $400. I think we are going to print 500 of these special books. Everyone who places a deposit before Dec. 31, 2012, will get one of these books. Visit our store here to read more details on that.
We’ll also be publishing a nice trade edition of the first volume that will be 8-1/2” x 11”, hardback and black-and-white. It should cost about $60. This edition will stay in print (we hope) for as long as we are in business. We will have more details on this edition later. Right now, this is all we know.
OK, that’s enough yakking on my part. I have about 60,000 more words to edit today.
— Christopher Schwarz