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Last Chance for Free Shipping on ‘Doormaking and Window-Making’

Posted on by Lost Art Press

DandW-cover-finalBecause of the typical holiday insanity, I forgot to remind you that our free shipping offer for “Doormaking and Window-Making” ends on Dec. 13. Because of my mistake, we’ve decided to extend the free shipping until midnight EST on Dec. 17.

After that, shipping on this book will be $7.

We are anxiously awaiting our shipment of this book, which should arrive later this week. As soon as the truck drops them off, we’ll get all the pre-publication orders in the mail as soon as possible, even if it means making our kids go without sleep for a couple days.

If you’d like to read more about this interesting book or order it for $19, click here.

You can download a sample pdf of the doormaking section via this link. The pdf is fairly low-resolution to make it easier for you to download it. The actual scans are quite crisp.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Use of Wood for Furniture: Past and Present

Posted on by fitz

Industry and Idleness

From the remotest periods of antiquity down to the present time, wood has been largely employed in the manufacture of all the principal articles of furniture. In this particular but little change has taken place within the memory of man, and even the lapse of centuries has effected comparatively few modifications.

In the course of a series of articles on “Gains and Losses in the Use of Wood,” that appear in the Timber Trades Journal, the writer, touching upon the use of wood for furniture, says that glass has been introduced in the panels of certain furniture, to the displacement of wood, and a light and elegant character of design has taken the place of the old heavy-wooded fittings, which, of course, has somewhat interfered with the bulk of wood used in the manufacture of a given quantity of furniture. This is at best but a minor loss, and, had it not been for a solitary loss of some moment, we need not have singled out the detail of furniture for notice.

We here allude to the discontinuance of the use of wood in the important item of bedsteads. This article in the old days of “four-posters,” capped with heavy cornices, and furnished with head-boards, foot-boards, and lathed bottoms, was a host of timber in itself. These gave way to the more elegant half-headed bedsteads, with their circular cornices, a style that existed to the end of the long career of wooden bedsteads. Practically speaking, this style of furniture has been swept away, and its place has been occupied by brass and iron.
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We Must All Do Our Part

Posted on by fitz

boy-with-saw-jpegThe Basket of Tools; or, We Must All Do Our Part

A Joiner’s boy, going to his work, carried with him a basket of tools; and as he walked rather quick, it occasioned some little commotion among the sharp-edged instruments. The consequent accidental rubs which took place as they encountered each other at length excited an irritation of spirit, and the inconvenience of this unavoidable jostling soon proceeded to raise a voluntary purpose to injure one another, under the pretence of retaliation for the knocks, and scratches, and cuts which were inflicted from the deplorable circumstances in which they were placed.

“Pray, brother, keep your teeth to yourself,” said a Hatchet to a Saw. At the same time bouncing up, he gave him a pretty sharp cut on the handle, which making him strike a File with some violence that lay under him, forced its rough side against the point of a Gimblet; and whilst itself felt the hurt, it drove the handle into the box of a Plane, which it knocked out of its place and stuck fast therein.

“What are you all about?” said the Plane; “do you see what a situation you have put me into? What is to become now of your clumsy operations, if you are without the finishing touch of my ability? What sort of work will you look like, do you think?”

“I think,” said the Saw, ” that we can do perfectly well without your insignificant help. What do you do towards the forming of the things we are employed in? Whatever it be, I am the most important; the length and breadth of all things are determined by my power, and each part made to suit the other.”
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Meet my Abrasive Yellow Buddy

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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And you thought I was going to make a Wilbur Pan joke. Shame on you. I’m going to unsubscribe to your comments.

If you don’t use sanding sponges while finishing, you might want to give them a try. When I started at Popular Woodworking, we used stearated (lubricated) sandpaper (which is expensive) between coats of film finishes.

Ten years ago, contributor Troy Sexton showed me how he used sanding sponges with great results. And they cost much less money. I still have the first one I bought on the way home from Troy’s. It doesn’t cut as well as it used to, but it’s still got some life left in it.

I’ve also bought a couple new ones (spendthrift, I know), including this #320-grit 3M sponge, which I quite like. It is firm enough to handle flat surfaces. And it is thick enough and pliable enough to handle turnings (except the really tight areas).

Armed with these sponges, I can ignore the oft-repeated advice to work in a dust-proof and CDC microbe-free clean area.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Merry Christmas to My Clean Holes

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Since 1993, I’ve had pretty much the same set of bits – brad-points I inherited from my grandfather and a set of Forstners I bought from Lee Valley. I’ve tried to maintain these bits as best I could, but when building all these Roorkee chairs, I gave up on my bits.

So I bought two dream sets of bits.

I first got a taste of the Lee Valley HSS Brad-points when I started working at Kelly Mehler’s woodworking school. He keeps a special stash of them that has saved our collective bottoms on several occasions. I’ve wanted a set of these bits ever since. And last week I bought the set of 28. They are all still dipped in their protective flubber and I can’t stand to remove it. Joy!

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While at Popular Woodworking we got to test out some of the Maxi-Cut Forstners after being wowed by them at a tool show. They are very well made and clear chips like nobody’s business. I bought a set of five and will add to it as I can afford it.

I know there are other great bits out there, these are the ones I’ve had the best experience with so far. I hope they last as long as my previous sets.

— Christopher Schwarz