An interior spread from “A Visitor Comes to Covington.”
Late last month, a package arrived from our researcher, Suzanne “Saucy Indexer” Ellison. I opened the package, saw it was a handmade book, and immediately set it aside. I was in the middle of teaching a chair class, plus my oldest daughter was about to arrive from Pittsburgh for her birthday.
After all the visitors – students, Maddy and her fiance – had left, I sat down with the book so I could give it my full attention. It is, of course, a fantastic document and a good story. It has everything: drinking, cats, a turtle and a mysterious visitor.
Suzanne kindly agreed to allow me to share the book with you via a video reading. If the video doesn’t appear in your mail reader, click this link to watch it.
I hope this story brightens your Sunday. Tomorrow, we’ll post Suzanne’s story about how she made the book, which is just as interesting as the book itself.
Because of the extreme financial pressures of the pandemic unprecedented demand from readers, we have decided to offer naming rights to several of the valuable components of our business. With one small payment, you can put your product or service front and center with dozens and dozens of Lost Art Press visitors every year.
Here are a few of the opportunities available.
The Lost Art Press Sanitary Room Until now, we have called our bathroom the “Klaus Skrudland Memorial Sh*$-a-teria.” But seeing as Klaus is not dead, we have decided to offer up naming rights to this essential visitor area in the Lost Art Press headquarters.
What you get: Your company’s name or logo hand-painted on the frosted glass window of our bathroom. Plus, whenever someone in the building says they have to “go to the bathroom,” we will instead say, “I have to go to the Paycor Room to Make a Convenient Paycheck Deduction” (just an example).
What your donation pays for: Hand soap that Megan is not allergic to. New batteries for Mr. Chirpy, our electronic parrot.
Lost Art Press Kitchen Every visitor compliments our tidy kitchen, and woodworking students spend their mornings and afternoons here with coffee and pastries. Currently we have our Lost Art Press logo painted on the floor. But if you are the winning bidder….
What you get: Your company’s name or logo hand-painted on the concrete floor. Plus, any time we offer coffee to visitors we will say, “Would you like a cup of Hot Synergy from our altafiber chamber?”
What your donation pays for: Lots of coffee. Chris’s toothpick collection.
The Electric Horse Garage Yes, you can name the entire Lost Art Press machine room.
What you get: Your company’s name or logo hand-painted on the shop door. Plus, any time we turn on a machine, we will say, “That’s the feeling of power you get from a Dr. Shoal’s Corn Scraper” (again, just an example).
What your donation pays for: New carbide inserts for our jointer. Safety Police jumpsuits.
“Bean” in his previous role as a Soft Wax Spokespuss.
The Shop Cat Bean eats a lot. And so we have decided to offer naming rights to this feline three-legged ambassador. Almost every visitor to our shop is greeted by a sniff from this friendly guy.
What you get: We will shave your logo into his substantial side meat. Also, people say the cat’s name hundreds of times a day. Imagine the brand burnishing that will occur every time we say “Stop licking your butt, Mr. Vlasic Kosher Dill Gherkins!” Or when people get their photo taken with the cat and use the hashtag #SummersEvePuss.
What your donation pays for: New keys to the cellar. A vegetable plate at Christmas.
I bought this stock tank at Tractor Supply. The stove is from France. Yin and yang indeed.
During the summer my steam box took its last hot breath. The interior bits had rotted away, as had the door and its hinges. I pitched the thing, planning to build a replacement.
Then I thought: Am I really happy with the Earlex wallpaper steamer that powers it? It’s fine for small chair parts, but I probably need an additional steamer to keep the temperature constant when dealing with thick armbows.
I did some math in my head and decided to try something different.
I bought a stock tank – a steel watering trough for farm animals – that measures 1’ x 2’ x 6’. Then I put it on my gas stove in the kitchen to heat the water.
Filling the stock tank at the sink.
Boiling your bits is just as effective as steaming them. On Monday I bent my first two arms (1” x 1-3/8” x 51” in red oak) using the new setup. The tank is bigger than I really need, but I might teach a chair class in the future where we bend the arms.
How did it work? Fine, as expected. The only pain-in-the-butt part was removing the water from the stock tank. This one doesn’t have a drain (yet), so I had to scoop out the water into the sink.
Wally was interested in the operation – too interested. I ended up locking him in the spare bedroom so I didn’t make Wally Stew.
I also had a constant worry that the cats were going to jump in the hot tank, and I’d find three floating carcasses in there. (Actually, I was only worried about Wally. He’s both curious and dumb.)
So for the next batch of arms, I’m probably going to buy a propane camp stove ($150) and do the operation outside.
Bonus: For our next party, I’ll have a great place to chill the beer in the stock tank. And I’ll have additional cooking facilities for making chili (with black beans, not Wally-flavored) as I smoke some ribs.
This one has been a long time in coming. On May 31, 2020, I announced here that I was writing a book on Dutch tool chests. Today, November, 8, 2024, “Dutch Tool Chests” is finally in our warehouse and available for order. (Surprise! – the cover is blue.)
Inside the book, you’ll find in-depth instruction to help you build your own slant-lid chest, from soup (choosing the wood) to nuts (and bolts – which I suggest you use to attach the chest handles). There are plans and cutting lists for two different chest sizes, as well as for a rolling base that adds storage and convenience for moving it around the shop.
I love these chests – and have built more than a few! I find them to be great additions to the workshop and for hauling tools hither and yon when I drive somewhere to teach. (And, thanks to the fun of the “hidden” bottom compartment, these also make excellent toy chests for kids!) But more valuable in the long term (if I do say so myself) than the chest are the detailed lessons on some fundamentals of hand-tool woodworking: dados, rabbets, through-dovetails and more. My intent is that in building this chest, you’ll learn skills that will serve you well in all your hand-tool projects to come.
The chapter on through-dovetails, for example, includes just about everything I know about cutting (and teaching) this joint.
Plus, you’ll find a foreword from Roy Underhill, and a gallery of chests from 43 other makers (my favorite part of the book) that shows clever interior (and a few exterior!) modifications. Unique solutions that set them apart, and can be adapted for your own tool storage needs.
“Dutch Tool Chests” is 192 pages and is printed on 8-1/2” x 11” #70 matte-coated paper in Tennessee. The pages are folded into signatures, sewn, glued and reinforced with fiber-based tape to create a permanent binding. Enclosing the signatures are heavy (98-pt.) blue-fabric-covered boards. The cover and spine are adorned with a silver foil die stamp.
The book is $39 and comes with a free pdf if you order it from us by December 11. And all copies ordered direct from us will have my illegible scrawl of a signature in the front of the book. (We don’t know which of our retailers will carry it; I and my cats sure hope they all do! For complete information on that, click here.)
Note: Orders placed today (Friday, Nov. 8), will ship on Tuesday, Nov. 12 because of the holiday.
A bevy of brand-new DTCs (lids still to be attached) from a recent class in London.
Table of Contents:
Foreword 1
1. Let’s Go ‘Dutch’ 5 2. Materials 11 3. Parts Prep 23 4. Dovetails 29 5. Dados 49 6. Shelves 57 7. Top Angles 61 8. Assembly 65 9. Lock & Batten Notches 71 10. Bottom Lip 75 11. Front 79 12. Fall Front 83 13. Backboards 91 14. Lid 97 15. Hardware 111 16. Paint 121 17. Interior 127 18. Mobile Base 133 19. Gallery 139
Acknowledgments 185
– Fitz
p.s. Because someone always asks: Fully loaded with my tools for any given class, my white pine chest weighs less than 50 lbs. For now, I can still get it into the back of my car by myself (though it was easier for me four years ago when I first began writing “Dutch Tool Chests“).
