Tonight I’m signing and lettering all the black leather “Joiner and Cabinet Maker” books that were bound by hand by the Ohio Book company in Cincinnati. I am pleased with the quality. The silver lettering is crisp. The leather is applied neatly to the boards and the end papers are quite a sight. We still …
Black Leather 'Joiner and Cabinet Maker' Books are In – Read More »
Signed, limited-edition art prints of the image above will be for sale at the Studley Tool Cabinet & Workbench Exhibit in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on May 15-17. Come by and say hi, get a book signed, buy a print and, oh yeah, go see this tool cabinet and workbench everyone keeps talking about. I refer …
Headgear in the traditional shop was both practical (keep the dust out of your hair) and hierarchical (journeymen wore particular hats to separate themselves from the apprentices). Paper hats were common in many trades, including printing and woodworking. Tools for Working Wood used to hand out paper hats and the instructions to make them at …
We’ve run out of copies of “The Anarchist’s Design Book: Expanded Edition.” We ordered enough to last us two years, but they lasted only four months. We ordered a new press run on April 17 and should have our stock replenished within the next two weeks. Having books or tools out of stock makes us …
When I post photos of my tool chest, there’s a 50 percent chance someone will ask me how much it weighs. My usual and honest answer: I don’t know. It weighs a lot. Two people can easily move it, however. Today we broke out the heavy-duty scale and weighed my tool chest, which is full …
Dick Proenneke with his snowshoes, February 1993. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service. This week 28 years ago Dick Proenneke was rolling pell-mell down a mountain steep as a cow’s face. Editing this book has been so much fun, in part because of what we didn’t edit. Dick made it very clear that he …
Photo by Mtaylor848 When we think of Thomas Chippendale, let us never forget his greatest achievement: Cutting his dovetails tails-first. That, and trolling the Frenchies in his workshop for cutting the joint in the opposite manner. And chairmaker Robert Manwearing, who shall be forever remembered for keeping his chisels sharp with Belgian coticule stones only. …
The following is excerpted from Robert Wearing’s “The Essential Woodworker.” The aim of the following exercises is to produce full-length, full-width shavings. The first exercise will show whether the reader is achieving this aim. Grip in the vice, edge upwards, a piece of clear softwood about 300 x 75 x 25mm (12 x 3 x …
Marc Adams is a difficult man to impress. He runs the largest woodworking school in the world, has seen work from the best living woodworkers and is an astonishing craftsman in his own right. And yet, last year I sat next to Marc and he was transfixed, spellbound and speechless because of the work of …
With the unsettled economy and fears of inflation, consumer spending on stuff such as woodworking tools and books has been flat, and we’ve had one of the shortest holiday selling seasons since we launched Lost Art Press in 2007. At the urging of our social media manager, we hired a freelance “brand consultant” to help …