The industrial system has brought with it tremendous advantages. It means we are living at a far higher standard of comfort than our forefathers, and with far more leisure. But it is always working towards uniformity, the dead level only minimizes costs and increases output. If we are going not only to acquiesce but to …
France was the first country to adopt the metric system, so a French-style workbench drawn in metric seems appropriate. I’ve uploaded the SketchUp drawing for the workbench we just completed at the Dictum GmbH workshop to the SketchUp 3D Warehouse. You can download it (free, of course), from the warehouse here and play around with …
“The Intelligent Hand” is entering the final stages of print production at the plant in Tennessee and we are on track to ship the book in mid-October. Until the book ships, we are offering all customers who purchase the book a free pdf download of the entire book at checkout. The pdf is hi-resolution and …
Download a Free Excerpt of ‘The Intelligent Hand’ – Read More »
This year, we’ve decided to stop offering pre-publication orders for books (we’ve never offered it for tools). Here’s the reason: About 80 percent of our customer service inquiries consist of, “Where is the thing I ordered?” And the “thing” is still at the printing plant. Most of these customers didn’t realize (or forgot) that they’d …
Today I signed off on the 11th printing of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” Since 2011, we have printed nearly 30,000 copies of this book. In big-boy-pants publishing terms, that number represents a total and utter failure. Also a failure: Telling the world how many books you’ve really printed. But <expletive omitted> that. Those of you …
I’ve made lots of joint stools over the years. Right now, I have a few underway, (see above) and a joined “form” to go with them. A form is just a stretched-out joint stool, such as this one I shot in Derbyshire a few years back. Surviving examples from early New England are not common, …
“With the Grain” by Christian Becksvoort is now available as an ePub for iPad and other readers. The cost is $11 and can be ordered in the store here. International customers can order the ePub by sending an e-mail to John Hoffman at john@lostartpress.com. I’m sorry to say we cannot offer this book in a …
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When I visited Peter Follansbee in his shop at Plimoth Plantation in 2012, it looked as if his shop had always been there and always would. I wouldn’t call it cluttered, exactly. It was quite tidy. But it was filled with 20 years of tools, work and the bits and pieces that come with a …
Several commenters to yesterday’s post about the origin of the Chinese planning stop, known as the palm, offered some additional information and a Western version. In the wheelwright’s shop shown in the 12th-century scroll “Qingming shanhe tu” we see a palm at the end of the bench. It is made of two pieces of wood …
The Palm, the Ban Qi and “The Young Mechanic” – Read More »