It’s time for the LAP Open Wire, where we endeavor to answer your questions about woodworking – plus our tools, books and apparel. Here’s how it works: Type your question in the comment field. I will do my best to answer it. It is that easy. Before you ask a question, please read … | Continue reading
The Irish Gibson chair is a feat of ingenuity, simplicity and geometry. Its radical angles and spare construction suggest it is an odd place to sit. But everyone who has sat in one will tell you this: It is remarkably comfortable. I first encountered Gibson chairs through my rese … | Continue reading
We’ve been out of Lost Art Press Woodworking Pencils for a few weeks now – but they’ll soon be back in stock (register to be notified when they are). Musgrave Pencil Company – the family owned company in Tennessee that makes the pencils for us – sent us some video of the process. … | Continue reading
Work at the Anthe Building is plowing forward with a few necessary diversions and delays. As of now, we hope to begin fulfillment operations on June 15. Our new fulfillment employees start on June 1, so they likely will join our efforts to get the building ready and help install … | Continue reading
The following is excerpted from “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years,” Vol. 4, which covers three different topics. 1) The Workshop, including the design and construction of workbenches, tool chests and wall cabinets. There’s also an entire section devoted to “appliances … | Continue reading
Derek is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching – well worth a visit to Kentucky to soak up his knowledge about how to break free from 90° as you build a handsome, three-legged table! Tickets are on sale now! – Fitz | Continue reading
Editor’s note: Andy Glenn reports that he is working on the final edit of “Backwoods Chairs” before passing it along. It’ll be in our hands in June when we’ll start the editing and layout process. “I’m excited, and more than a little relieved, for this to join the stable of upcom … | Continue reading
I’m teaching a class this weekend, so Megan has volunteered to staff the LAP Open Wire today. So in addition to woodworking questions, feel free ask about home renovation and cat care. Here’s how it works: Type your question in the comment field. Megan will do her best to answer. … | Continue reading
The Crucible Cross-Peen Hammer is in production, and the first tools will go up for sale in a week or two. This has been a year-long project that required a lot of programming, plus finding a new handle supplier. The result? Craig Jackson, our machinist at Machine Time, said abou … | Continue reading
A quick note: Katherine has just posted about 32 jars of Soft Wax 2.0 in her store. You can read all about it in her etsy store. Also, we have now boxed up all the special Anthe Lump Hammers, and we found we had a few extra to sell. You can visit our store here... | Continue reading
The following is excerpted from “Doormaking and Window-Making.” As the Industrial Revolution mechanized the jobs of the joiner – building doors and windows by hand – one anonymous joiner watched the traditional skills disappear and decided to do something about it. That joiner wr … | Continue reading
Our customer service lines are buzzing with customers asking what will happen to the 837 Willard St. storefront when the Anthe building comes on line. Will people still be able to visit the Willard Street shop? Where will the books, tools and apparel be sold? What about the woodw … | Continue reading
Thank you to Eric Stockinger, director of the WoodenBoat School in Brooklin, Maine, for his kind review of “Sharpen This” in the May/June 2023 issue of WoodenBoat Magazine. “If only there had been some simple guidebook to sharpening 30 years ago, I might have saved a whole lot of … | Continue reading
Christopher Schwarz might disagree, but I’d say this is the formative section of the collection: books on workbenches and tool chests – two things that are not only of importance in any shop, but of great importance to Chris’ woodworking history (and now mine – at least on the to … | Continue reading
Welcome to the LAP Open Wire, where we endeavor to answer your questions about woodworking – plus our tools, books and apparel. Here’s how it works: Type your question in the comment field. I will do my best to answer it. It is that easy. Before you ask a question, please read th … | Continue reading
It’s been one bonkers week since we closed on our purchase of the Anthe Building, which will become our new headquarters here in Covington, Ky. (If you don’t know what I am talking about, click here.) This blog entry is a brief update on a shed-load of work. But before you read f … | Continue reading
Derek Jones will be visiting from England and in our shop Aug. 2-4 to teach a class in building a cricket table. Tickets for this new class go on sale Monday, May 15, at 10 a.m., on our ticketing site. Cricket tables range from the most basic stick variety to complex joined examp … | Continue reading
Megan and are now filming and editing a long-form video about how I build a Gibson chair, one of my favorite Irish chairs. The video, which should be released late next week, will include a pdf of the full-size templates needed to build the chair, plus drawings for the simple jig … | Continue reading
Editor’s note: We hired local historian Heather Churchman of Covington Uncovered to research the Anthe family, whose company, Anthe Machine Works, occupied 407 Madison Ave. for decades. You can read more about the history of the building here. And if you would like to help fund t … | Continue reading
The following is excerpted from “The Anarchist’s Workbench,” by Christopher Schwarz. “The Anarchist’s Workbench” is – on the one hand – a detailed plan for a simple workbench that can be built using construction lumber and basic woodworking tools. But it’s also the story of Chris … | Continue reading
Not everyone has the money to afford one of the special products we’re offering to help fund the restoration of the Anthe Building, our new headquarters. And I’ll be honest: We are uneasy asking for help. It’s not in our nature. But several readers have asked for a way to contri … | Continue reading
The most recent batch of Huck weave towels we bought are terrible. They leave little blue strings behind. Not just a wee bit of lint. Big blue strings everywhere, like I wiped my project with Grover during the high shedding season for Muppets. I first fell in like with Huck towel … | Continue reading
Hey everybody, I am in Pittsburgh today for my daughter’s graduation ceremony. So today’s Open Wire is hosted by Megan Fitzpatrick. She is standing by today to answer your woodworking questions. Write your question in the comments section below, and she will do her best to answer … | Continue reading
A few weeks ago, Chris asked me to research The Anthe Building. To help, he put me in contact with Heather Churchman, who runs one of our favorite Instagram accounts, Covington Uncovered. Heather was instrumental in the development of this piece for her research, knowledge of Cov … | Continue reading
Work began today on the Anthe Building, the 1897 factory in central Covington that is going to become Lost Art Press’ new headquarters in June. This morning we shot this short video tour of the building before we began work. This is the “before” picture. The “after” picture? We’r … | Continue reading
When I purchased our storefront here on Willard Street in Covington in 2015, I was certain of two things: 1) It was the final old building that I was going to bring back to life; 2) It would be the final resting place of Lost Art Press. Until this month, I’ve never given more tha … | Continue reading
My internet service was out for a while and I wasn’t able to respond to the comments to Chris’ reading of “A Visitor Comes to Covington” or to the backstory of the book. Thank you for the many very kind comments. I wasn’t sure how the book would be received. In the letter sent w … | Continue reading
The following is excerpted from Peter Follansbee’s “Joiner’s Work.” If you like green woodworking, “Joiner’s Work” is doctoral thesis on processing furniture-shaped chunks of lumber from the tree using and axe, froe, hatchet and brake. If you are into carving, Peter dives into de … | Continue reading
Editor’s note: Here’s the backstory for “A Visitor Comes to Covington: A Fairy Tale,” a delightful handmade book that Suzanne sent me in March. I have made a video reading of the book you can watch here. Enough of my yakking. Here’s Suzanne: Back in January, I sent a New Year’s c … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
The Open Wire is now open and ready for your woodworking questions. Every Saturday, I post a new blog entry that calls for questions. Write them in the comments section below, and I’ll do my best to answer them. Before you ask a question, a few requests and comments. So here we … | Continue reading
We now have 1:6 / 1:8 Dovetail Templates back in stock, and we have 40 of the 1:4 Dovetail Templates for those who like a more bold look. I’ll be using my favorite angle (1:6) this weekend as I teach six folks to make a dovetailed Shaker tray. | Continue reading
The following articles on lapped and double-lapped dovetails (aka “half-blind” and “blind” dovetails) are excerpted from Volume 3 of “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years.” The third book in our “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years” series covers all types of woo … | Continue reading
In my last library post, I promised the second half of this cubby. So here we go. These books are mostly about furniture from the United States, and from this country before it was the United States. (We have many more books in that broad category, some of which have been covered … | Continue reading
If you have a question about woodworking or our products, this is the place to get it answered – today. Here’s how. Post your question in the comments section below. If possible, I’ll answer it. Simple. But (and as Pee Wee Herman says, Everybody’s got a big butt)…. I reserve the … | Continue reading
I have been negligent in posting updates to the “Sharpen This (the Video)” series. Apologies. I am back on the wagon. (Or is it “off the wagon?” Anyway, more videos to come.) The new Chapter 14 shows how I sharpen the wacky cutters for the Lie-Nielsen Nos. 48 and 49 tongue-and-gr … | Continue reading
As I write this, there is still room in Will Myers’ June 26-30 Build a Moravian Workbench class at the Pine Croft School of Woodworking – and that surprises the heck out of me. We get asked all the time if we’ll teach a workbench class, and the answer is a firm no. We don’t... | Continue reading
When Welsh chairmaker John Brown put down roots in Pembrokeshire, Wales, he and his wife, Anne, lived in two railway cars – Fyffes Banana wagons – that had transported fruit around the U.K. up until the 1950s. The railway cars were used as living spaces for many years, until the … | Continue reading
We have a new video available for sale today: “Build Your Tool Chest Interior.” In this video, I show you how I make and install the interior structures of a full-size English tool chest (in this case, an “Anarchist’s Tool Chest“) with three sliding tills and their runners, a com … | Continue reading
Core77 recently featured furniture designer’s Hemmo Honkonen’s series of audible cabinets. Honkonen writes on his website, “The cabinets are a study in mechanically produced sound, movement and interaction. Each cabinet has its own sound that is triggered by opening and closing t … | Continue reading
The following is excerpted from “The Intelligent Hand,” by David Binnington Savage. The book is a peek into a woodworking life that’s at a level that most of us can barely imagine. The customers are wealthy and eccentric. The designs have to leap off the page. And the craftsmansh … | Continue reading
Whitney Miller, the author of “Henry Boyd’s Freedom Bed” was featured in a solid story this weekend about black craftspeople on the show “Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien.” Watch the whole segment here. In addition to Whitney, the story highlights our friend Jerome Bias and di … | Continue reading
It’s a crude and obvious joke, but what do you do with all the extra kinda-crappy chair parts and chunks of waste that are piling up in your shop? Make stools. Ever since I began making chairs, I also began designing and making a lot of stools using the leftover chair parts. Whil … | Continue reading
We have now opened the floor for woodworking questions this morning. Every Saturday, I post a new blog entry that calls for your questions. You can write them in the comments section below. I’ll do my best to answer them. Please read the following before you post a comment. I re … | Continue reading
We have a small number of “regular” Crucible Lump Hammers back in stock, with more on the way. So if you’ve been lamenting the late lack of lump hammers, fret no more. We also have a handful of the special edition engraved Crucible Lump Hammers remaining, to temp you fancy lads a … | Continue reading
After carving 106 of these spell panels for “The American Peasant,” Megan painted all of them with three colors of Allback linseed oil paint – Holkham Green, Old Red and Old Blue. The stuff takes 24 to 48 to dry. And we let the panel sit around for a full week to really harden. T … | Continue reading
The July floods in Eastern Kentucky that devastated communities also tried to erase part of the area’s history. Audio tapes stored at Appalshop were soaked with floodwaters and later covered with mold. Appalshop has been salvaging what they can, and have been digitizing some of t … | Continue reading
Katherine has just posted about 32 jars of Soft Wax 2.0 in her store. She wishes it were more jars. Production has slowed because the lipstick making machine she normally uses has gone on the fritz. The switch that controls the heating element and temperature control has failed. … | Continue reading