As a woodworker, sometimes I ask too much of the wood. Instead of just putting a cushion on a chair, I’ll do everything possible to force the wood to be as comfortable as possible. Naked. With no help from anything cloth, leather, foam, feathery or furry. So, I have spent years ( … | Continue reading
Again, you likely know that we don’t like plastic. You might not give a crap. So if you have no problem with all the plastic bottles and stuff in your life, skip this entry. It is not for you. One of our favorite shop liquids is a 50/50 mix of tap water and ethanol. Not... | Continue reading
The U.K.’s Classic Hand Tools (CHT) has organized an auction of David Charlesworth’s hand tools – 100 of the best tools he amassed and used in his storied and half-century woodworking and teaching career. The auction proceeds will benefit David’s wife, Pat. The tools – each profe … | Continue reading
A bench brush is essential gear for getting chips and shavings into the compost bin or garbage bag. But if you saddle chair seats or do a lot of traversing with a jack plane, you might have noticed that most bench brushes do a crap job in brushing off your work. I don’t know exa … | Continue reading
We had such fun in last year’s Chairmaker’s Toolbox class that we’re doing it again! Chris will be leading a group of six in a free stick chair class in the Lost Art Press shop Sept. 18-22, 2023. The scholarship covers both tuition and materials for the chair. The emphasis of thi … | Continue reading
We love Mirka stuff. I never thought I could love an abrasive, but the company’s Abranet abrasives have become the only ones I like to use. So when I wore out some old sanding sponges (no, I don’t just throw them away after each use), I decided to try Mirka’s. We use sanding spon … | Continue reading
Last weekend, Whitney LB Miller, author of “Henry Boyd’s Freedom Bed,” was invited to read her new book at a Saturday morning children’s event. We suggested she film it but – reporting star that she is (she’s currently on the air with Cincinnati’s WCPO television station) – Whitn … | 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
When I scratch myself while working, the worst part of the whole process is waiting for the blood to stop flowing so I can get back to work. We are serious about workshop wound care (see our latest title on the topic). And I’m always looking for anything to give me an edge when I … | Continue reading
We use a lot of mechanical pencils in our shop in a variety of lead sizes and hardnesses. We even bicker about it! (Megan loves .5mm lead. A lot.) One thing (I think) we agree on is that the Pentel GraphGear mechanical pencils are the most durable ones out there. They last at lea … | Continue reading
Along with blue tape and paper towels, so-called “super glues” are often cited as a way to treat relatively minor cuts in the workshop. But the cyanoacrylates that are meant to glue wood, porcelain and plastics (and hardhats to I-beams – if you’re old enough to remember that Kraz … | Continue reading
I use trammel points almost every day to scribe out large arcs. One of my biggest frustrations with trammels is that many hold standard wood-body pencils only. Because of this, my line is always thinner at the beginning of the mark and fatter at the end. The difference in line wi … | Continue reading
Almost every horizontal surface in our workshop and office has a knife on it. As does every drawer and till. Shop knives are essential tools for opening boxes, cutting rope and 100 other workshop tasks. So we are always on the lookout for inexpensive, quality knives. This year I … | Continue reading
There are lots of ways to scribe cabinets to a wall or to scribe the legs of a chair to their final length. My favorite scribing tool – hands down – is the Tooley Park Fat Boy Scriber. Made by Philip Sewell, a cabinetmaker in the U.K., this clever tool is well-made and extremely … | Continue reading
You might have noticed that we’ve been having problems getting three new products up in the store and running smoothly. Well they are now up and available for immediate shipment. We released them simultaneously so you can save on shipping if you planned on buying more than one. H … | Continue reading
Editor’s note: We are launching these two books and hat on the same day in response to requests from readers. By buying both books at the same time (plus maybe a hat, too), we all save on shipping and packing expenses. I hesitated when writing the word “groundbreaking” in the hea … | Continue reading
The two most comfortable chairs I make are my lowback and this Gibson armchair, which is a design that originated in Ireland. In 2019 I went to Ireland and studied many historical examples of this chair and now make a version that is similar to the Irish Gibson, though it is defi … | Continue reading
I don’t like the look or feel of plastic. So whenever I can find a tool that uses natural materials, I’ll opt for that. I have to clean my fingernails every day to remove sharpening grit, paint, oil and other gunk. Most brushes for fingernails are plastic and ugly. So I was thril … | Continue reading
I’m not a sporty lad. So I was clueless about hockey tape until Rob Cosman wrapped some around my fretsaw’s handle many years ago. The high-friction tape is a lot like gaffer’s tape. Heck – it might be a different version of gaffer’s tape. It sticks to stuff quite well. And it of … | Continue reading
The following is excerpted from “The Anarchist’s Design Book: Expanded Edition,” by Christopher Schwarz. It’s an exploration of furniture forms that have persisted outside of the high styles that dominate every museum exhibit, scholarly text and woodworking magazine of the last 2 … | Continue reading
If you or a woodworking friend are wondering what the heck a stick chair is, we’ve made a page that is a quick but complete introduction to the form. It also explains how all our stick chair products relate to the form. So you can better decide if you should go Old School (“Welsh … | Continue reading
I started this “gift guide” years ago after watching a woodworking TV personality’s “gift guide” for one of his sponsors. Clearly, he’d been given a list of worthless garbage products that were severely overstocked. I thought: What if some poor spouse actually took this clown’s … | Continue reading
Often we start working on a new book – among the first steps are to acquire any good (and sometimes bad) research that’s already been done on the subject – at least for topics that haven’t been written about ad nauseam (see workbenches…or Shaker furniture; we’d need far more shel … | Continue reading
For most of my career, I have helped other woodworkers “get published.” That task could be as simple as spell checking their excellent work. Or as involved as being a ghost writer – taking an oral history of their work and transforming it into an article or entire book. After 25 … | Continue reading
Wally hopes you can join us on Saturday, Nov. 26, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. for our holiday open house (at which you might consider giving him a cat treat or 10). We’ll have available our full line of Lost Art Press books, Crucible Tools and apparel, including new baseball caps – khaki … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
You don’t see many “unboxing” videos of our books and tools on the internet. And that is 100 percent by design. We put a lot of thought into our packaging. But our goal is to get the product to you using the minimum amount of packaging. And with most – if not all – of... | Continue reading
I do what I can to avoid the mushy-mushy concepts and questions that are posed by the thinkers in our craft. You know: art vs. craft, sawdust is therapy, what is the saw nib for? But I do have some answers to the practical questions that beginners ask during classes. Q: Why do yo … | Continue reading
The following is excerpted from David Finck’s “Making & Mastering Wood Planes.” No matter what sort of handplane you use, this book is perhaps the best guide available to understanding, tuning and using these tools at a high level. Written by a graduate of the College of the Redw … | Continue reading
At midnight tonight the $50 introductory price for “Sharpen This (the Video)” will end. After midnight Eastern time, the video will be $75. This video series is a deep dive into practical (not theoretical) at-the-bench sharpening. What do you need to do to get your tools to leave … | Continue reading
The following is included in Volume 1 of “The Stick Chair Journal,” an annual publication to expand the universe of all things stick chair: More history. More plans. More techniques. Reviews of tools. And Big Thoughts. (Important note: We have printed 4,000 copies of the Journal. … | Continue reading
The lower left cubby in the Covington Mechanical Library is a bit of a hodgepodge that spans oceans and centuries. In it are two series of books, a British furniture tome, some American furniture collections – regional and not – a few Charleston furniture titles and a falling-apa … | Continue reading
This video answers three common questions from people reading “The Stick Chair Book” or watching the “Build a Stick Chair” video. Question 1: How do you set your tenon cutter to make a 2-1/4″-long tenon? Question 2: And why are all your tenons 2-1/4″ long? Question 3: Why do all … | Continue reading
When Derek Jones was planning for his summer trip to teach at Lost Art Press, he asked if we had a No. 6 he could borrow. A No. 6? Really? I thought it was a typo. I’ve been fully inculcated into using a No. 7 (or No. 8, if I must – and I’ve eaten... | Continue reading
Two quick notes. You have until midnight on Oct. 31 to purchase our new “Sharpen This (the Video)” for $50. After Oct. 31, the price of the video will be $75. Also, today we posted the first of 20 additional videos that are included with your purchase. The newest video shows two … | Continue reading
Here is a quick business-related post here that may help you in your woodworking (or nematode lingerie) business. In any transaction there are only three roles: the seller, the customer and the product. As one of the owners of Lost Art Press, I might occupy any of those roles at … | Continue reading
The following is excerpted from “Honest Labour,” a collection of essays from The Woodworker magazine while the legendary Charles H. Hayward was editor (1936-1966). This book is the fifth and final volume in our series from The Woodworker. The excerpt below is from 1956, and remai … | Continue reading
Almost 30 years ago I was making furniture on the back porch that could best be described as in the style of “Dangerously Doweled” or simply “Prolapsed Flatpack.” Then I visited this place. At the time I was a junior editor at a magazine that covered politics and government, and … | Continue reading
The catalog for Day 2 of the Fred West Tool Collection Auction is available; bids are accepted for Day 2 items through 10 a.m. on Nov. 9. (You can read a bit about Fred in this post, for the Day 1 catalog.) — Fitz | Continue reading
I am so happy to announce our latest book “Henry Boyd’s Freedom Bed” by Whitney L.B. Miller. This illustrated children’s book is about the life of Henry Boyd, one of the unsung furniture geniuses of the 19th century. The book traces Boyd’s life from his birth on a Kentucky planta … | Continue reading
I admit, I’ve chosen an easy bay for this Covington Mechanical Library post (it’s been a frantic – and slightly under the weather – week). Today, it’s the Foxfire series, volumes 1-12 (which is an almost complete set – I believe there are two additional anniversary editions). For … | Continue reading
Katherine “the Wax Princess” Schwarz has a fresh batch of Soft Wax 2.0 now now available in her Etsy store. It’s my favorite finish for Shaker trays and tool chest tills, and Chris uses it on just about every not-painted chair. It looks great, smells great, is easy to apply, is n … | Continue reading
Sure, we all know to keep our handplanes sharp, clean and lubed. But when was the last time you did maintenance on the tool’s mouth and the edges of its sole? These areas are fragile and take a heap of abuse. Yet little is written about how to regularly maintain them. Let’s start … | Continue reading
Lately I’ve been thinking that the spirit of Joseph Moxon isn’t so happy with me. Maybe Old Joe – a printer by trade – isn’t happy about being known by moderns as a vise sold at Woodcraft. Or he isn’t happy about being called out for stealing images from André Félibien. In any ca … | Continue reading
One of the most common questions I get is why I don’t use Forstner bits much in chairmaking. The bits are readily available, make flat-bottomed holes and cut cleanly. The answer is basically this: The Forstner’s lead point is too short*. That means if I want to drill anything oth … | Continue reading
The Florida School of Woodwork is holding a raffle and silent auction to raise money for woodworking scholarships. This week’s silent auction item is a Kentucky Stick Chair made earlier this year by Christopher Schwarz. Plus you can buy raffle tickets to be entered to win one of … | Continue reading
When you drill a hole with a 5/8” bit, then use a 5/8” tenon cutter to make the tenon, you should be golden…right? Nope – unless you get lucky. If you dare enter the fascinating world of boring you will quickly realize this truth: It is up to you to get your drill bits and... | Continue reading
Fred West was a modern-day Medici when it came to hand tools – a true patron of the fine arts, and a driving force behind the hand-tool renaissance of the last two decades. If you were into hand tools before 2014 and attended any woodworking shows, you likely knew Fred – or at le … | Continue reading