Mechanick Exercises
Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises or the Doctrine of Handy-Works,” is the first English-language book on woodworking (and other trades) – but it was written by a man who wasn’t a woodworker. Instead, Moxon (1627-1691) was a printer, a maker of mathematical instruments and (for a time) hydrographer to King Charles II.
Oh, and the engravings of woodworking tools in...
Cadi & the Cursed Oak
You can download an excerpt of this book here. An audio pronunciation guide to the Welsh words in the book is here.
By Kara Gebhart Uhl, illustrations by Elin Manon
"Cadi brought the cup’s silver rim to her lips. What she didn’t know was that buried deep in the cup’s oak sleeve were spirits’ stories, long forgotten tales of hobgoblins and demons and death and sorrow,...
Euclid's Door: Building the Tools of 'By Hand & Eye'
By Geo. R Walker & Jim Tolpin
Illustrations by R. Keith Mitchell & Barb Walker
“Euclid's Door: Building the Tools of ‘By Hand & Eye’” is an illustrated how to journey through building the ancient tools that still help us to build, well, everything today.
You’ll learn how to use basic, easy-to-follow artisan geometry to make eight indispensable...
Sharpen This
by Christopher Schwarz
Sharpening is not a sport.
If you want to be a better woodworker, you need to learn to sharpen. If you want to be a better sharpener, you need to stop paying so much attention to tertiary bevels and carbide formations in steel and start paying attention to the wood. If the wood is cut cleanly, then your tools are sufficiently sharp. If the wood is torn out and covered in...
The Belligerent Finisher
By John Porritt
One aspect of furniture finishing that has not been fully explained is how to achieve the gently worn, warm and human surfaces that you find on antiques. "The Belligerent Finisher" changes that. Furniture restorer and chairmaker John Porritt explains all the steps in taking a new chair and transforming it into something that looks like it’s 200 years old. The goal...
The Stick Chair Book - Full-size Plans
To remove one more barrier to making a stick chair, we have created this set of full-size paper patterns of all the important components for the five chairs in "The Stick Chair Book".
The five 22" x 34" sheets contain full-scale drawings of all the seats, arms, backrests, shoes and combs for the chairs. The drawings also include all the mortise locations, drilling sightlines...
The Stick Chair Journal - Issue No 1
By Christopher Schwarz
This is issue No. 1 of The Stick Chair Journal, which Lost Art Press planned as an annual publication to expand the universe of all things stick chair: More history. More plans. More techniques. Reviews of tools. And Big Thoughts. It is a supplement to "The Stick Chair Book."
In this issue, you'll find:
• A Lousy Way to Run a Railroad: An explanation...
The Handcrafted Life of Dick Proenneke
by Monroe Robinson
Millions of North American TV viewers first met Dick Proenneke through the programme “Alone in the Wilderness,” which documents Dick’s 30 year adventure in the Alaskan wilderness. On the shores of Twin Lakes, Dick built his cabin and nearly all of the household objects he required to survive, from the ingenious wooden hinges on his front door to the metal ice...
Make a Chair from a Tree: Third Edition
By Jennie Alexander
In 2014, Jennie Alexander somewhat reluctantly agreed to a third edition of her 1978 seminal book on green woodworking, “Make a Chair From a Tree” – a book that launched the careers of thousands of woodworkers and helped ignite a green woodworking movement in this country.
Her reluctance wasn’t due to a lack of passion for the book’s subject –...
The Workshop Book
By Scott Landis; foreword by Roy Underhill
First published in 1991, "The Workshop Book" by Scott Landis remains the most complete book about every woodworker's favourite place: the workshop.
“The Workshop Book” is a richly illustrated guided tour of some of the world’s most inspiring workshops — from garage to basement shops, from mobile to purpose-built...
Honest Labour: The Charles H. Hayward Years
“Honest Labour” is a collection of essays from The Woodworker magazine while the legendary Charles H. Hayward was editor (1936-1966). This book will be the fifth and final volume in the Lost Art Press series from The Woodworker.
When Lost art Press started on The Woodworker project more than a decade ago they didn’t intend to publish “Honest Labour.” The series was...
Slojd in Wood
by Jögge Sundqvist
We'd like you to visit the world of slöjd, a place where people make the things they need using simple tools and materials that are all around them.
Your guide on this journey is Jögge Sundqvist, who has been making things with his hands and little bits of steel since he was a boy. To join in, you need only a knife and a few other simple tools to make useful...
Making Things Work: Tales From a Cabinetmaker's Life
By Nancy R. Hiller
Furniture making, once a basic way to earn a living through an arrangement between makers and clients, has been discovered, like a rosy-cheeked girl plucked from a dairy farm in Devon and made over into a London model
For many of us, making furniture and cabinetry is still a way to earn a living, however marginal. We may do what we love every day, to paraphrase the marketing...
The Anarchist's Design Book: Expanded Edition
Why is this book on sale? Basically Lost Art Press need some storage space as the floors are creaking in their new Anthe Building. Please visit the Lost Art Press Blog for more information.
By Christopher Schwarz
Most of the American furniture we celebrate as the pinnacle of design is overbearing, over-embellished and a monument to waste and excess.
These high styles of furniture took hold...
Chairmaker's Notebook - Full-size Plans
For those woodworkers who prefer full-size plans, we now offer plans for the two chairs featured in Peter Galbert's book "Chairmaker's Notebook".
The plans feature handmade full-size drawings of the following components of the fan-back and balloon-back chairs:
Full-size turning patterns of legs, stretchers and posts - both bobbin and baluster forms.
Full-size drawings of...
Make a Joint Stool from a Tree: An Introduction to 17th Century Joinery
By Jennie Alexander & Peter Follansbee
When it comes to exploring the shadowy history of how 17th-century furniture was built, few people have been as dogged and persistent as Jennie Alexander and Peter Follansbee.
For more than two decades, this unlikely pair – an attorney in Baltimore and a joiner at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts – have pieced together how this early furniture...
Mortise & Tenon Magazine - Issue 16
The Table of Contents for Issue 16 of Mortise and Tenon Magazine is
Michael Updegraff – ''Gathered in Reverence: Kezurou-kai in the United States''
Ted Ingraham – ''The Whittier House Windows: Sash-making in Early America''
Joshua A. Klein – ''House By Hand''
Stefan Wolf – ''A Life of Its Own: The Practice of...
Worked: A Bench Guide to Hand-Tool Efficiency
By: Joshua A. Klein
There is a gap in most woodworking instruction. Somewhere in between tool descriptions (what they are and what they do) and step-by-step project tutorials, we are missing something vital. We may understand what a backsaw is, or what a hatchet is capable of… but how do we actually do it? How do we engage the wood with these tools? And how do we confidently proceed through...
Another Work is Possible
By: Joshua A. Klein with Charpentiers Sans Frontières
Since 2002, Charpentiers Sans Frontières (CSF, 'Carpenters Without Borders') have travelled around the world to build, using the old ways. With axe, saw, plumb bob, and chisel, this diverse group of skilled craftspeople restored a medieval bridge at a castle in France, built a new hewn-truss roof system on a blacksmith shop...
Joined: A Bench Guide to Furniture Joinery
By: Joshua A. Klein
Many woodworking how-to books have a distinctly clinical feel to them, taking a formulaic approach (complete with exploded computer-drafted imagery) to describe a woodworking process from start to finish. This method works well for conveying precise measurements and details for replicating a specific piece of furniture, but falls short when it comes to capturing the whole point...
Greenwood Spoon Carving
By: Emmet Van Driesche
Carving a spoon from a piece of freshly harvested wood is a rewarding – and challenging – pastime. Tremendous knowledge about the properties of wood, and grain, and the use of sharp edge tools can be gleaned through this seemingly simple practice. There is more to it than meets the eye.
But many would-be spoon carvers don’t know where to begin. What...
Mortise & Tenon Magazine - Issue 15
The Table of Contents for Issue 15 of Mortise and Tenon Magazine is
“Ambulance for Monuments: Saving Romanian Heritage” – Dragos Nuta
“Making the Versatile Hutch Table” – Joshua A. Klein
“The Traveling ‘Ukulele” – Aaron Keim
“Accustomed to Handle the Hammer: The Nail Making Specialty in Pre-industrial Manufacture” –...
The First Three Issues Book
A hardbound republication of the Issues 1-3 with additional essays from M&T editors Michael Updegraff, Jim McConnell, and Joshua A. Klein.
Foreword by Christopher Schwarz of Lost Art Press.
+450 pages, matte-coated paper, sewn binding. Printed in the USA.
TABLES OF CONTENTS
Issue One
"The Mortise & Tenon Magazine Manifesto" - Joshua A. Klein
"Imbued With Story:...
Mortise & Tenon Magazine - Issue 14
Issue Fourteen is no chronicle of the “good old days” – it’s an invitation to personal participation. The authors in this issue have crafted their words to inspire, but their aim is to inspire to something: namely, action. Mortise & Tenon Magazine want to see you roll up your sleeves at the bench, seek to cultivate personal skill, and enjoy the work of your hands.
TABLE...
Mortise & Tenon Magazine - Issue 13
TABLE OF CONTENTS
“The Fiddle’s Unfolding: Tracing a Folk Tradition” – Kerry Lambertson
“Fruitful Efficiency: On the Cultivation of Skill” – Joshua A. Klein
“A Blacksmith’s Contribution to Woodworking” – Kenneth Schwarz
“Root & Branch: Rediscovering the Uttermost Parts of a Tree” – Brendan Gaffney
“From...
Mortise & Tenon Magazine - Issue 12
Volume 12 Table of Contents:
“The Last Boatbuilder of the Nagara River” – Douglas Brooks
“The Simple Art of Wooden Planemaking” – Joshua A. Klein
“For the Love of History: A Journey into Practical Blacksmithing” – Jordan Goodwin
“Risk & Reward: Skill as a Safety Net” – Michael Updegraff
“The Van Gogh Chair”...
Mortise & Tenon Magazine - Issue 11
Volume 11 Table of Contents:
Nevan Carling – “Restoration of an 18th-century Loom”
Jeremy Tritchler – “Discovering The Trade, Art, And Mystery of 18th-Century Cabinetmaking”
Gustave Remon – “The Versatile Socket Axe”
Joshua A. Klein – “Finding The Groove: The Value of Batch Production Woodworking
Elia Bizzarri –...
Mortise & Tenon Magazine - Issue 10
Table of Contents:
Will Wheeler - “An Unexpected Gift: Discovering Calm in a Modern Apprenticeship”
Jeff Miller - “An Exercise in Precision & Randomness: Replicating David Pye’s Fluting Engine”
Al Breed - Book Recommendation
Joshua Klein – “Ready Hands: A Letter to My Sons”
John Ruskin - “Savageness”
George Walker –...
Mortise & Tenon Magazine - Issue 9
Table of Contents:
“The Sacred in the Common: Making an Icon Panel”– Symeon van Donkelaar
“Making the Sussex Chair” – Abdollah Nafisi
“The Legacy of Cesar Chelor” – Steve Voigt
“Scribes of Nature: Dendrochronology & the Deeper Story of Wooden Objects” – Michael Updegraff
“Examination of an 1815-1830 New...
Mortise & Tenon Magazine - Issue 8
Table of Contents:
“A Sense of Place” Amy Umbel
“Intermediate Technology in the Shop” Harry Bryan
Examination: Grain-Painted Chest Over Drawers
“Crafting an Education: Recreating Henry David Thoreau’s Desk with Eleventh Graders” – Cameron Turner
“The Legend of the Jimmy Possum Chair” – Mike Epworth
“Subversive...
Mortise & Tenon Magazine - Issue 7
Table of Contents:
"Partnership with Nature: An Interview with Peter Lamb"
"A Fresh & Unexpected Beauty: Understanding David Pye’s 'Workmanship of Risk'" - JOSHUA A. KLEIN
"The Weight of the Past" - BILL PAVLAK
"Freedom From Vises: Workholding Solutions From Three Traditions" - MICHAEL UPDEGRAFF
"A Good Day’s Work:...
Mortise & Tenon Magazine - Issue 6
Table of Contents:
The Good Life: Discussing Slöjd with Jögge Sundqvist
Cutting-edge Technology: Rediscovering the Double-iron Plane - Steve Voigt
A Chair Called Henry - Nathaniel Brewster
William Morris and George Nakashima: Finding the Middle Landscape - David Lane
Examination: 1804 Painted Cupboard
A Tale of Two Trees: The Radical Efficiency of Green Woodworking - Michael...
Quercus Magazine - Winter 2023
Quercus Magazine, QM21, Winter 2023 - Summary of Contents
The Chairmakers Toolbox is introducing woodwork to a whole new audience, and this issue founder Aspen Golann tells us how they have won more than $100,000 in awards to do so. Then there’s a report from Handworks 2023 in Iowa, possibly
the most important show for woodworkers who love hand-tools. And we have practical things too. You...
Quercus Magazine - July/August 2023
This issue looks at taking a short course is increasingly popular for woodworkers of all abilities and experience, an opportunity to learn new skills and enjoy a therapeutic few days, making friends with strangers. There is a new series celebrating the Short Course Revolution starts this issue with a week spent making a Windsor chair at Westonbirt Woodworks, the feature revealing tools, tips and techniques...
Quercus Magazine - May/June 2023
There are few woodworking skills that rely as much upon specialist tools as ‘bottoming’ seats. There are so many options from adzes to scorps, and now James Mursell has added the Traviscraper and the Spokescraper to his range of chairmaking tools. And in this issue Peter Galbert, the renowned US maker of Windsors, shows how he sharpens and uses his seat shaping kit. These are tools that...
Quercus Magazine - March/April 2023
Robin Wood is one of the most significant and intriguing of 21st Century woodworkers, as such a woodsman and craftsperson, as well as campaigner, pioneer, tutor and now toolmaker. He, and a handful of others, have helped to inspire and aid a resurgency of traditional crafts, and for his endeavours was awarded an MBE for services to Heritage Crafts and Skills. No wonder Quercus Magazne have interviewed...
Quercus Magazine - January/February 2023
Worldwide, Bill Carter is one of the best known and most highly-respected of planemakers, producing English mitre planes, inspired by traditional styles, but with his own innovations. Bill has now been added to planemaking’s hall of fame, and posts 100s of entertaining video blogs to inspire budding toolmakers and offer any woodworker tips and ideas.
Other articles include:
Now in winter,...
Quercus Magazine - November/December 2022
QM15 November/December 2022
Anne of All Trades, perhaps the most famous and influential of all woodworkers today, has given Quercus an exclusive interview, with a life story of her remarkable life. She has 285,000 followers on Instagram, and has some of the most innovative and enjoyable
video blogs. Of course, that’s far from it all in the latest issue of Quercus….
• The well-known...
Quercus Magazine - September/October 2022
QM14 September/October 2022
Summary
The latest issue of Quercus features an interview with Thomas Lie-Nielsen, the driving force behind a renaissance in hand-tools over the last 25 years. Tom tells Quercus about the early days of his toolmaking business, and looks ahead, moving ahead after the pandemic and other challenges. There’s plenty more about tools in QM14, including Robin Gates’...
Quercus Magazine - July/August 2022
QM13 July/August 2022
The July/August issue of Quercus (QM13) pays special tribute to David Charlesworth, an icon of woodworking, and one of the most influential authors, presenters and teachers for many years. Woodworkers from around the world share memories of a remarkable man (who died in May 2022), with tips and techniques they’ve learnt from that softly spoken stalwart. There’s...
Quercus Magazine - May/June 2022
QM12 May/June 2022
The May issue of Quercus features an extract from Christopher Schwarz’s significant book on the making of Stick Chairs. The article will focus on the choosing of timber for chairmaking, written by one of the most well-known and influential of woodworkers worldwide.
There will be more about router planes, featuring the making Paul Sellers’ toolmaking kits. Quercus...
Quercus Magazine - March/April 2022
QM11 March/April 2022
The Quercus March/April 2022 issue (QM11) pays homage to the famous chairmaker, and the magazine’s co-founder, John Brown, with tributes from well-known woodworkers worldwide, including Christopher Schwarz, Chris Williams, Drew Langsner and Kenneth Kortemeier, and the lessons they learned from John. In the second instalment of our exclusive interview, Paul Sellers shares...
Quercus Magazine - January/February 2022
QM10 January/February 2022
Summary
Woodworking’s most influential author, tutor and maker gives an exclusive interview in the latest issue of Quercus Magazine. Paul Sellers has had a most significant impact for beginners and enthusiasts keen to develop new skills and techniques, arguing that you only need to learn three joints to make anything. We test an innovative new honing guide, for...
Quercus Magazine - November/December 2021
QM09 November/December 2021
Summary
The latest issue of Quercus features Jennie Alexander, author of Make a Chair from a Tree, with an extract from her new edition of perhaps the most significant of chairmaking books. You’ll find all the jigs and devices to make a post and rung chair, while elsewhere this issue Laura Mays tells how Krenov School students make a wooden plane the day they...
Quercus Magazine - September/October 2021
QM08 September/October 2021
Summary
The latest issue of Quercus is dedicated to toolmaking. Rex Krueger enthuses how he makes simple tools using chisels instead of plane irons to make toolmaking simple and inexpensive. You’ll be inspired by the travishers produced by Claire Minihan and the marking tools by Derek Jones. Doug Stowe makes his own hook knives for carving spoons. Michelle Mateo...
Quercus Magazine - July/August 2021
QM07 July/August 2021
Sharpening and workbench design are key features of the July/August issue of Quercus. Richard Wile offers tips on setting up a stone station for quicker, better sharpening and honing of chisels and plane irons. John Lloyd shows how to sharpen a carving gouge with ‘in-cannel- bevel, while Sean Hellman saves time and pennies by mending a broken bandsaw blade. Then there...
Quercus Magazine - May/June 2021
QM06 May/June 2021
Outline
This issue of Quercus features a profile of Mike Abbott, an icon and pioneer of greenwoodworking, who has inspired and taught so many professionals and enthusiasts, particularly making chairs. Elsewhere you will learn how Greenwood Days has adapted its courses to meet Covid-19 guidelines; how in the USA Maplewoodwoodshop has created a system for bringing woodwork &...