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''Family Tree of Chairs'' Letterpress Poster
The "Family Tree of Chairs" is an original piece of art made by Lee John Phillips of Wales that was first printed as the endpapers for "The Stick Chair Book" by Christopher Schwarz. The "Family Tree" shows the development of chair forms through the centuries – from a tree stump all the way to the more complex types, such as the high-style Chippendale chairs and a...
American Peasant
by Christopher Schwarz
''American Peasant'' is an introduction to a style of furniture and decoration that is almost unheard of in the Americas. Built primarily with tongues, grooves and pegs, the furniture is frequently engraved with geometric symbols that beautify the piece and protect its owner.
With this book, you will learn to build 10 simple pieces using common tools and...
Backwoods Chairmakers
In Search of the Appalachian Ladderback Chairmaker
By Andrew D. Glenn
For more than 200 years, chairmakers in Appalachia built ladderbacks to sell to neighbors and the occasional tourist. It was a tradition that was handed down through generations. But with the rise of furniture factories and mechanisation, woodworker Andy D. Glenn wondered if there were any traditional chairmakers left.
So...
By Hand & Eye
By Geo. R Walker & Jim Tolpin
"By Hand & Eye" is a deep dive into the world of history, architecture and design.
Instead of serving up a list of formulas with magical names (i.e. the Golden Section, the Rule of Thirds) that will transform the mundane into perfection, George R. Walker and Jim Tolpin show how much of the world is governed by simple proportions, noting how ratios...
By Hound & Eye
By Geo. R Walker & Jim Tolpin, Illustrated by Andrea Love
"By Hound & Eye: A Plain & Easy Guide to Designing Furniture with no Further Trouble" is an illustrated cartoon journey through the world of pre-industrial design geometry. It stars Journeyman and his pizza-loving dog, Snidely, as they untangle the world of points, segments, arcs and the three-dimensional world using...
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,...
Campaign Furniture
By Christopher Schwarz
For almost 200 years, simple and sturdy pieces of campaign furniture were used by people all over the globe, and yet this remarkable furniture style is now almost unknown to most woodworkers and furniture designers.
The latest book from Lost Art Press seeks to restore this style to its proper place by introducing woodworkers to the simple lines, robust joinery and ingenious...
Carving the Acanthus Leaf
By Mary May
Learning to carve the acanthus leaf is – for carvers – like a pianist learning a Chopin étude, a young oil painter studying the genius of Rembrandt or an aspiring furniture maker learning to cut dovetails by hand.
For carvers, especially those who focus on Classical Western ornament, there comes a time they will inevitably encounter the acanthus leaf, learn it,...
Chairmaker's Notebook
By Peter Galbert
Some words about Chairmakers Notebook from Chris Schwarz of Lost Art Press...
Whether you are an aspiring professional chairmaker, an experienced green woodworker or a home woodworker curious about the craft, "Chairmaker's Notebook" is an in-depth guide to building your first Windsor chair or an even-better 30th one. Using more than 500 hand-drawn illustrations,...
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...
Country Woodcraft: Then & Now
By Drew Langsner
In 1978, Drew Langsner released his book “Country Woodcraft” to the world, and it sparked a movement – still expanding today – of hand-tool woodworkers who make things with mostly green wood.
The 304 pages of “Country Woodcraft” showed you how to split wood from the forest and shape into anything you might need, from a spoon to a bowl, from...
Cricket Tables
by Derek Jones
We will be sending out signed copies of this book until they are out of stock. If you did not want a signed copy then please contact us.
Simplicity, necessity and ingenuity are the three key principles for making cricket tables. This traditional three legged table exists in a variety of forms and woods – no two are the same. So making them follows an organic process –...
Cut & Dried
By Richard Jones
Serious woodworkers have long been starved of accurate information on wood technology that's explained in language for artisans - instead of for scientists.
Author Richard Jones has spent his entire life as a professional woodworker and has dedicated himself to researching the technical details of wood in great depth, this material being the woodworker's most important...
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 wrote two short illustrated booklets that explained how to build doors and windows by hand. And what was most unusual about the booklets is that they focused on the basics of construction,...
Dutch Tool Chests
by Megan Fitzpatrick, with a foreword by Roy Underhill
''Dutch Tool Chests'' gives you the in depth instruction you need to build your own slant lid tool chest – from choosing materials, to the joinery, the hardware, the interior parts that hold your tools and the paint.
At the same time, the book offers you detailed instructions on how to grow as a hand tool woodworker....
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...
From Truths to Tools
By Jim Tolpin and George Walker, Illustrated by Andrea Love
Good books give you a glimpse of small truths - about workbenches, joinery or sharpening, for example. Great books, on the other hand, stitch together seemingly disparate ideas to present a new way of looking at the whole world, from your marking awl, to your hand or to the line of the horizon.
"From Truths to Tools" is a hand-illustrated...
Good Eye
by George Walker & Jim Tolpin
''Good Eye'' – the fifth and newest book in the authors’ ''artisan geometry'' series – explores furniture design by delving into simple proportions in a new and deep way.
Here, Jim Tolpin and George Walker take a close look at iconic pieces of furniture from different periods, and show you the proportional systems...
Good Work: The Chairmaking Life of John Brown
by Christopher Williams
“Good Work: The Chairmaking Life of John Brown” by Christopher Williams is the first biography of one of the most influential chairmakers and writers of the 20th century: Welshman John Brown.
The book’s title of “Good Work” was an expression John Brown used to describe a noble act or thing. He once mused he wanted to create a “Good Work”...
Hands Employed Aright
By Joshua A. Klein
Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847) was the first settled minister of the frontier town of Blue Hill, Maine. Harvard-educated and handy with an axe, Fisher spent his adult life building furniture for his community. Fortunately for us, Fisher recorded every aspect of his life as a woodworker and minister on the frontier.
In this book, author Joshua A. Klein, the founder of , examines...
Henry Boyd's Freedom Bed
A children’s book written and illustrated by Whitney L.B. Miller
“Henry Boyd’s Freedom Bed” is the true story of an enslaved Kentucky man who purchases his freedom and becomes one of the most innovative and important furniture makers in 19th-century Cincinnati.
In this children’s picture book, appropriate for ages 3-8, you can follow young Boyd as he learns to farm...
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...
Ingenious Mechanicks
by Christopher Schwarz
Workbenches with screw-driven vises are a fairly modern invention. For more than 2,000 years, woodworkers built complex and beautiful pieces of furniture using simpler benches that relied on pegs, wedges and the human body to grip the work.
While it's easy to dismiss these ancient benches as obsolete, they are - at most - misunderstood.
For the last three years,...
James Krenov: Leave Fingerprints
By Brendan Bernhardt Gaffney
James Krenov (1920-2009) was one of the most influential woodworking writers, instructors and designers of the 20th century. His best-selling books – starting with “A Cabinetmaker’s Notebook” – inspired tens of thousands of people to pick up the tools and build things to the highest standard.
Yet, little is known about his life, except...
Joiner's Work
by Peter Follansbee
Forget what you think about 17th-century New England furniture. It’s neither dark nor boring. Instead, it’s a riot of geometric carvings and bright colours – all built upon simple constructions that use rabbets, nails and mortice-and-tenon joints.
Peter Follansbee has spent his adult life researching this beguiling time period to understand the simple tools...
Karvsnitt: Carving, Pattern & Color in the Slojd Tradition
by Jögge Sundqvist
You can download an excerpt from this book here.
Cutting patterns and symbols in wood, and enhancing them with vibrant colour, are folk traditions kept alive in the slöjd craft. Through decorations imbued with meaning, chip carving has given soul to slöjd woodcraft throughout history. Even today, chip carving offers a natural complement to an artfully crafted...
Kitchen Think
A guide to design and construction, from refurbishing to renovation
Lost Art Press - 5 Woodworking Pencils
Traditional school pencils aren't ideal for woodworking. The pencils and lead snap too easily in use. And the eraser is a joke (Lost Art Press have a recommendation below).
After Lost Art Press tested many different combinations of lead (called the “core”) and diameters, this pencil became their shop favourite. It is robust because of its diameter and the fact that it is round....
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 –...
Making & Mastering Wood Planes (Revised Edition)
By David Finck. Foreword by James Krenov
No matter what sort of handplane you use, “Making & Mastering Wood Planes” 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 Redwoods (now The Krenov School), “Making & Mastering Wood Planes” is ostensibly about the laminated handplanes...
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...
Mechanic's Companion
by Peter Nicholson
“Mechanic’s Companion” is one of the foundational English-language texts in woodworking and the building trades. First published in 1812, "Mechanic's Companion" is an invaluable and thorough treatment of techniques, with 40 plates that provide an excellent and detailed look at the tools of the time, along with a straightforward chapter on the geometry...
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...
Mouldings in Practice
By Matthew Sheldon Bickford
Words from Chris Schwarz of Lost Art Press
After years of publishing woodworking information, you often hear that there is nothing new in the craft. Everything has been done before, written before and fully figured out.
I used to believe that was true, until I read the manuscript that was to become “Mouldings in Practice” by Matthew Sheldon Bickford....
Principles of Design: Furniture, Pottery & Metalwork
By William H. Varnum
A friend recently took a furniture design course taught by a guy I'll call Mr. Famous Furniture Maker. During the class there were lectures, field trips to find inspiration, drawing lessons, scale model-making and critiques.
''Well,'' I asked my friend, ''how was the class?''
''Great,'' he replied. ''Now I know...
Roubo on Marquetry
By Donald C. Williams, Michele Pietryka-Pagán & Philippe Lafargue
"To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry" is the first English-language translation of the most important woodworking book of the 18th century.
A team of translators, writers, woodworkers, editors and artists worked more than six years to bring this first volume of A.-J. Roubo's work to an...
Set & File: A Practical Guide to Saw Sharpening
by Matt Cianci
In "Set & File," Matt Cianci (aka The Saw Wright) teaches you the fundamentals of maintaining backsaws and handsaws: how to file and joint your saws with the correct rake, fleam and pitch to keep them cutting sharp. You'll also learn how to deal with saw teeth that are in good shape but dull, plus how to successfully doctor teeth that have been abused.
Plus, Matt...
Shaker Inspiration
Five Decades of Fine Craftsmanship
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...
Shop Tails: The Animals Who Help Us Make Things Work
By Nancy R. Hiller
In this singular collection of essays, Nancy Hiller relates the ways in which non-human animals – some companions, others wild or raised on farms – have provided warmth and comfort, prompted laughter and offered examples of courage or composure in the face of distressing events.
“Shop Tails” is a loving tribute to the animals whose lives have been intertwined...
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...
Stanley Catalogue No. 34
More than 100 years ago, Stanley Tools printed handsome catalogues that illustrated the company's woodworking and carpentry tools with detailed illustrations and descriptions of how the tools worked.
Though few of these catalogues survive, they are an invaluable source of information for hand-tool users, offering exploded parts lists of complex tools - such as the No. 45 plane - and advice on...
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...
The Anarchist's Tool Chest
By Christopher Schwarz
"When I am too exhausted, ill or busy to work in my shop, I will shuffle down the stairs to my 15' x 25' workshop and simply stand there for a few minutes with my hands on my tools.
To be sure, I thought I was a touch nuts because of this personality quirk. But after reading the oral histories and diaries of craftsmen from the last 300 years, I found it's...
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 Christopher Schwarz’s 20 year journey researching, building and refining historical workbenches until there was nothing left to improve.
Along the...
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 Difference Makers
by Marc Adams
Thanks to the internet, you can see a lot of interesting work with ease. But it’s easy to forget that the vast majority of the images on your screen are of pieces that are derivative, merely acceptable in their craftsmanship and were made by people at the beginning of their journey.
When you encounter true greatness it is shocking, inspiring and a bit humbling. The hair on...