And a deep dive into planing with David Savage

View this email in your browser Sale Ends Saturday Plus, Meet Saw Sharpener Matt Cianci Our final (I hope) inventory sell-off ends at midnight on Saturday. We have seven titles for sale, from 38 percent off to 54 percent off. My most recent book, "The Stick Chair Book," is one of those books and is just $29 until Saturday. The sale has cleared out the space we need to operate at our new warehouse building in downtown Covington. And it will give us the room to begin assembling our new Exeter-pattern hammers in-house. So thanks for all your help in storing our excess books at your house. The bad news here is that we will raise prices on some books and tools effective July 15. Like all households and small businesses, we have been squeezed by inflation during the last few years and have resisted raising prices in the hope that paper costs would decline. It hasn't happened. The price increase will affect 15 titles, including "Chairmaker's Notebook," "The Anarchist's Workbench" and "Country Woodcraft." I haven't yet done the math for Crucible Tools, but I feel sure prices will go up on our Warrington Hammer and Lump Hammer.  Our original handle supplier in Arkansas decided to stop giving a crap about quality. So we left them and have been using two small companies that are doing a great job for us. But the handles cost five times as much. Next week I'll post a complete list of the upcoming price increases. I wish we didn't have to do this, and we will be as transparent as possible during the process. — Christopher Schwarz What's On Sale Meet the Author: Matt Cianci Editor's note: Matt is the author of our latest book "Set & File: A Practical Guide to Saw Sharpening." In this charming profile, Matt explains how he went from heavy metal guitarist to saw filer. Matt Cianci's mom was reading a book in her living room, having just put Matt down for a nap upstairs, when she saw his 4-year-old body fly past the living room window and crash into the ground. She screamed, jumped up and threw open the door. Matt was in the bushes, a blanket tied around his neck, smiling. "Mom, I can fly!" he said. Matt laughs. "That about describes me," he says. "Always testing the limits of things. I guess you could say I'm a curious person with a vibrant imagination. I'm not a follower of the crowd." Matt was born in Evanston, Illinois, north of Chicago. His parents met in college in the 1970s, married, had a daughter in 1976, Matt in 1977, then moved to a suburb northwest of Chicago. "I have the two greatest parents in the world because they are the two people I look up to more than anyone," Matt says. "I had an exceptionally privileged upbringing, for a very simple reason. Anytime anything ever goes wrong in my life, I just have to take a moment and ask myself, 'What would my parents do?' And it's never steered me wrong." Both of Matt's parents have master's degrees. Matt's father is a biomedical engineer and his mother is a clinical social worker. When Matt was a kid, his mom stayed home, raised the kids and was (and is) a social justice warrior, says Matt, working with the greater Chicago chapter of the National Organization of Women, promoting the Equal Rights Amendment. Read the Entire Profile Here The Transformative Week Editor's Note: The following is excerpted from "The Intelligent Hand," by David Binnington Savage. It's 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 craftsmanship has to be utterly, utterly flawless. I am jumping now to what a student experiences during the first week at Rowden. I am doing this because it all fits together. Without the doing, the making, the faffing about in the workshop, all the drawing and waking up, there is no context for when you become a designer and a maker. It's not good enough to sit in a nice clean design office and get your sweaty minions to make for you. Making is what you do. Remember William Morris, and how he was always fiddling with making something or other. Fail to grasp this, and the maker will always be in charge of the dialogue. "No boss, that won't work – you need three fixings there." You need sufficient understanding and knowledge to argue. You need to know enough to suggest a different fixing, and to maintain the smooth identity of your design. So pick up that plane. It's on its side on the benchtop. Wait – maybe first let's have a look at what we have here. Read the Whole Story Here Follow Us Copyright (C) 2024 Lost Art Press. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the Lost Art Press blog. Welcome! We try our best to make this a good experience for both of us... Our mailing address is: Lost Art Press 407 Madison Ave Covington, KY 41011-1519 USA Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe