[{"id":167872757823,"handle":"the-anarchist-series-of-books","updated_at":"2024-10-03T09:50:01-04:00","published_at":"2020-11-23T15:11:09-05:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","published_scope":"global","title":"'The Anarchist' Series of Books","body_html":"\u003cp\u003e\"The Anarchist\" series of books by Christopher Schwarz represent a 10-year effort to make woodworking more accessible, affordable and ethical – and less commercial. Each book addresses an important aspect of the craft.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"The Anarchist's Tool Chest\"\u003c\/strong\u003e shows you how you can build furniture with only a small kit of high-quality tools. The first half of the book explains in detail how to choose the right tools, regardless of brand name. You'll learn what makes a good hammer, a good block plane and a good awl – so you can make good decisions when buying new or antique tools. The second half of the book shows you how to build a traditional tool chest to hold these tools and explains: If a tool doesn't fit in the chest, you probably don't need it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"The Anarchist's Design Book: Expanded Edition\"\u003c\/strong\u003e shows you how to put those tools to work to build an entire house full of furniture with simple tools and methods. The Design Book explores \"staked\" and \"boarded\" forms of furniture – two efficient and nearly forgotten ways of making furniture that is sturdy, good-looking and easy to build. Additionally, the Design Book explores (and debunks) many of the myths we have about furniture and good craftsmanship. Wild ornament, flashy woods and complexity don't always make for good furniture. And the Design Book asks: Why would you want to imitate the taste of your boss's boss's boss?\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"The Anarchist's Workbench\"\u003c\/strong\u003e explains how to build the last workbench you'll ever need using home center construction lumber and simple woodworking tools. This book, the final in the Anarchist Series, encourages you to make the simplest bench possible and then add complexity from there. The bench plans featured in the book are based on a 15th-century design that emerged from France and Low Countries. And it has yet to be eclipsed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese three books have been the most successful titles published by Lost Art Press. Their simple message \"build instead of buy\" has been embraced by woodworkers all over the world and nudged many amateurs to quit their corporate jobs and make a living with their hands. You might not go that far. But then, maybe you will. Here's how to find out.\u003c\/p\u003e","image":{"created_at":"2020-11-23T15:11:07-05:00","alt":null,"width":1500,"height":1125,"src":"\/\/lostartpress.com\/cdn\/shop\/collections\/anarchist-series-of-books-IMG_0179.jpg?v=1606162268"}},{"id":262360563775,"handle":"all-books-1","title":"All Books","updated_at":"2024-10-03T13:10:47-04:00","body_html":"","published_at":"2021-11-06T08:19:16-04:00","sort_order":"created-desc","template_suffix":"","disjunctive":false,"rules":[{"column":"type","relation":"equals","condition":"Book"}],"published_scope":"global"},{"id":168102756415,"handle":"all-books","title":"Best Sellers","updated_at":"2024-10-03T10:55:00-04:00","body_html":"The 10 best-selling books since we started Lost Art Press in 2007.","published_at":"2020-12-01T10:05:23-05:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","disjunctive":false,"rules":[{"column":"type","relation":"equals","condition":"Book"},{"column":"tag","relation":"equals","condition":"Bestseller"}],"published_scope":"global"},{"id":14049653,"handle":"books","title":"Books","updated_at":"2024-10-03T13:10:47-04:00","body_html":"All books from Lost Art Press are produced entirely in the United States. We use acid-free paper and tough bindings – our books's signatures are sewn and glued for durability whenever physically possible.","published_at":"2013-12-16T11:31:00-05:00","sort_order":"created-desc","template_suffix":null,"disjunctive":false,"rules":[{"column":"type","relation":"equals","condition":"Book"}],"published_scope":"global"},{"id":165815124031,"handle":"books-by-christopher-schwarz","updated_at":"2024-10-03T12:50:55-04:00","published_at":"2020-07-21T13:41:03-04:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","published_scope":"global","title":"Books by Christopher Schwarz","body_html":"\u003cp\u003eChristopher Schwarz is a furniture maker, writer and publisher who works from a storefront in Covington, Ky. He is, along with John Hoffman, one of the founders and the editor of \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/lostartpress.com\/\"\u003eLost Art Press\u003c\/a\u003e, which publishes books on hand tool woodworking. And he is one of the founders of \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/crucibletool.com\/\"\u003eCrucible Tool\u003c\/a\u003e. He is a former editor of \u003cem\u003ePopular Woodworking Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e, and has been published in \u003cem\u003eFine Woodworking\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eMortise \u0026amp; Tenon Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e and many other woodworking publications. He teaches hand-tool woodworking around the world. Christopher is the author of five Lost Art Press books and a contributor to two, \"The Joiner and Cabinet Maker\" and \"The Art of Joinery.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","image":{"created_at":"2020-07-21T13:41:02-04:00","alt":"Christopher Schwarz at Lost Art Press","width":1000,"height":667,"src":"\/\/lostartpress.com\/cdn\/shop\/collections\/CS-chair_IMG_7022.jpg?v=1595353527"}},{"id":158051598399,"handle":"chairmaking","title":"Chairmaking","updated_at":"2024-10-03T12:50:59-04:00","body_html":"","published_at":"2020-02-02T19:22:22-05:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","disjunctive":false,"rules":[{"column":"tag","relation":"equals","condition":"Chairmaking"}],"published_scope":"global"},{"id":69077532735,"handle":"design","title":"Design","updated_at":"2024-10-03T10:30:30-04:00","body_html":"","published_at":"2019-04-03T09:39:16-04:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","disjunctive":false,"rules":[{"column":"tag","relation":"equals","condition":"Design"}],"published_scope":"global"},{"id":267665506367,"handle":"finishing","updated_at":"2024-10-03T11:35:35-04:00","published_at":"2023-10-04T15:22:21-04:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","published_scope":"global","title":"Finishing","body_html":""},{"id":69108891711,"handle":"furniture-plans","title":"Furniture Plans","updated_at":"2024-10-03T09:50:10-04:00","body_html":"","published_at":"2019-04-03T19:00:45-04:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","disjunctive":false,"rules":[{"column":"tag","relation":"equals","condition":"Furniture Plans"}],"published_scope":"global"},{"id":267678711871,"handle":"furniture-projects","updated_at":"2024-10-03T12:50:55-04:00","published_at":"2023-10-05T13:39:12-04:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","published_scope":"global","title":"Furniture Projects","body_html":""},{"id":267664621631,"handle":"joinery","updated_at":"2024-10-03T11:35:35-04:00","published_at":"2023-10-04T14:13:04-04:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","published_scope":"global","title":"Joinery","body_html":"","image":{"created_at":"2023-10-04T14:13:03-04:00","alt":null,"width":635,"height":476,"src":"\/\/lostartpress.com\/cdn\/shop\/collections\/dovetail_done_IMG_0754.jpg?v=1696443183"}}]
This book is available free as a pdf. You don't need to register, sign up for dumb marketing or even tell us who you are. Just click here and the pdf will begin downloading.
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 in North America in the 18th century and persist to this day as both cult objects for collectors and as rites of passage for artisans. These are precious pieces that are auctioned, collected, reproduced and written about in exhaustive detail.
Or, to put it a slightly different way, the people who could afford this furniture also owned mega-farms, factories and (sometimes) entire towns. This is not a knock on their wealth. But it is a simple way of asking a question that rarely gets asked among amateur makers: Why would you want to imitate the taste of your boss’s boss’s boss?
The new, expanded edition of “The Anarchist’s Design Book” is 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 200 years.
There are historic furniture forms out there that have been around for almost 1,000 years that don’t get written about much. They are simple to make. They have clean lines. And they can be shockingly modern.
This book explores 18 of these forms – a bed, dining tables, chairs, chests, desks, shelving, stools – and offers a deep exploration into the two construction techniques used to make these pieces that have been forgotten, neglected or rejected.
You can build an entire houseful of furniture using these two methods – what we call “staked” and ”boarded” furniture. They are shockingly simple for the beginner. They don’t require a lot of tools. And they produce objects that have endured centuries of hard use.
But this isn’t really a book of plans. “The Anarchist’s Design Book” shows you the overarching patterns behind these 18 pieces. It gives you the road map for designing your own pieces. (Which is what we did before we had plans.)
The new expanded edition of “The Anarchist’s Design Book” has 656 pages (200 more than the first edition) that are sewn for long-term durability. The book is 8" x 10", casebound and sheathed in thick hardback boards that are covered in cotton cloth. This is the largest book Lost Art Press has published to date.
Like all Lost Art Press books, “The Anarchist’s Design Book” is produced and printed entirely in the United States. Sorry but signed books cannot be personalized.
Curious about what we mean by "anarchism?" Read this short FAQ. It's probably not what you think.
Table of Contents for the Expanded Edition
Preface 1: The Furniture of Your Gaoler 2: A Guide to Uncivil Engineering
STAKED FURNITURE 3: An Introduction to Staked Furniture 4: Staked Sawbench, Plate 1 5: Extrude This 6: Staked Low Stool, Plate 2 7: Staked High Stool, Plate 3 8: Drinking Tables, Plate 4 9: Furniture in the Water 10: Worktable, Plate 5 11: Staked Bed, Plate 6 12: Trestle Tables, Plate 7 13: Seeing Red 14: Chairs! Chairs! 15: Notes on Chair Comfort 16: Staked Backstool, Plate 8 17: Staked Chair, Plate 9 18: Staked Armchair, Plate 10
BOARDED FURNITURE 19: All Aboveboard 20: Bare Bones Basics of Nail Technology 21: Low Boarded Bench, Plate 11 22: Boarded Tool Chest, Plate 12 23: To Make Anything 24: Six-board Chest, Plate 13 25: Mule Chest, Plate 14 26: Boarded Settle Chair, Plate 15 27: Boarded Bookshelf, Plate 16 28: Aumbry, Plate 17 29: Fear Not 30: Coffin, Plate 18 31: The Island of Misfit Designs Afterword
APPENDICES A: Tools You Need B: On Hide Glue C: On Soap Finish D: On Milk Paint E: Tenons by Hand F: Machine Tapers G: Seat Templates Acknowledgments Supplies