The American Peasant

Articles

Apply Now for a Chairmaker’s Toolbox Scholarship Class Here

1 week ago | christopherschwarz.substack.com | Christopher Schwarz

Scholarship applications are now open for six spots in a special comb-back class in our Covington, Kentucky, workshop Sept. 15-19. The class is offered through The Chairmaker’s Toolbox, a non-profit organization that provides education and support to those who have been historically excluded from the craft. The six students will spend five days building and finishing a vernacular comb-back chair using lots of hand tools and occasionally the band saw.
The Craft Doesn’t Need This Bulls%$t

1 week ago | christopherschwarz.substack.com | Christopher Schwarz

How many of y’all here got started in woodworking because of the seminal work of Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann? You know – the French guy who invented Art Deco. How about André-Charles Boulle? Perhaps the most important French cabinetmaker – ever. Born 1682. Basically, invented inlay as we know it today? Robert Manwearing? Anyone start tinkering in their shed thanks to Big Manny (as he was called at the pub)? Who here wasn’t called to the craft by Beurdeley, Jean-Francois Oeben or (the GOAT) Abraham Roentgen?
Earlywood: You are Like a Dog that Pees on the Rug

2 weeks ago | christopherschwarz.substack.com | Christopher Schwarz

Publisher’s note: Good morning and welcome to Earlywood, a free weekly excerpt from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996. Sometimes, it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) a blog post published in 2015. Each entry has been updated or annotated with some modern context or point of view. Enjoy!The following is not a petition for affirmation. It is merely a reminder to myself not to order so many books at press time.
Update on the Pinch Rods (and a New Machine)

2 weeks ago | christopherschwarz.substack.com | Christopher Schwarz

New tool development has been caught in the much lately. Our machine shop (Machine Time in Nicholasville, Kentucky) has been swamped with a huge contract that they couldn’t say “no” to. So our pinch rods, which were days or even hours away from production, were mothballed. Until this week. Machine Time sent us an updated prototype to double-check and indicates that production is soon. Now you know everything that I do.
Air-dried vs. Kiln-dried Wood

2 weeks ago | christopherschwarz.substack.com | Christopher Schwarz |Kara Gebhart Uhl

Note: This is the second article in our series where we do deep research into thorny woodworking topics. The first article was on mahogany, a beautiful material that carries environmental and human rights baggage. This month, we look at wood-drying processes. So buckle up. For the first seven years I was in the woodworking business, I used kiln-dried lumber exclusively. Not by choice. That’s just what was available at the commercial yards here in Cincinnati.
Earlywood: Hubris

3 weeks ago | christopherschwarz.substack.com | Christopher Schwarz

Publisher’s note: Happy Saturday, happy Earlywood, a free weekly excerpt from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996. Sometimes, it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) a blog post published in 2006. Each entry has been updated or annotated with some modern context or point of view. Enjoy!One of my favorite movies as a teenager had a scene where a 1940s-era G-man goes to a mystic for help in becoming a superhero.
Be a Better Engraver

3 weeks ago | christopherschwarz.substack.com | Christopher Schwarz

We interrupt your regular Sunday-morning shitpost with some actual woodworking instruction. When I wrote “American Peasant,” I was happy with my engraving skills – but not with the way I was teaching them. I’ve since taught a couple classes in engraving, which helped me become a better instructor with this tool.
Earlywood: Things that Get Mispronounced in Woodworking

4 weeks ago | christopherschwarz.substack.com | Christopher Schwarz

Publisher’s note: Welcome to Earlywood, a free weekly excerpt from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996. Sometimes, it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) a blog post published in 2013. Each entry has been updated or annotated with some modern context or point of view. Enjoy!A “Robo” bench I built with the help of “Lee-Nelson” planes.
Earlywood: Old Frontiers

1 month ago | christopherschwarz.substack.com | Christopher Schwarz

Publisher’s note: Good morning! Once again, it’s time for Earlywood, a free weekly excerpt from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996. Sometimes, it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) a blog post published in 2022. Each entry has been updated or annotated with some modern context or point of view. Enjoy!When I worked for a woodworking magazine, we had a formula for the sorts of projects we printed in its pages.
Practice 30 More Years

1 month ago | christopherschwarz.substack.com | Christopher Schwarz

I have learned to try not to be too clever – nor too ambitious. “Half of something is better than all of nothing.” How many of us have unfinished projects that seemed like a good idea at the time? Better to have made, finished and used a simple bookcase in relatively cheap pine, than to have a half completed, oak, breakfront set, taking up room in the workshop. Ambition can be a terrible force. Most worthwhile accomplishments are a “brick on brick” operation.