2 Books in the Birth Canal –
We are in the final stages of editing two books and getting them ready for press by the end of February.
“Ingenious Mechanicks: Early Workbenches & Workholding” is being indexed right now by Suzanne Ellison. Megan Fitzpatrick and Kara Gebhart Uhl are giving it a final edit for typographical problems.
This will be my first book with a dust jacket (see above). I hope this book justifies it. The gorgeous photos from Narayan Nayar and the paintings from the last 2,000 of human history make this book visually interesting – as well as educational (I hope). The book will be 172 pages, hardbound, on heavy and coated 8-1/2” x 11” paper. Full color throughout.
I don’t have any information on pricing, yet. My guess is it will be about $45 retail. This book was crazy expensive to write thanks to all the expense of acquiring permissions to reprint images from all over the world, trips to Italy and Germany to inspect artifacts and the professional illustrations. Heck, the wood to make the workbenches was the cheapest part of the endeavor.
The second book at the ready is “Cut & Dried: A Woodworker’s Guide to Timber Technology” by Richard Jones. I finished my edit of the book this week. Megan, Kara and Suzanne are now making a final sweep through the book for errors and consistency.
We spent a long time coming up with the title for this book and are quite pleased with it. While Richard’s text covers every aspect of how the world of trees and woodworkers intersect, just about every detail that is important to woodworkers is how the wood was cut and how it was dried. This influences its appearance, its stability, the defects and even whether it will be susceptible to attack by pests or mold.
I am working on the cover for this book right now, and it involves a little woodworking, a little fire and some hand-printing. I’ll be covering the process here on the blog in the coming week.
“Cut & Dried” will be a sizable hardbound book at 320 pages on heavy 9” x 12” paper. I suspect the price will be about $50 to $60. We are waiting on quotes from the printer.
We will open the ordering process later this month and both books should ship from the printer in early April. More details on pricing and who will be carrying these books will come soon.
Waiting in the Womb
Soon after the above books go to press, we’ll have two more almost immediately. It’s going to be a busy year. Joshua Klein’s book “With Hands Employed Aright” will be back from the designer shortly. And Jögge Sundqvist’s “Slöjd in Wood” is almost ready to go to press.
And shortly behind those two books are new titles from Christian Becksvoort and Marc Adams. Oh, and Peter Follansbee.
— Christopher Schwarz
