Toolemera

My custom copy of the Wiki entry on Peter Nicholson arrived today. Sure enough, it comes from Lightning Source. Apparently there is a POD service for non-ISBN books which bears some checking out. It's nice enough, but let's say it's a bit padded at 22 pages of content and 12 pages of blank nothing. The blank pages are to bring the book up to the minimum needed for the smallest perfect bound size allowable, 34 double sided pages. No notice of who wrote the Wiki entry. Just a note saying this is public data and you're on your own. For...

1. Library Preservation 2. Future Of The Book They're not what you might think they are. Or, perhaps they are what you think they are. You won't know until you visit each to find out what each writer is thinking.

No, there is no direct connection between the three topics. Catherine can rest easy on that one. The RSS feeds for the Shop and the primary site are in the process of rolling into one. If you visit the Toolemera home page you'll see the all purpose email link sign up in the right hand column. There's a similar but less flashy text link encased in the Shop pages. I've added the box top for a Charles Emerson Celebrated Razor Strap at the Museum. Here's a small image. A rather larger one is available at the Museum section of the...

I've been doing some fact checking on PediaPress and came upon the most glaring factoid right away. Smack dab in the middle of their WikiPedia entry it states that "PediaPress has contracted with Lightning Source, a subsidiary of Ingram Industries, to print the books". I can't find a PediaPress book with an ISBN. Lightning Source requires an ISBN to print a book. Furthermore, it costs a fair amount of money to set up and print even one copy of a book through Lightning Source. But still, you need an ISBN. There are services out there that allow publishers to do...

Direct from email to blog: Hi Gary, I thought you might be interested in a recent book purchase experience of mine. In pursuing my hobby of collecting books on leathercraft/work, I bought a book on Ebay titled: “Facts on Leather” by William James Leach, editor, published by PediaPress. I hadn’t seen it before, and thought for a couple of dollars it would expand my collection, and maybe have an interesting fact about leather I did not know already. On receipt, I leafed through it and had this deja vu feeling that I had seen the content before, which I had....

And on the other hand, some things have got to go. The Hand Tool Makers website is no more. The planned sub-domain for Authors is now un-planned along with what was going to be Tool Makers, which would have morphed from Hand Tool Makers. Time and energy dictate the conservation of energy, or so someone postulated or something. I've removed those sites and site elements which largely became search targets rather than reader visit points, bringing the focus once again back to books and ephemera. There has also been a rise in informational requests regarding print on demand publishing from...

I signed up for the Typepad Design Consultation Service to get some help in fixing up a few design elements of this blog, notably the banner and perhaps some content elements. The goal: bring the websites and the blog into some sort of sync with each other. Poor Typepad Design. They like to get their hands into a blog and really go to town. You can see some of their Portfolio examples here. Not exactly my cuppa sleepy time tea. My CSS and HTML/XML skills are so rusty even a vinegar bath wouldn't help, so it's off to get some...

True, I stole the title from a movie which stole the title from a book. As a direct result of a large number of offline comments, I've elected to ditch, remove, delete, throw out, evaporate and otherwise begone with a number of blog posts which relate to Chris Schwarz, Lost Art Press and some aspects of Popular Woodworking. Anything book review related stays. Why? S'truth, there's about an even match of naysayers, moderates and supporters. Sort of like the national elections this year. There are also a fair number of offline emails from people asking for background information or to...

I've shelved my mafioso vendetta hat and put on my book guy hat to talk a bit about Peter Nicholson's Student Instructor. It's a short book of his that was a highly popular title for the student of architecture during the late 18th through the early 19th centuries. In the book trade, it's considered to be a fairly common title of his largely because it does turn up quite regularly. The problem is that those copies that do turn up quite regularly are usually a mess. This was one well used book. I see them in all states of rebinding,...

No, this is not a Chris Schwarz post, even though it is about his latest PWW post. This post is directed, quite publicly, to the management of Popular Woodworking and to F&W Media (Full disclosure: I contract with F&W Media to sell my books through Shop Woodworking). Here is the phrase that offends me: "My eyesight is so poor that teachers worried I was mentally deficient" More full disclosure: I have a sister-in-law who has life long intellectual limitations. I worked for well over a fifteen years with people who have disabilities, assisting them to adjust their lives to what...

My LinkedIn account, which I never use, is now history. For whatever reason, it's been spammed to an incredible extent. Goodbye, LinkedIn. The Typepad Comments Connect Beta feature, formerly enabled, is now disabled due to constant problems with the Preview feature, with lost comments and with a generally annoying set of supposedly advanced stuff that didn't do what it was supposed to do. Back to basic Comments which also means Spam. I'll see what I can do about spam until Typepad gets it's new Threaded feature installed. I think Captcha may be the only way to control spam for the...

New to my shelves is The New England Economical Housekeeper And Family Recipe Book by Mrs. E. A. Howland, 1845. It's the Stereotype edition, if that matters to you. One of the things I love about getting a book is checking out the marginalia the book seller didn't bother to note in the description. In this case, the inside front cover is signed: Flora M. Berry, Sutton, Vt. The next page is signed: Mary Jane Berry, Sutton, Vt, Orleans County Steam Mill And the next page is signed: Mother's Book (Father is crossed out. He must have done something wrong)....

Just a few of the topics suggested by readers: Blacksmithing, some time post-Agricola, and Basic fabric i.e., spinning and weaving. Handyman books The Book Of Trades variations Modern Practical Carpentry by George Ellis Woodworking for Secondary Schools by Ira Griffith More cabinetmaking, less carpentry and joinery Candle making and soap making Musical instrument making The Practical Man’s Book of Things To Make And Do Every Man His Own Mechanic Australian Home Handyman The Handyman’s Complete Self Instructor Wood carving Boys Own Workshop by Abbott and similar titles Holtzapffel and similar technical books Make A Chair From A Tree by Jennie...

I tried to figure out a reasonable poll thing but nothing reasonable worked.Therefore, or therefor, depending on which "for" or "fore" you wish to use, I am putting it to you, intrepid reader, to pitch in either in the comments section or by email. Various people have requested books on topics other than woodworking, in particular beginning woodworking. While there are a few more titles in the works on that subject, I have some ideas on other early trades and crafts. But, and this is the but of the matter, I would like to know what you are thinking about....

That's what the blog is called: The Clearance Angle, or, L'angolo di spoglia inferiore I insist that you leave immediately and visit this blog. How often will you find a bilingual Italian/English blog featuring woodworking, photography, humour and the other good things of life? Go, now.

Over at the Woodnet forum, there was a request for plans for a spring pole lathe. A few people chimed in with photos and links to various sources. I dug up a reprint of Roubo and scanned out the two pages for the forum in jpeg format. While I'm at it, here they are: and for good measure, here is a higher res version in PDF format. Download Roubo Spring Pole Lathe I have some original Diderot plates but they are no where where near as precise as the Roubo plates are. Till next, Gary

If you, the reader (who would not be the reader if you were not reading this), fail to participate in the form of comments pro and con, discourse suffers. I'm a fan of public discourse. If not, there would be no Comments function on this blog. To be honest, this is not my bully pulpit. My mustache is not that bushy and I don't hunt animals. Some people blog to hear themselves write. Go figure that one out for yourselves. I blog for a variety of reasons which include, but are not limited to: personal amusement burning up late night...

As promised, we're back to the proper focus of books, craft and books. I recently received my copy of the new book by Robert Lang and Glen Huey, entitled: Furniture In The Southern Style from Shop Woodworking. Lang and Huey are two woodworking authors whose writings I never overlook. Both men bring the unique perspective of the professional and the amateur, by which I mean they have the experience of working to the rigors of turning out goods at a professional pace while maintaining an appreciation of the attention to detail the amateur (e.g., non-professional) woodworker might desire in making...

Woops. I fell off the wagon and had the temerity to leave an admittedly harsh and critical comment regarding a pointed post Mr. Schwarz pointedly posted. As expected, the responses were up their usual measure. Sigh, what was I too expect? (He said, with a grand theatrical gesture, never one to miss the chance). On the bright side, blog traffic climbed as readers flocked in, searching for terms related to Chris Schwarz, Lost Art Press, etc. Therefore, in consideration of all our best interests, I suggest the following: Chris continues to make provocative open ended posts that encourage his readers...

There is now just about ten inches of, as the dealer termed it, "nasty dirty" paper sitting in quarantine in an official Staples plastic container. The ten inches is archival terms for how much shelf space it takes up. In this case, that's two five inch archival boxes, see? Or at least that will be the case once they pass the CDC mandatory quarantine period. The Baldwin Tool Co. catalog, along with a few other early catalogs will find it's way, securely wrapped in layers of pastic, to the 0 degree freezer compartment. There to sit for two to four...