The Anarchist's Design Book: Expanded Edition

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. 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 Preface1: The Furniture of Your Gaoler2: A Guide to Uncivil EngineeringSTAKED FURNITURE3: An Introduction to Staked Furniture4: Staked Sawbench, Plate 15: Extrude This6: Staked Low Stool, Plate 27: Staked High Stool, Plate 38: Drinking Tables, Plate 49: Furniture in the Water10: Worktable, Plate 511: Staked Bed, Plate 612: Trestle Tables, Plate 713: Seeing Red14: Chairs! Chairs!15: Notes on Chair Comfort16: Staked Backstool, Plate 817: Staked Chair, Plate 918: Staked Armchair, Plate 10 BOARDED FURNITURE19: All Aboveboard20: Bare Bones Basics of Nail Technology21: Low Boarded Bench, Plate 1122: Boarded Tool Chest, Plate 1223: To Make Anything24: Six-board Chest, Plate 1325: Mule Chest, Plate 1426: Boarded Settle Chair, Plate 1527: Boarded Bookshelf, Plate 1628: Aumbry, Plate 1729: Fear Not30: Coffin, Plate 1831: The Island of Misfit DesignsAfterwordAPPENDICESA: Tools You NeedB: On Hide GlueC: On Soap FinishD: On Milk PaintE: Tenons by HandF: Machine TapersG: Seat TemplatesAcknowledgmentsSupplies