{"product_id":"honest-labour-the-charles-h-hayward-years","title":"Honest Labour: The Charles H. Hayward Years","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eYou can download an excerpt of this book \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/blog.lostartpress.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/honestlabour_excerpt_.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/lostartpress.files.wordpress.com\/2020\/05\/honestlabour_excerpt.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Honest Labour” is a collection of essays from \u003ci\u003eThe Woodworker\u003c\/i\u003e magazine while the legendary Charles H. Hayward was editor (1936-1966). This book is the fifth and final volume in our series from \u003cem\u003eThe Woodworker\u003c\/em\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen we started on \u003ci\u003eThe Woodworker\u003c\/i\u003e project, we didn’t intend to publish “Honest Labour.” The series was going to have \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/lostartpress.live\/collections\/all-books-1\/products\/the-woodworker-vols-1-4\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003efour books\u003c\/a\u003e that covered handwork: Vol. 1: Tools; Vol. 2: Techniques; Vol. 3: Joinery; and Vol. 4: The Shop \u0026amp; Furniture. But as we paged through every article from \u003ci\u003eThe Woodworker\u003c\/i\u003e during the 30-year period, we kept getting stuck on the “Chips From the Chisel” column at the beginning of every issue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese columns during the Hayward years are like nothing we’ve ever read in a woodworking magazine. They are filled with poetry, historical characters and observations on nature. And yet they all speak to our work at the bench, providing us a place and a reason to exist in modern society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor years we heard rumors that the unsigned column was written by a clerk or assistant at the magazine, but we don’t believe that for a second. After reading Hayward’s writing on woodworking, we know his prose.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe worked on “Honest Labour” in the background for three years. John Hoffman secured the rights to the material, which was no small effort or expense. Kara Gebhart Uhl worked through all of the “Chips From the Chisel” columns, selecting the best ones. We decided to organize the essays year by year, and so Kara has written a short column for every chapter that lists the major news events of that year. These short essays provide important context – even woodworking writing is different in wartime.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe structure of the book is more like a book of favorite poems you can pick up while you are waiting for your family to get ready for dinner. Or when you sit down in front of the fire after a long day of work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery page spread in the book consists of one column only, illustrated with line drawings from the magazine that were published during the same year the column was written. Most of the illustrations were made by Hayward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere’s a small sample of one of the columns from the 1960s. Like a lot of good writing, it’s difficult to divorce a piece from the whole without diminishing it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow easy for anyone having sufficient professional skill to get away with a semblance of truth. There are some craftsmen who simply take it for granted. The lack of precision in marking up, the careless cut, the small faults which declare themselves when a piece is assembled. Such a craftsman knows all the answers. “Oh I can soon put that right,” he says easily. And he can, filing, adjusting, smoothing, gluing here, screwing there, using as much casual skill in faking as in making. The furniture he produces may deceive the untrained eye but by any true standard it falls short. Without perhaps even being aware of it, the casual craftsman lets himself down more than anyone: the real damage is to himself.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eIt is all too easy, demanding no particular effort, no particular sense of responsibility, either to himself or to anyone else. But anyone who wishes to lift himself out of the rut, as a person as well as a craftsman, needs to feel responsibility and to be committed to a standard. Only in this way can he keep the sense of effort alive, and to cease from effort is to die before our time.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Honest Labour” is a sizable book – 474 pages – the largest book in \u003ci\u003eThe Woodworker\u003c\/i\u003e series, and it will have the same manufacturing specs as the other books in the series so they look good on your shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe know this is an odd woodworking book and many people will be skeptical, so we kept the price as reasonable as possible. And we are prepared for it to be a commercial flop. That’s OK, as we consider it an honest labor – of love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout Charles H. Hayward\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eCharles H. Hayward (1898-1998) was the most important workshop writer and editor of the 20th century. Unlike any person before (and perhaps after) him, Hayward was a trained cabinetmaker and extraordinary illustrator, not to mention an excellent designer, writer, editor and photographer. As editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Woodworker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003emagazine from 1939 to 1967, Hayward oversaw the transformation of the craft from one that was almost entirely hand-tool based to a time where machines were common, inexpensive and had displaced the handplanes, chisels and backsaws of Hayward’s training and youth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eAt Lost Art Press, we spent almost eight years reprinting five volumes that make up just a small part of the information Hayward published in \u003ci\u003eThe Woodworker\u003c\/i\u003e during his time as editor-in-chief. You can find volumes 1-4 \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/lostartpress.live\/collections\/all-books-1\/products\/the-woodworker-vols-1-4\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e. You also might be interested in \"\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/lostartpress.live\/collections\/all-books-1\/products\/the-woodworker-s-pocket-book\"\u003eWoodworker's Pocket Book\u003c\/a\u003e,\" edited by Charles H. Hayward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eYou can learn about Hayward, as remembered by Robert Wearing,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.lostartpress.live\/2011\/02\/15\/robert-wearing-remembers-charles-h-hayward\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Lost Art Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":31955846791231,"sku":"BK-HONEST","price":38.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0306\/3197\/files\/honest.lab.jpg?v=1751315897","url":"https:\/\/lostartpress.live\/products\/honest-labour-the-charles-h-hayward-years","provider":"Lost Art Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}