Christopher Schwarz
Tom Beattie
Christopher Schwarz taught at The Guild in 2012. He is a long-time woodworker and writer who has spent over 20 years encouraging woodworkers to embrace more handwork in their shops. He built his first workbench when he was 11 and was introduced to handwork when his family built its first house on an Arkansas farm without electricity.
After formal training as a journalist at North Western University, Chris worked as a newspaperman by day and studied woodworking at night at the University of Kentucky. In 1996, he was hired as managing editor of Popular Woodworking, where he helped resuscitate the magazine and introduced more handwork into its pages. He eventually became editor and began writing books and teaching woodworking classes.
In 2007 he founded Lost Art Press LLC, a publishing company devoted to one thing: reviving handwork. By 2011, Lost Art Press had grown so much that Chris stepped down as editor of Popular Woodworking (he’s now a contributing editor) to focus on his company full time. He’s the author of several woodworking books, including “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use,” “The Workbench Design Book,” “Handplane Essentials,” and “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.” He also has produced six DVDs on handwork with Lie-Nielsen Toolworks.