It is very difficult for a non-gentleman to behave like a gentleman in battle because non-gents do not have the same belief that all foreigners are bad shots.
— Douglas Sutherland, as quoted in Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert’s “Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840”
That’s kind of like believing snakes can’t bite under water.
By the way Chris nice work!
Chris, I very much like your Campaign pieces and feel that this is a strong direction for hand tool woodworkers. A couple of ares to be discussed are the costs and sourcing of material and hardware. I read somewhere that you have a substantial amount invested in materials so far. Perhaps there are some suggestions that you might have for alternatives to mahogany, and Horton custom brasses.
The ‘gentleman’ who said that obviously never served in Afganistan in the 1800’s! Those tribesmen were outstanding shots. Perhaps non-gents had better sense than to stand around in a battle with red coats on looking like targets?
Certain writers of the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods had a very dry and sardonic sense of humour, playing heavily on the English tendency to understatement. Should you ever wish to investigate further, modern examples can often be found on the ‘letters’ page of the Daily Telegraph.
Zounds, I’ll have to go have a look! I didn’t look up the credentials of the gentleman above, but as with modern commentators, there are those who don’t know whereof they speak who aren’t shy about speaking as experts (Lord save us!) I do wish those folks who don’t know what they’re about leave the running of things to those of us who do! 🙂
BTW, chris, nice work as always. Your name is on the spine of the majority of my woodworking books.
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains, And the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
Thank you Rudyard.
When I saw the title of this post I thought you might have been talking about Walt Q. Get well soon, Walt!
-Eric
Chris,
Unlike your earlier campaign pieces with completely concealed dovetails, here you have used the “blind of one eye” variety. You are also using your funky (to my eye) one-half pin and one-half tail arrangement typically only seen in drawer sides. These details don’t appear to be present in the example piece pictured in the previous post. Is there historical precedent for this? I’d appreciate it if you could elaborate a bit on these specific design choices.
As always, beautiful and inspiring work!
Greg,
The half-tail example is well-represented in all English work. As you’ll see in my forthcoming article on the style in PW, casework was built using through-, half-blind and full-blind dovetails. I have yet to see secret mitered dovetails in Campaign stuff, but I will bet my left something body organ that they are out there.
I think the trick is learning to speak English joinery. Then you can make your own sentences (and projects).
Good question. Thanks much.
I always wondered why the number of gentlemen has declined over time. Now I know – Natural Selection.
“Gentlemen rankers out on the spree, Damned from here to eternity.” Enlisted men haven’t changed a bit since the days of the Phalanx; they know in their bones that the officers who speak so enthusiastically of “our mission” do so because they don’t have to walk point.