Lost Art Press

Coming Soon: Build a Campaign Chair DVD

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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One of the most influential chairs of the 20th century was built and designed by an anonymous craftsman in Roorkee, India.

Whoever built the first “Roorkee” chair in the late 1890s was trying to supply the military forces of the British Empire with a lightweight camp chair that could be taken to pieces in a few minutes and could adapt to any terrain, no matter how rugged.

The simple Roorkee chair was a huge military success. But what is even more incredible is how this chair with no fixed joinery influenced modern designers all over the world for the next 60-plus years.

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Kaare Klint, the founder of the Danish Modern furniture style, made slight changes to the Roorkee to create the famous Safari chair – a form that is still in production today. Le Corbusier saw the Roorkee and reimagined it in chrome and black leather to create the Basculant chair. Marcel Breuer created the Wassily chair. Wilhelm Bofinger made the Farmer’s Chair. And Vico Magistretti developed the Armchair 905 in 1964. All are direct descendents of the simple Roorkee.

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After building more than 25 of these Roorkee chairs for customers and teaching this class to woodworkers all over the world, I’ve teamed up with Popular Woodworking Magazine and ShopWoodworking.com to produce a three-and-a-half hour DVD on all aspects of making this historic-but-almost-forgotten chair.

The Roorkee is one of the most comfortable chairs you’ll ever make – the loose conical mortise-and-tenon joints adapt to your body, creating a solid exoskeleton of thick leather and dark wood. The tilting back curves to cradle your shoulders and pushes against your lumbar to make it easy to sit in for hours. And the simple construction will make you wonder why you ever feared chairmaking.

In this DVD we take you through all aspects of construction. We start with rough sapele and create the legs, stretchers and back using a lathe and a few simple hand tools. (Note: This is a great project for beginning turners and the DVD assumes you have never turned anything.) We make the conical joinery using simple and inexpensive tools. And we introduce you to leatherwork, starting from the cow and ending up with a nice place to sit.

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Even if you’ve never built a chair, you’ll breeze through this project. Most of my students have never built any seating. Advanced woodworkers will broaden their skill set with tips on hardware installation, leatherworking and even finishing.

The DVD will be released on Jan. 23, 2015, through ShopWoodworking.com. The DVD will be $29.99, or you can download the video for $24.99. It also will be available through Shopclass on Demand.

I’ll post more details on the DVD when it’s available. In the meantime, check out all these blog entries I’ve written about this great chair during the last few years.

— Christopher Schwarz

19 thoughts on “Coming Soon: Build a Campaign Chair DVD”

  1. Reblogged this on wesleyworkswithwood and commented:
    Upcoming project?

    I’ve been thinking about building one of these eventually. When the DVD comes out later this month I’ll watch it and see if I think I’m up to the challenge.

    1. Wesley,

      I have taught this chair class to people who have never built a single thing. It is a great project for anyone on the skill spectrum.

  2. Hard to elaborate on twitter, but dang if I wasn’t just thinking about building one of these this afternoon – with hesitation since I’ve never used a lathe before. Boom, a video is announced. You’ve figured out how to plant a tracking cookie in my brain. And yes, I’m thinking about drinking an India Pale Ale while relaxing in my new Roorkee right now.

  4. Will the DVD cover how to tighten the chuck on the lathe?

    Seriously, I have wanted to build this since the first time I sat in yours at WIA years ago. Having a DVD to continuously refer to might just give me the confidence to forge ahead!!

  6. Hello.

    I think I want one of the chairs. And obviously the thought of building it myself is at least equally as entertaining as the thought of owning one. I saw you present it in Roy Underhill’s show.

    Got a few issues before I can start:
    1. I don’t own a lathe and haven’t even touched one in my life. I’ve read about how to start lathe work and which lathe to buy. I was thinking of buying this lathe or a similar one: Axminster Hobby Series AH-1218VS. Is it big enough, strong enough etc.?
    2. Will we get a short preview of your DVD maybe on Youtube? Just 3-5 minutes so we know what to expect.
    3. I have no idea where to get leather. I assume the DVD will teach me which tools I will need, but so far I’ve only bought cow stuff that was somewhere beneath its skin, never the skin itself.
    4. If I build one later this year maybe it would be advisable to buy the wood now so it can accomodate to the workshop’s climate? Any suggestions for European wood?

    Looking forward to this video, I hope I can buy it. Good luck!

      1. Thank you very much, I already saw the newer blog posts with links to other blog posts that all combined answer about all my questions (just need to find a leather supplier in Central Europe. Should be possible, we do have cows running around everywhere).

        Thanks indeed!

        PS: I now think the chosen lathe is one size too small, good to know before you buy.
        PPS: I bought lots of old PWM issues lately because of the nice discounts, that 2012 issue should be amongst. Campaign furniture book? I considered buying the book anyway, will check that out.

  7. Chris – Any chance the DVD covers any details on how to make the chair without a lathe? I am getting the DVD either way, but we were thinking of using this chair as a project for our scouts woodworking merit badge and they cannot use any power tools. I would love to hear your thoughts on building with spokeshaves, gouges, etc. in place of turning.

    1. I do not cover non-lathe techniques. You could use the Kaare Klint leg design and shave the foot and rasp the top. It would look a little rustic, but that could be cool.

      1. Thanks for the quick response. I did a search just to make sure the second image was one of the chairs you were referring to and ran across an footstool version. I may definitely need to add that to my personal list when I create this.

        Now I just need to figure out a way to make a complimentary headrest so I can sleep in it on camping trips. Perhaps a post and curved pillow similar to those canes that convert to small stools.

  9. Having just finished making three camp stools for Xmas presents the rhoorkee is next on my to-build list. I definitely recommend Chris’ book on campaign furniture. It not only details the rhoorkee build as well as countless other pieces of furniture.

  10. Hot Dig-ga-dee Dog Dig-ga-dee! But it’ll be hard to fit in my Bug-Out-Bag.

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