Lost Art Press

Author: fitz

Woodworker, writer, editor, teacher, ailurophile, Shakespearean. Will write for air-dried walnut.

‘Campaign Furniture’ – Traveling Bookcase

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Fig. 11.1. A traveling bookcase in quartered oak.

The following is excerpted from “Campaign Furniture,” by Christopher Schwarz.

For almost 200 years, simple and sturdy pieces of campaign furniture were used by people all over the globe, yet this remarkable furniture style is now almost unknown to most woodworkers and furniture designers.

“Campaign Furniture” seeks to restore this style to its proper place by introducing woodworkers to the simple lines, robust joinery and ingenious hardware that characterize campaign pieces. With more than 400 photos and drawings to explain the foundations of the style, the book provides plans for nine pieces of classic campaign furniture, from the classic stackable chests of drawers to folding Roorkee chairs and collapsible bookcases.

Folding clamshell bookcases weren’t just for officers or bureaucrats of the British Empire. These tough pieces of cabinetwork were ideal for students or any bibliophile who had to be mobile.

Built like a chest or trunk, these bookcases were typically dovetailed at the corners for maximum strength. The interiors varied. They all had shelves – of course. Sometimes the shelves were adjustable; sometimes they were fixed. You might find cubbyholes or drawers near the base of the chest.

And sometimes each side of the bookcase was further protected by a hinged door that was solid wood, glass or a metal mesh.
All of the examples I’ve encountered were secured with a chest lock or a hasp. The bookcases also wore brass or iron corner guards to protect the books if the piece took a serious hit.

The example I’ve built for this book is pretty simple. It’s made from quartersawn oak and is dovetailed at the corners with half-blind dovetails. Each half of the clamshell case features two adjustable shelves that are suited to hold smaller books. At the base of the carcase are four dovetailed drawers that are fronted by flush drawer pulls.

The backs of the carcase are panels that float in grooves in the carcase pieces. In this piece, I’ve covered the interior with an embossed wallpaper. Then I painted and shellacked the paper to make it look vintage. The exterior is finished with garnet shellac.

Build the Carcase
The carcase of this bookcase is somewhat like a dovetailed drawer. All the corners are joined by half-blind dovetails. The backs float in grooves in the dovetailed shells. Begin construction by dovetailing the tops and bottoms to the sides of the carcase.

To match many bookcases of the period, I cut the tails on the tops and bottoms of the carcases. The pins are on the sides. Because these bookcases normally sit on top of another piece (such as a campaign chest), the orientation of the pins and tails isn’t much of an issue.

After cutting the tails and pins, plow the 1/4″ x 1/4″ grooves for the carcase backs. The grooves are 1/4″ from the outside edge of the carcase. Then lay out the locations of the 1/2″-wide x 1/4″-deep dados for the shelves. I gang the carcase parts together to make the layout (relatively) foolproof.

Fig. 11.2 Don’t measure. Strike one wall of each dado for the shelves. Then use the shelf material to strike the other line of the dado. This ensures a good fit.
Fig. 11.3 Saw the walls. Place your thumb in the groove to stop your saw as you saw each wall of the dado.

Saw out the walls of the dados, then chop up the waste with a 1/2″-wide chisel. Plow the waste out with the chisel. Try working both bevel-up and bevel-down. The bevel-up orientation will remove waste in a hurry – perhaps to the point where you will go below your desired depth. Chiseling bevel-down is slower, but you don’t take as big a bite. I usually remove most of the waste with the chisel bevel-up, then I finish up with it bevel-down.

Fig. 11.4 (left) Choppy. Break up the waste between the dado walls with a chisel that is the same width as the dado. Fig. 11.5 (right) Plow the waste. Remove most of the waste with a chisel. Work bevel-up to remove material quickly; work bevel-down to add some control.

After you have the bottom of your dado roughed out, clean it up to a consistent depth with a router plane. You also can use the side of the router plane’s iron to scrape the vertical walls of the dado, fairing and squaring them.

Fig. 11.6 Plunge forward. The router plane isn’t suited to take a big bite. The waste jams up against the post of the iron too easily. Use the router to remove the smallest amount of waste from the bottom of the dado.

With the dados cut, knock the carcases together and measure the final dimensions of the back pieces. Cut the back panels to size, then rabbet all four edges so the panel floats in the grooves. Be sure to leave some space for expansion of the back. I used quartersawn oak, which doesn’t move much, so I allowed for only 1/8″ of movement in each panel.

Fig. 11.7 About that much. I don’t cut my panels to size until I have the carcases dry-fit. This (usually) prevents me from making a stupid error.

Gluing up the carcases is an odd job. You want to glue each carcase so its joints are tight. But you also want to glue up each carcase so it is the same shape as its mate. Otherwise, you will end up (I promise) with two carcases that are different shapes.

So apply glue, then clamp up each carcase independently. Place the two assemblies on top of one another and clamp them together along the seam. Once those clamps are on, check the uber-assembly for squareness. After the glue is dry, plane up the carcases individually. Then clamp them together and fair the seam between the two shells.

Fig. 11.8 Rabbet that. Cut the rabbets on the back panels. Cut the rabbets across the grain first. Then follow that with the rabbets that run parallel to the grain.
Fig. 11.9 Glue the two. You want these carcases to mate. So glue them up in tandem. Clamp the tops, bottoms and sides. But also clamp the carcases together so their edges align.
Fig. 11.10 On a platform. A leg vise and a platform (made from scrap) is a powerful setup for planing the joints of your carcases.

Install the Lock
This is an excellent time to install the hinges and lock. While most woodworkers have installed butt hinges, many have not installed a chest lock. They are actually simple to install if you take the process one step at a time and don’t measure too much.

Fig. 11.11 (left) One hole. A scant hole in the carcase guides the installation of the chest lock. Fig. 11.12 (right) The bulk of the waste. Sawcuts help break up the waste. Chop parallel to the grain lines with a chisel to remove most of the waste.

The key to installing a chest lock is to drill a hole where the pin will go. The pin is the most important part of the lock. The key is inserted onto the pin then rotates on it to unlock the bookcase. So all the layout is determined from the pin.

Fig. 11.13 (left) Use the hole. The hole you bored for the pin also guides the installation of the escutcheon. Trace around the escutcheon with a fine pencil. Fig. 11.14 (right) Saw out the waste. Saw the walls of the hole for the escutcheon, then chisel out any waste.

Measure (shudder) from the top of the lock to the center of the pin. Transfer that measurement to the carcase and make a dimple with an awl. You want to drill at this location a hole through the carcase that is slightly smaller than the diameter of the pin itself (1/64″ or 1/32″ undersized is about right).

Then, from the inside of the carcase, press the lock into the hole. It should stick there.

Fig. 11.15 The final recess. Press the lock back into place and trace around its exterior plate. Chop out the waste.

With the lock pressed into the hole you can trace around its inside case with a thick (or blunt) pencil. This pencil line represents the next recess you should saw and chop out. Then you can install the press-in escutcheon on the outside of the carcase.

Interior Structures
These bookcases can be divided up in a variety of ways. This one has two drawers at the bottom of each case. When I started on this case, my plan was to have only one shelf on each side. After assembling the carcase, I decided to add a couple more shelves and make them adjustable. This was an easy matter of sawing some more dados in the carcase walls.

At this point I also had to saw the 1/2″ x 1/8″ dados for the dividers between the drawers in each carcase. This was a simple matter of sawing, chiseling and routing the waste. You can then glue these pieces into the carcase.

Fig. 11.16 Line up the dados. I cut the dados for the drawer dividers after assembly. Using a square, I lined up the walls of the dados and marked out what needed to be cut away.

Then I turned my attention to the drawers. Despite my best efforts, the holes for the drawers were all slightly different. So I fit individually the drawer parts for each drawer opening. When I do this sort of work, I fit the drawer front so it will just sneak into its opening all around. I cut the drawer back to that same length.

I fit the drawer sides so they slide in and out of the carcase like I want the finished drawer to slide. I wait to cut the drawer bottom until the drawer is assembled.

The drawers I make are typical for the 18th and 19th centuries. The sides join the drawer back with through-dovetails. The sides join the drawer front with half-blind (the British call them “lap”) dovetails. The bottom slides into the assembled drawer in a groove plowed into the sides and drawer front.

Fig. 11.17 Parts in place. Fit your drawer parts so they match the dimensions of the drawer opening. If the individual parts fit too tight, the drawer will surely stick.

Once the joints are cut, glue up the drawers. Make sure the drawers are dead square – you can pull them into square with a tight and well-fit drawer bottom if necessary.

Once your drawers are assembled, clean up the joints with a plane and fit each drawer into its opening. The tighter the fit, the less likely the drawer will bind when you pull it out.

Fig. 11.18 Drilled out. I usually remove most of the waste with a drill – in this case a Forstner bit. All this ugliness will be hidden behind the pull’s backplate.

Then add the pulls. I used some vintage pulls that were made in the mid-20th century, which are surprisingly similar to ones made today. Just as when you installed the lock, installing the pulls is a multi-stage process. First you waste away the deepest and smallest recess for the pull. Then you fit the pull into that hole and trace around the backplate. Then mortise out the area for the backplate and you can screw the pull in place.

Fig. 11.19 Traced & chopped. After fitting the pull into the first recess, press it down and trace around the backplate. Then you can chop out that waste.

Don’t be afraid to file parts of the pull to make it fit or function.

Finish the Interior
Some of these bookcases were lined with felt, cloth or some sort of wallpaper. To give this bookcase a Victorian look, I lined the interior with an embossed wallpaper. Then I painted the wallpaper and coated it with shellac (like the rest of the carcase).

Adding wallpaper is easy. Cut the paper so it fits the opening (or is slightly bigger that the space required). Roll some wallpaper paste on the back of the wallpaper. Fold the pasted surfaces on themselves, closing them like a book. Wait 10 minutes.

Fig. 11.20 Easy wallpapering. If you’ve ever hung wallpaper, you’ll be amazed how easy it is to do on a horizontal surface. It doesn’t sag.

Then you can unfold the wallpaper and apply it to the wood. Use a wallpaper brush to press the paper to the wood. Don’t use a squeegee tool if you are using embossed wallpaper – it will destroy the pattern.

If your paper is oversized, trim it into the corner with a utility knife. Then turn your attention to the next piece of wallpaper. Let the paste dry for 24 hours before trimming the bits that cover the dados.

Fig. 11.21 Paste then trim. Use one piece of paper on the sides of the carcase. After the paste has dried 24 hours, use a knife to slice away the paper covering the dados.

Paint the wallpaper if you like; I used a green milk paint I had on hand. With embossed wallpaper you can create a nice two-tone effect with little effort. Brush on a coat of paint. Wait about five minutes for the paint to set up a bit. Then gently wipe the paper with a sponge. The sponge will remove the paint from the high spots.

You can use contrasting colors to paint the high spots and low spots. But remember: Books will cover the wallpaper most of the time. So don’t go too crazy.

Fig. 11.22 A little dab. After the paint flashes, gently wipe the high spots with a sponge to brush away part of the paint.

After the paint dries, finish the entire case. I wanted the outside to look a bit aged, though not distressed. So I finished the entire case, inside and out, with two coats of garnet shellac. Then I wiped a black wax on to the exterior surfaces of the carcase. After the wax flashed, I wiped off the excess, leaving the black in the pores.

Then I coated the entire piece, inside and out, with one coat of a dull lacquer to cut back some of the shine from the shellac.

The final step was to add some corner hardware. As an experiment, I used applied corner guards that are secured with escutcheon pins. They don’t look as nice as inset corner guards, but they are better than nothing.

LAP Woodworking Pencils Will Soon be Back in Stock

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We’ve been out of Lost Art Press Woodworking Pencils for a few weeks now – but they’ll soon be back in stock (register to be notified when they are). Musgrave Pencil Company – the family owned company in Tennessee that makes the pencils for us – sent us some video of the process. It is oddly mesmerizing – so if you need a short, soothing break from whatever you’re doing:

How to Fit a Ball Catch

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The following is excerpted from “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years,” Vol. 4, which covers three different topics.

1) The Workshop, including the design and construction of workbenches, tool chests and wall cabinets. There’s also an entire section devoted to “appliances,”which are workshop accessories such as shooting boards.

2) Furniture & its Details, includes a discussion of all the important Western furniture styles, including their construction, mouldings and metal hardware. This section also includes the construction drawings for many important and famous pieces of furniture examined by Charles H. Hayward during his tenure at The Woodworker magazine.

3) Odds & Sods. In addition to offering its readers practical information for the shop, The Woodworker also asked it subscribers to think about the craft and its place in modern society. We have included many of our favorite philosophical pieces in this final section.

During the last few years the ball catch has become remarkably popular. It is far neater than the old-fashioned turn and is much more convenient in use. There are many occasions when a door needs something to hold it in place when closed but when a lock seems unnecessary. Take, for instance, a sideboard. Often enough locks are not really needed. The key is invariably kept in the lock and it is turned merely to prevent the door from remaining ajar and looking untidy. A ball catch would answer the purpose equally well.

Although the fitting is usually a straightforward job, there are sometimes slight complications. In any case the requirements of the fitting should be understood properly. In the first place, the ball catch itself has a slight flange at the top. When recessed into the door this flange is bound to project. This means that the catch plate must be sunk into the cupboard by an amount rather more than its thickness. If this were not done the flange would strike against the plate and would prevent the door from closing—unless the door was a very loose fit. This is made clear in Fig. 1.

When the door closes in flush with the cupboard the work is simple. First make a pencil line in the middle of the stile at the top and square it across the top edge of the door. Close the latter and transfer the mark to the edge of the cupboard as shown in Fig. 2. Square the mark back for about 1 in. Since the projecting part of the plate must be flush with the front of the cabinet, a gauge can be set to the over-all width (see A, Fig. 3) and the cupboard marked. Holding the plate level with this line and so that the pencil line runs exactly across its centre, mark round it with a marker or sharp pencil. The recess is cut easily by chopping down all round the shape and easing away the waste. The chisel should be placed a trifle inside the line so that the recess is not too large. After a little experience the exact position in which to place the chisel will come automatically, giving a perfect fit. In some fittings the screw holes are pressed out to form a countersink, and this necessitates countersinking the screw holes in the wood to enable the plate to go in flush. Another recess is also needed at the centre where the hole for the ball occurs. This again is best done with the countersink. The ball catch itself merely needs a hole drilled in the door. It is made a fairly tight fit and requires no other fixing.

The fixing is sometimes complicated by the front of the cabinet being chamfered, or having some carved decoration. This prevents the gauge from being used. Proceed as before, marking the pencil line at the top of the door and transferring it to the cabinet. Fit the plate first. Hold it centrally over the pencil line and keep the projecting part of the plate level with the cabinet front (Fig. 4). Having fixed the plate, close the door and mark with a pencil the position its front occupies (see A, Fig. 4). Set a pair of dividers from this pencil line to a line running through the centre of the hole for the ball (B). (This usually lines up with the screw holes.) With the dividers mark the line on the top of the door, keeping one leg of the dividers at the front. This gives the position for the hole for the ball catch.

Tickets on Sale Now for August Cricket Table Class

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Derek is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching – well worth a visit to Kentucky to soak up his knowledge about how to break free from 90° as you build a handsome, three-legged table! Tickets are on sale now!

– Fitz

Venetian Windows from ‘Doormaking & Window Making’

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The following is excerpted from “Doormaking and Window-Making.”

As the Industrial Revolution mechanized the jobs of the joiner – building doors and windows by hand – one anonymous joiner watched the traditional skills disappear and decided to do something about it.

That joiner wrote two short illustrated booklets that explained how to build doors and windows by hand. And what was most unusual about the booklets is that they focused on the basics of construction, from layout to joinery to construction – for both doors and windows.

Plenty of books exist on building windows and doors, but most of them assume you have had a seven-year apprenticeship and don’t need to know the basic skills of the house joiner. Or the doors and windows these books describe are impossibly complex or ornamental.

“Doormaking and Window-Making” starts you off at the beginning, with simple tools and simple assemblies; then it moves you step-by-step into the more complex doors and windows.

Every step in the layout and construction process is shown with handmade line drawings and clear text. The booklets are written from a voice of authority – someone who has clearly done this for a long time.

During the last 100 years, most of these booklets disappeared. Booklets don’t survive as well as books. And so we were thrilled when we were approached by joiner Richard Arnold in England, who presented us with a copy of each booklet to scan and reproduce for a book.

We have scanned both booklets, cleaned up the illustrations and have combined them into a 176-page book titled “Doormaking and Window-Making.” In addition to the complete text and illustrations from these booklets, we have also included an essay from Arnold on how these rare bits of workshop history came into his hands.

VENETIAN, or, as they are sometimes called, mar­ginal light, windows are very fashionable at the present time, having in a great measure replaced the bay window, although the same style is some­times adapted to the bay, instead of the usual up­ai1d-down sliding sashes. These windows are, as may be gathered from the drawings, of the casement variety, and the sashes should be made to open outwards if possible, this being the better way to keep out the wet.

In Fig. 108 we show one of these windows fitted with four lights or casements, the two outside ones being hinged to the jambs, and the two middle ones, which fold together, being hinged in like manner to the mullions. The casements in this frame run from sill to head, the upper part being divided into small squares as shown, which is the simplest way of forming an artistic window.

Another method of filling in these window frames is shown in Fig. 110, which shows the filling between the mullions. Here the casements are in two heights, the bottom pair being hinged in the ordinary way to the mullions ; the other, which is wide enough to fill the whole space, is hinged at the top, and opens outwards, the bottom rail of this fitting to the others either as section, Figs. 111 or 112. The former is the simplest way and least liable to get out of order, but the latter is best as regards the stopping out of wind and water; but when the window has been repainted a few times it is apt to work badly.

Windows made in this way are very convenient, as it is possible to have the top only open, or the whole, as required. The folding casements in either style of window come together with a rebated joint, as Fig. 113.

Suitable sections for head and sill for these frames are shown in Fig. 114, the grooves in the latter being to form a cement key under, and to take the window board. It will also be noticed that the bevel of the sill finishes with a hollow, forming an undercut rebate ; this should not be omitted, owing to its use as a water trap. The same also applies to the groove in the bottom rail of the casement, which tends to the same purpose. In these windows the jambs are the same in section as the head, and the mullions the same, but worked both sides ; thus there is no need to· give sectional illustrations of these.

Fig. 115 shows a window of a more ambitious kind, and which is not strictly Venetian, though often called so. In addition to the mullions, as in the former example, the present window is divided in height by the insertion of a transome. A half­-sectional plan of this window is given in Fig. 116 (this will also serve the same purpose for Fig. 108, both being alike in this respect), and a vertical section in Fig. 117. In these sections the whole of the framing is flush at both sides, the sashes being kept back from the face sufficiently far to allow of a somewhat heavy chamfer being run round, as shown in Fig. 118, but the frame is improved if the transome and sill is made to project as in the section (Fig. 119). This is also an additional safeguard against the wet, the projections allowing of a water groove being made underneath, as shown.

Fig. 119 also shows an alternative moulding on the inside of the frame, in place of the chamfer shown in Fig. 114, and in many cases the transome is made use of to introduce more or less elaborate mouldings. These, however, make no difference as regards method of making, though it may do in the setting out, which must in every case be dealt with according to requirements.

In Fig. 120 we show the rod for setting out the frame of the window shown in Fig. 115, which, for the sake of illustration, is 8 ft. wide by 6 ft. high outside, the framing throughout being 4-1/2 ins. wide by 3 ins. thick. The width of the frame is on the side of the rod marked A, the marks B show the full width of frame, outside. From B to C, inwards, should be the thickness of the framing after it is planed up, which will probably be 1/8 in. under the 3 ins., and from C to D, outwards, is the depth of the rebate. From C at each end set off the width of the side lights, or, rather, the distance from jamb to mullion, and the thickness of the framing again, which gives us E and F, and from these mark off the depth of the rebates again, thus getting G.

In setting out the stuff from the rod, the marks D and G will be for the mortises, those coming in the rebates, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 119, and if the sashes have to come flush with the framing outside the same marks will be the shoulder lines for the transome on the outside edge. The dotted lines on the rod will be the shoulder lines for the inside of the transome, and also for the outside, if the framing is allowed to project, and is chamfered as in Fig. 118.

The height rod is set out on the side marked H, the lines I showing the full height, 6 ft. K is the thickness of the sill (which we should have said is 4 ins. instead of 3 ins.), then L and M for the depth of rebate and the bevel respectively, the latter being made to correspond with the inside chamfer.

From I at the top set off the thickness of the framing and back the depth of the rebate, thus getting N and O respectively. Now measure up the height of the bottom casements from K, set off the thickness of the framing above this, and back from each, 1/2 in. for depth of rebate, and again from the top one of these for the bevel on transome. This gives us the marks P, R, and S, respectively.

In setting out this from rod, the marks M and 0 are the shoulder lines at sill and head on the outside, L giving the angle in the former, while S will be the shoulder lines for the mullion under the transome. T is the same above the transome, and the line between R and T gives the angle.

The shoulder lines on the inside are the same as M and T at the sill and upper side of transome, and as dotted lines under the latter, and at the head.

The rod for setting out of the sashes of Fig. 118 is given in Fig. 121, and as this is simply the same as what is met with in ordinary windows, no detailed description is necessary, the sizes marked on being sufficient.