If you like campaign furniture but you don’t follow my blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine, you should click over there and check out the post about my visit to Christopher Clarke Antiques in Stow-on-Wold, England.
Lots of photos of beautiful pieces. And some words.
— Christopher Schwarz
Since Feb. 1 when I got in the car to drive down to Highland Woodworker, this has been a year of non-stop travel on three continents. It’s been a great year – I was nearly bit by a poisonous spider in Australia, I used Chris Vesper’s “toilet” and I built more tool chests than I care to remember.
But at 12:46 p.m. today, I officially ran out of urgent things to do. I finished building a project for Popular Woodworking Magazine (the nail cabinet above) that was a round-the-clock affair since last Monday. I paid my estimated taxes. I answered some urgent e-mail.
And it’s a good thing I had a moment of peace. Tonight John Hoffman and I get on a plane for a week in England. We’ll be doing research for my upcoming book on campaign furniture at sites both public and private. And we’re attending the European Woodworking Show at Cressing Temple Barns in Essex.
On Saturday we’ll be in the booth for Classic Hand Tools – Mike Hancock’s outfit. If you are at the show, please stop by and say hello. On Sunday, we’ll be walking the show as plain old woodworkers in an effort to catch up with a bunch of people we haven’t seen in a long time.
And on next Monday we return with fake British accents, pocket squares and ascots.
I have two projects to build for the campaign furniture book during the next four weeks. The leather is ordered. The mahogany is waiting. The drawings are complete.
So if I’m not answering your e-mails promptly during the next seven days, you know why.
— Christopher Schwarz
5. With your help, we’ll have a new A.-J. Roubo T-shirt design ready for Woodworking in America (not to mention lots of copies of the deluxe and standard editions of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry”).
On the front of the shirt will be the image above, which was adapted from the original plates of “l’Art du menuisier” by Wesley Tanner, who designed both editions of the book.
On the back will be a witticism. A really funny one that will cause spontaneous knee-slapping and perhaps even a laugh riot (have you ever seen a laugh riot?).
And this witticism will be written by you, our hilarious readers. If we select your slogan for the rear of our T-shirt, you’ll get a free T-shirt, a copy of the standard edition of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” and our salute.
To enter your witty saying, simply add it in the comments. The slogan should be no more than five or six words. Long slogans don’t fit on T-shirts (that’s what books are for, duh!). Be sure to include your name so we can get in touch with you in case you are the winner.
The deadline for submitting your entry is 5 p.m. EST on Sept. 22, 2013.
And sign up for Woodworking in America, Oct. 18-20 – the T-shirt might have the nipples cut out with fur around the holes. (Not really.)
— Christopher Schwarz
If Randy Wilkins likes your book, you are solid gold (in my book).
Randy is a set designer extraordinaire who has been involved in some incredible films. He is deft with both the mouse and pencil (he’s taught me some fantastic things about SketchUp). And he’s a nice guy.
This weekend, Randy posted a generous and informative review of “By Hand & Eye” that brought his experienced eye to the party. Using the principles explained in “By Hand & Eye,” Randy explored early sailing ships and goes on a lengthy (and informative) discourse on the dividers needed in your personal kit.
Of all the nice reviews we’ve received of “By Hand & Eye,” this is the one that counts the most for me.
Read the full review here.
And in his last e-mail to me, Randy lamented: “The book is great, unfortunately my wife as absconded with my copy and is not sharing so I’ll have to get another.”
If you haven’t checked out this fantastic book, read more about it in our store.
— Christopher Schwarz
When I started teaching woodworking about 10 years ago, it felt like I was spending more time flattening the sharpening stones than I was teaching.
It’s a common problem in hand-tool classes and shops: As soon as a woodworker finishes up an edge, he or she is so eager to get back to the bench that the stone is left hollow. A few years ago I started making this threat: “Leave my stones hollow and you will be fined one beer.”
That worked. Now I drink too much beer.
Turns out this was a solution in traditional shops as well. Here’s a great quote dug up by the always-digging Jeff Burks.
When the edge requires grinding and whetting, in the former of these operations, viz. the grinding, is performed on a flat rub-stone, similar to what carpenters sharpen their plane-irons on, with the application of water. This stone is about six inches broad, and eighteen long, and so careful are they to keep its surface flat, that it is a regulation in the work-shops, for every workman, after using the stone, to write his name upon it with a piece of coal; when, if his successor finds it left so uneven, that a halfpenny can be passed underneath the edge of an iron, straight-edged, laid upon it, the former workman is subjected to a fine for his carelessness.
— From “The Technical Repository: On the advantages of improving the qualities of Cutting Instruments, by Burnishing, and thereby condensing their Edges.” by Thomas Gill: Volume 8 – London, 1826
— Christopher Schwarz
