Lost Art Press

Category: Campaign Furniture

The Durga is in the Details

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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With my French oak Roubo bench sitting in pieces in the back of the shop, I’ve spent the last couple days trying to complete this teak campaign chest and catch up on a month of e-mails, bills and administrative crap.

Getting these casework projects ready for finishing requires lots of tweaking inside and out. I had to patch a few minor areas where the teak splintered (big thanks to Carl Bilderback for honing my Dutchmen skills). And I had to remove some pencil marks, errant machine marks and chalk that had embedded itself in the pores. Oh, and install the drawer stops (the hide glue is curing as I type).

If the weather holds, this project will be finished finished on Friday. And I will drink a huge beer. Perhaps a growler of IPA. Then a nap.

Then I have to decide on the next project to tackle:

Another Roorkhee (I still have a few outstanding orders)
A folding officers’ desk a la William IV
A “riveted” campaign floor chest
Coaching table
My French oak workbench
Nail cabinet

That list makes me want to take a nap – no growler necessary.

— Christopher Schwarz

Another Point for Lower Workbenches

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As I was making the final adjustments to the drawers on this teak campaign chest, I was reminded of another reason I like lower workbenches.

When I need to trim up a typical chest carcase or drawer, a lower bench ensures I can place the drawer on the floor and dress the dovetails. No platforms or other jiggery. Just drop and go.

But the No. 1 reason I like lower benches is that I can get my weight over my handplanes so I don’t have to use my arms when dressing panels and boards.

I started with a 38”-high bench in the 1990s and have steadily reduced my working height as I became better with hand tools. My current bench is 34”. The massive French oak workbench I’m finishing up this week will be 33”. I am perfectly comfortable at Megan Fitzpatrick’s bench, which is 28” (I think).

Disclaimer: I don’t give a flying ^&%$ at a rolling doughnut what bench height you use. You’ll figure it out.

— Christopher Schwarz

Completely Fixated on this Chest

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As I rushed out of the shop to drive to the French Oak Roubo Project, I snapped this quick photo of my teak campaign chest to keep with me, like a photo of my sweetheart during wartime.

I hate to leave a project at this stage – all the hardware is fitted and just needs to be screwed down. Then I just have to make a couple small repairs and do the final clean-up before applying the finish.

Installing the pulls was the most difficult part of the project. After a cock-up with a powered router (and getting spanked for it on my blog at Popular Woodworking), I read all the readers’ thoughtful (cough) suggestions and ignored them completely.

The best way to install these pulls has absolutely nothing to do with a router. But it does use electricity. The secret weapon: a cheap flatbed scanner.

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The rest of the work was with a good chisel and a mallet. I could not be more pleased with the fit.

The finish on this piece is going to be fairly minimal. The basecoat will be a couple coats of garnet shellac – Tiger Flakes from Tools for Working Wood. These are the best flakes I’ve encountered so far. And then I’m going to apply a coat of satin lacquer because I’m quite good at that finish, and I like the way it looks.

But before I can get to that, I will spend the weekend teaching a class at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking on building precision layout tools. It’s a fun class in a verdant location. But a little bit of my midbrain will be fixated on Monday when I am reunited with my chest.

— Christopher Schwarz

Fit This In

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Despite an overheated travel and teaching schedule this summer, I have written three complete chapters to the “Campaign Furniture” book and am now fitting the final brasses on a teak campaign chest.

This book will be written by Dec. 31 with a release date in early 2014.

In addition to the progress on the campaign front, here’s what else is brewing at Lost Art Press.

1. I have finished revising “Art of Joinery,” and the page-design process will begin in short order. This second and expanded edition of “Art of Joinery” will be released this fall (I hope in time for Woodworking in America). This edition will introduce some new manufacturing changes to our 6×9 books, including patterned end sheets and deckle edges.

2. The deluxe version of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” is now in the hands of the printer. We are waiting for a press date. Designer Wesley Tanner is now turning his attention to designing the trade edition of the book. We have worked out some manufacturing details and can now say that the trade version will be $60. And it will be worth that.

3. John Hoffman is plowing through a critical part of our five-year project, cleaning up some files to get them ready for the designer. This massive, massive book is as important as anything we have done. And yes, it has something to do with Charles Hayward.

The primary reason I have been making so much progress these last two months has been that I’m not blogging much. So thanks to Jeff Burks to picking up my slack. His primary-source entries are the kind of thing you cannot get anywhere else. I know it takes a little more patience to read the longer-form entries written in Victorian-era language. But there is solid gold in every entry (not to mention the cool photos he digs up).

OK, back to the shop. I have to fit the last eight brasses on this chest.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Finishing a Danish Classic in Bavaria

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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One of the nice things about building a European chair in Europe is that it is very easy to make it look, well, European.

Today we wrapped up the final day of a class at Dictum GmbH in Munich on building a Kaare Klint Safari chair – the direct descendant of the British Roorkhee chair. To build the chair, we had some trouble finding some of the rustic hardware that I like to build a Roorkhee with, such as solid copper rivets and unplated steel hardware.

But we had no problem getting beautiful quartered European beech, Swedish leather and chromed hardware and rivets, which we all perfect for the Kaare Klint version of this 20th-century classic chair.

In fact, the only things that look a little “off” on this version of the chair are the details I brought to the party: brass buckles and copper rivets.

But let’s not dwell on that.

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Instead, take a gander at this 1933 version of an 1898 camping chair. Klint managed to harness the fundamental function of the Roorkhee and shift the decorative details into a modern vein without the chair looking anything other than perfect.

For me, it reminds me of the way that Shaker furniture can be “updated” with some modern details without suffering jet lag across the decades (see the work of Christian Becksvoort and Garrett Hack for more in this vein).

I’m glad the class is over (it took less than four days to make the chair), though it was a heck of a good time. Now I have seven days in Europe with my family and laptop (to finalizing the Roubo details).

— Christopher Schwarz