Category: Campaign Furniture

Sticky? Yes. It’s made from three sticks. So it’s quite “sticky.”

I just finished up this campaign stool based (loosely) on A.J. Roubo’s model shown in “L’Art du Menuisier.” I turned round legs, whereas Roubo shows legs that are pie-shaped in section. When those legs fold together, they make a cylinder. Clever.

I know how to make legs like this, but I have to come up with a way to do this that doesn’t waste a lot of wood.

As I explained in an earlier post, the pivoting hardware is made using an eye bolt, all-thread rod, washers and acorn nuts. It looks OK, but I’m going to use different hardware for the next version to make it look bad-asser.

The leather, oiled latigo from the saddle industry, is great. Ty Black finished hand-stitching the seat last night. I attached the seat to the legs using No 10 x 1-1/4” solid brass screws from the maritime industry – they are sweet – plus some brass finishing washers from the home center that look like they had been hanging out there since Johnson was in office.

The stool sits really well. It barely weighs a thing. And it folds up nicely. That’s pretty good for a second prototype. But the next stool will be better.

— Christopher Schwarz

We were supposed to have finished this three-legged campaign stool more than a week ago. Then our kids got sick, and “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” raised its perfectly ferocious head.

So today, Ty Black and I started tying up the loose ends. He started hand-stitching the seat for the stool – instead of doing it by machine. Because that is a cool thing, I shot a short video of the process that should convince you that it’s pretty darn easy to do.

Me? I chucked the legs back in the lathe and turned a dome shape on their ends so that the legs wouldn’t rip the “sex machine” leather. Plus I added a couple more coats of wax while the legs were on the lathe. I then stripped the zinc off the steel hardware (see a video on this process here) and aged the brass bits that tie the whole stool together and allow the legs to rotate and splay without giving you an amateur enema.

Anyway, we should have photos up tomorrow of the finished stool. The prototype sits quite nicely.

— Christopher Schwarz

“I sit on a man’s back, choking him, and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by any means possible, except getting off his back.”

— Leo Tolstoy on authority, “Writings on Civil Disobedience and Nonviolence” (1886)

My bank was open today – an oddity for President’s Day – so I took out as much cash as I dared and ventured to Midwest Woodworking in Norwood, Ohio.

The goal was to get some teak for the drawer fronts of my next campaign chest, plus some clear sugar pine for the drawers.

(Yes, I know that many campaign chests used no secondary wood. But many did, especially the ones that were intended for domestic service, according to a couple dealers I’ve interviewed.)

Buried in a stack of teak that was about 10’ off the ground, I uncovered the one teak board I needed. It was like the tree had grown this way to become the most perfect drawer fronts for my chest. It was 8” wide x 175” long, the cathedral was perfectly centered on the board and the two pin knots in the board were exactly 38” apart from one another. Perfect for drawer spacing.

Also, we dug up some old teak “rippers” that Frank David of Midwest sold me at a considerable discount. “Rippers” are the 2”- to 3”-wide stuff that falls off from a rip cut. These rippers are quartered or rift and perfect for web frames. So I grabbed three of these.

I brought my daughter Katy along and Megan Fitzpatrick – their presence skyrocketed the estrogen content of Midwest, and they helped me pull the lumber from the stacks and break it down to fit into Megan’s Subaru.

Today I also pulled out the hardware for this chest. If this next part sounds like a gloat, it is.

All the brasses for this project are cast vintage pieces of original hardware that were never used. The cast pulls are still wrapped in their original papers. The brackets and corner guards are cast (not stamped) and are the perfect color and vintage.

I found them all on eBay and paid only $100 for enough hardware for two chests.

Yes, I suck.

— Christopher Schwarz

Read more about Midwest on my blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine, or on Andy Brownell’s site.