Category: Campaign Furniture

One of the things I enjoy about this chair form is that it never gets boring for me (but I don’t think I’ve been bored since age 11). Though this is the 24th Roorkee I’ve built during the last three years, it was still just as fun, thanks to the details I get to experiment with.

I’m on a never-ending quest to improve the hardware kit for this chair, which is featured in “Campaign Furniture,” and this Roorkee shows some of those new bits. I started using knurled brass thumbscrews to hold the arms straps to the back legs (the thumbscrews thread into brass threaded inserts). This allows you to easily take up any slack in the leather arms should you get bovine stretch marks.

I also found a good source for bronze bolts for the chair’s back, plus brass washers and brass nuts with a locking nylon insert. This makes the back bits less likely to loosen up.

Elsewhere, I’ve switched to using antiqued brass roller buckles, which recede into the leather instead of jumping out at you like the bright brass ones I used before.

All the other changes are things that are difficult to notice if you aren’t me. The foot shape is just a little different. And the ends of the tenons are flush with the legs instead of protruding a tad.

But just like the first Roorkee chairs I made, this one sits really well. So it might be time for a beer.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. The complete hardware list for this chair is here.

If you don’t check my blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine, here are a couple of items you might be interested in.

I’m finishing off two Roorkee chairs this week and am using some different hardware bits that are working out quite well. If you want a preview, check out this entry on my hardware sources for Roorkee chairs.

After I buy a new 1/4” leather punch (the old one is roaming California or Germany or who-knows where), I’ll post some completed photos of the chairs and discuss some of the hardware options I’ve been investigating.

The other thing you might check out is a three-part series on storing hand tools. I have used (and still use) a variety of ways to keep my tools at hand. You might not agree with my perspective, but that’s OK. Because I’m OK and you’re OK. There’s what’s right and there’s what’s right, and never the twain shall meet.

Part 1: Principles 1, 2 & 3
Part 2: Principles 4, 5 & 6
Part 3: Principles 7, 8 and (BONUS!) 9

— Christopher Schwarz

When I wrote “Campaign Furniture,” I tried to avoid some of the “camp” campaign pieces – mostly pieces of furniture that had been adapted to plastic modern versions and available for sale at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

But this week, I call uncle.

One of the students in my New English Workshop class at Warwickshire College had spent most of his life in the tropics and collected a good deal of portable furniture, including a set of “umbrella chairs” he had purchased in the 1970s.

One evening after the class had adjourned, he took me out to his car and showed me a couple of them. He had replaced the upholstery, but the wood and metal were original.

While I have seen these chairs in operation in plastic and nylon, they are simply amazing in wood, metal and cotton.

First off: There is not a single woodworking joint in the frame. Everything is handled by geometry, butt joints and hardware. The more you play with them – open and shut and open and… – the more you appreciate their cleverness.

Oh, and they are comfortable, too.

The student’s chairs were made from some sort of mahogany-like wood and a non-ferrous metal. Perhaps aluminum. As soon as I finished fooling with the chair, I resolved to build some. I’m going to need to fabricate some hardware. But that’s not a big deal, right?

— Christopher Schwarz