My Douro chair from Christopher Clarke Antiques Ltd. arrived yesterday morning, and I shot this short video of the unpacking and assembly process.
The chair’s mechanism is exceedingly simple and ingenious, and I’m excited about building a version for my own travels. It won’t require any custom hardware as best I can tell.
The table/crate is enormous – tall enough to eat off of or work as a desk (in a pinch). And it is built like a tank. The corners are reinforced with iron. The hinges and lock are built for heavy service.
The chair itself is quite comfortable – like a Morris chair with springy armrests.
Because the Roorkee chair has leatherwork and turning, many woodworkers ask me about the basic toolset needed to build one of these chairs. When I teach a class in making a Roorkee chair, here is the core set I recommend.
1. Full-size Easy Rougher from EasyWood Tools with an R4 cutter. I am not a turner. I am a furniture maker who turns. So when I teach turning, I look for the easiest path. With the EasyWood tool I don’t have to teach sharpening. And I have to teach only one grip on the tool. This one tool does all the cuts on the chair, and it does an excellent job. The full-size version costs more than the smaller versions, but I find the bigger tools easier for beginners to use. These tools are available everywhere, but I prefer to buy direct from the maker because it puts more money in their pocket.
2. If you plan to make more of these chairs, I recommend you buy the Veritas 5/8” Tapered Tenon Cutter. You can cut the taper on the lathe, but this pencil-sharpener-like device ensures your tenon will be a perfect fit in your socket every time.
3. The tapered hole is made using the Veritas Large Standard Taper Reamer. I prefer the less-expensive standard version because it can be used in a brace, electric drill or drill press. The more expensive professional reamer is used in a brace only.
To finish the woodwork part of the project, you’ll need some drill bits (1/16” up to 5/8”), marking and measuring tools, screwdrivers and a block plane (or sandpaper) to clean up the flat sections of the legs.
The leather can look daunting, but it actually is quite easy and is accomplished with just a few tools.
4. For cutting the leather, I recommend a sharp utility knife (be sure to buy some of the heavy replacement blades). Any utility knife will do, though I don’t recommend the spring-loaded ones where you have to press the blade out continuously during the cut. That kills your thumb. I touch up the cutting edge of my utility blades on my sharpening stones or a strop. I can usually cut out two or three chairs on one blade.
5. To punch holes for the belting and rivets, I recommend the Tandy Mini Punch Set. I have a nice rotary punch, but this inexpensive set gets you started at a small fraction of the price of a good rotary punch.
6. When punching holes, you’ll need a mallet and a backing board. With leather, I prefer to use an old poly cutting board as the backing board.
7. To set the rivets, you’ll need a rivet setter. Because I use No. 9 copper rivets, I recommend the No. 9 Craftool Rivet and Burr Setter, also from Tandy. You’ll also need a tool to snip the the rivets to finished length. I use my nippers, which work well.
If you get deep into the leather work, you’ll find there are a lot of tools you can buy that will simplify and automate a lot of the processes (such as specialized punches that make the decorative belting ends). If you want to buy one extra tool to make your life easier, get the Craftool Strap Cutter. It cuts straps and belts with astonishing speed and can save you an hour of time on each chair.
Here’s one of my shameful secrets. When I finish writing a book, I buy something for myself. It can be big or it can be small.
When I finished “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use,” I bought a beat-up 1968 Karmann-Ghia to restore. When I finished “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” I bought a pair of canoe moccasins from Arrow MoccasinCo. (my favorite shoes ever).
When I finished “Campaign Furniture,” I purchased a piece of campaign furniture.
Last fall when I visited Christopher Clarke Antiques for research, they had a Douro chair there that I fell for. The Douro chair is an amazingly comfortable chair that folds into a box. The box converts into a table thanks to four turned legs. I really wanted to own an original because I want to make a copy to take on the road.
The chair arrives this coming week, and I am greatly looking forward to geeking out over its details, from the iron-lined box to the caned back. Building a reproduction of the chair will let me try caning and do some more leatherwork, which is fun.
So if you’ve bought a book from Lost Art Press in the last few years, thanks for your help with buying this Douro.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. We are still waiting to hear a shipping date on “Campaign Furniture” from our printer. My guess: March 7.
Anyone who has read “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” knows I have an aversion to the idea of locks. I don’t like to lock anything.
But even odder is that I love the locking mechanisms themselves.
So when I set out to build the projects for “Campaign Furniture,” I purchased some animal-shaped locks from India to photograph and use as motifs throughout the text. I ordered all my locks from a seller on eBay called Indian Antique Showroom.
The locks are charming, well-made and shipped from India. Mine all came extraordinarily packed in hand-lettered boxes. The seller is very fast and easy to deal with. I cannot say if the locks really are antiques or not, but I don’t really care about that.
What I like about the locks is they are more like puzzles than locks. If you have half a brain you can defeat the lock in a minute or two.
If you are planning on building a campaign trunk this year, check out the locks at Indian Antique Showroom. Dig deep. There are lots of locks there at varying prices. And check back if you don’t find one you like. They refresh their stock on a regular basis.
We sold out of our 100 tribolts for building a Campaign Stool in less than 24 hours. We won’t be restocking, but we do have a solution if you didn’t manage to snag one.
Mike Siemsen, who made the first 100 tribolts, has agreed to make another 100 and sell them directly to woodworkers as a public service. The tribolts are $15 with free domestic shipping. Mike has set up an eBay store here for orders. Or make your own tribolts using Mike’s directions here.
We still have a good number of campaign chest T-shirts in stock. Those have been selling at a good clip, but we ordered more than 100. We plan to keep this shirt in stock for the next few months, so you have some time to think about it.
I just got my shirt today and love it. The American Apparel shirts are as soft as a baby sasquatch’s butt. We are constantly comparing our shirts to those made by other U.S. vendors and have yet to find a better shirt.
The shirts are $20 plus $5 domestic shipping. More information (and new high-resolution photos) here.
I know that some of you are frustrated that we don’t stock all of the T-shirts, patches, postcards, tattoos and whatnot that we’ve made during the last five years. It still hacks me off when my oldest daughter walks downstairs wearing a “Rude Mechanicals Since 1768” shirt in maroon. I never even had one of those.
To be honest, we make the T-shirts so we have something to wear. Postcards so we have something to write on. Patches for the holes in our jeans. These things are temporary.
What is important to us are the books. We want to keep every one of them in print for as long as we’re around. That’s where we are totally serious.
