Lost Art Press

Category: Campaign Furniture

A Roorkhee in Authentic Canvas

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Several readers have asked what a Roorkhee chair would look like with canvas seat covers. This week we finished up a pair of these chairs for a customer who wanted us to strive for the most authentic look from the early chairs in the late 1800s.

Finding canvas is one thing. Finding canvas of the right weight, color and weave is another. I have an old military machete sheath that is made of just the stuff we wanted. So Ty Black went out one day to a massive fabric warehouse to compare and contrast.

He got lucky.

The good news about canvas is that it is much cheaper than leather. This stuff – a remnant – was $4 a yard. So we bought all they had. The bad news is that it is a lot more work to sew it and get it right.

Some interesting details about this chair:

• We riveted the seams of the back with No. 10 copper rivets. We had to use that longer rivet because the material folds over a lot at the seams. It looks great, however, and was worth it.

• We put a buckle and strap on the rear of the seat cover for the back. This allows you to put on or remove the back cover when the chair is assembled. It also gives you some control over the lumbar support.

• All the buckles on this chair are a black malleable iron. We picked them up from a place that sells supplies to the saddle industry.

• The arm straps are an oiled latigo. This is our favorite leather. We bought it from Wickett & Craig, and you have to have a wholesale account to buy from them.

• Using canvas for the seat covers shaves off considerable weight. I’ll be interested to see what these chairs weigh when we pack them up for shipment.

Bottom line on the canvas: If you have someone in your harem/circle of friends/church group who sews, then this is an excellent option. If you are on your own, I’d opt for leather seat covers. They cost more, but they require less skill and tooling.

One more thing: Several people have inquired about who might supply finished seat covers for their Roorkhee chairs. Ty, who sewed these chairs, is happy to provide that service. Drop him a line at ty.black@gmail.com for details.

— Christopher Schwarz

Campaign Furniture at WIA

Posted on by Lost Art Press

I love football as much as I love a cold-water enema.

Wait. Perhaps I love it less.

In any case, if you are attending the Woodworking in America conference this weekend, be sure to stop by the Lost Art Press booth and the classroom where I’ll be teaching. We’ll have my campaign secretary on display, as well as a Roorkhee chair wrapped in genuine NFL football leather. Yup. It’s waterproof leather, as long as you sew it into some semi-spherical form so the inside is not exposed to the elements.

So let’s call it “weather resistant.”

It’s a nice and nubby leather. One female visitor to our shop (who shall remain nameless) commented: If you took off all your clothes and sat on it, it looks like it would give you a nice massage.

Something else to note: Ty Black, my shop assistant who is shown napping in the chair and fully clothed thank goodness, will soon be offering leather and canvas kits for Roorkhee chairs. These will be for sale through the Lost Art Press store. You’ll have a variety of leathers and sizes to choose from, including the one that is used to massage naked people.

So stay tuned. And do stop by our booth in the Marketplace and say hello.

— Christopher Schwarz

Update: Leather Books, Roubo, Audiobook & etc.

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Next week we will be able to sell the leather editions of “Mouldings in Practice” in our Lost Art Press store. There will be 26 to 30 copies available (depending on how many survive the binding process) and they will be $185 postage paid to any address in the United States.

The books were delayed by the leather supplier – Ohio Book said it took three weeks to secure the brown leather we use for these books. I suspect a bovine rebellion was the real cause.

So for those of you who have itchy mouse fingers, you can relax this weekend. Monday will be the earliest they will be available. As always, it is first-come, first-serve on leather editions.

So while I’m explaining myself, here is a quick update on some other projects we are working on:

“To Make as Perfectly as Possible” aka, the Andre Roubo translation. This book is entirely in my hands right now. The translators have done their job. We have paid an obscene amount of money to get every single plate digitized. The essays are complete. I’m the problem.

“By Hand & Eye” by George Walker and Jim Tolpin. This has been edited and flowed into the InDesign layout files. All the images are digitized. I’ve edited it once. But once again, I am the impediment here. I need to get the design work underway.

Audiobook of “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker” as read by Roy Underhill. This is fully recorded and about 25 percent edited. What’s the holdup? It might surprise you that it is me.

Other books that are a little further out:

“Virtuoso” or the H.O. Studley book: Our team is going back to visit the tool chest again next month to take the final photographs. Then the real work begins.

“Furniture of Necessity:” This is my own book. I’ve shelved all my writing projects until I get caught up on editing the titles above.

“Campaign Furniture:” Ditto.

All our other titles are still being written by their authors – except one. That one is being designed right now in hopes of getting it out by the end of the year. More on that title as we get things firmed up.

— Christopher Schwarz

Roorkhee Chair in Black Leather

Posted on by Lost Art Press

This afternoon we finished up a mahogany Roorkhee chair in black leather with some changes to the strapping and arms that you might find interesting if you plan on building one for your home.

The leather is “Black Ridgeline” from Brettuns Village and it is beautiful stuff. It has been dyed entirely through, so the cut edges are as black as the exterior. The Ridgeline is quite supple and feels like a 20-year-old leather jacket.

That’s the good news.

The Ridgeline is only 4-ounce stuff, so it’s a little thin (about 1/16”) and prone to stretch, especially in the seat and arms. So we did a couple things to make the leather work.

1. We added a polyester liner between the two layers of the arm pieces (you can glue it in place with rubber cement or a special contact cement for leather). This liner reduces stretching with thin leathers without adding a lot of bulk.

2. Instead of sewing or riveting the seat, we added three buckles so you could pull the seat tighter if the leather stretched. The belting is 3/4” wide.

As usual, we used the No. 9 copper rivets at the stitched seams.

All in all, I’m quite pleased. And I hope the customer will be, too.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. If you are using the vegetable-tanned leather I recommended in the article in Popular Woodworking Magazine, then stretching is not a big concern. It holds its shape quite well.

More Handouts from WIA in Pasadena

Posted on by Lost Art Press

If you attended one of my sessions at Woodworking in America in Pasadena, Calif., on Saturday, this is the blog entry you are looking for. The rest of you can go about your business – or download these and be slightly confused.

Campaign Furniture: Below are two links. One is an all-too short bibliography on this style of furniture. The other is a .pdf version of my presentation.

Campaign Furniture – Further Reading

Campaign Furniture WIA 2012

The Furniture Style With No Name: Below is my “recipe” for a six-board chest. There is a .pdf document that explains the tools required and the cutting and assembly procedure I use. The second document is a SketchUp file that shows the construction steps in a visual way. After you open the model in SketchUp, click on the different tabs at the top of its window to move through the different scenes.

Six-board chest recipe

Download the SketchUp file from the 3D Warehouse here.

Remember: If you build this chest using this recipe, please send me a photo and any thoughts on how the procedure could be streamlined.

— Christopher Schwarz