Lost Art Press

Category: Campaign Furniture

Christmas in India

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“Here I must breakfast, tiffin, tea, dine, and sup. Here I must taste – oh! joy of little birds – boiled quails inoculated with green chillies. Here I must know what curry means. From here I must ride, drive, play golf – do what I like. Here, undisturbed, I can write, read, dream, and dose; and here for my special use is set apart that one secret of all Indian luxury and calm, the Indian chair.

“…Here is the easy chair, with a box of cigars by our side, a peg within call, and intellectual men of the world with whom to converse. We from home have doubtless much to say, but we have also much more to learn.”

— Clement Scott, “Pictures of the World” (Remington 1894)

Books in the Works, an Update

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If I were a smart man, I wouldn’t discuss my failings as an editor, writer and publisher. But I do like to keep people informed on how our upcoming books are going. So here goes:

“Mouldings in Practice” by Matt Bickford. This book is almost completely designed and ready for the printer. What has slowed me down is the number of illustrations. There are hundreds and hundreds. And each one had to be converted from SketchUp to Illustrator, and that is a very manual process. The book will be released this summer. The people who have read this book have had their minds blown. It’s good.

“To Make as Perfectly as Possible” by Andre Roubo with a translation and essays by Don Williams and Michele Pagan. Work is going full-bore on the first volume of this book. The book designer, Wesley Tanner, is building the templates. The translation is complete and the supporting essays are being polished. We are going to publish this volume in two editions: a fancy 11” x 17” deluxe edition (only 500 copies) and a trade edition that will be more like a typical Lost Art Press book. More news to come. The first volume should be out by the end of the year — or early 2013 at the latest. Expect great things.

“By Hand and Eye” by George Walker and Jim Tolpin. I’m reading the first draft of the book now — the final draft will be in my hands in three weeks. It is fantastic. It will be out by the end of 2012 as well.

“The Joiner & Cabinet Maker” audio book, ePub and Kindle editions. I’ll be recording the audio book this week with our voice talent (news to come on that) — the electronic editions of the book will be in the store in a couple weeks. And the second printing of the book is now in stock.

Oh, and my books. I’m working actively on my own books on “The Furniture of Necessity” and “Campaign Furniture” on this Southern tour. I’ve got a few research stops planned for these books. However, don’t expect anything from me this year — I’m trying to get these other projects to press first.

There are a lot more things in the works: Peter Follansbee is working on a book on chests, we have a book on chairmaking in the works and (perhaps) our first deck of playing cards. Finally, there’s our super-secret project I cannot talk about (aw, crap, I just did). It has been in the works for two years now and will be huge. Literally.

— Christopher Schwarz

Campaign Furniture: Just Put a Strap on it

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Not all pieces of Campaign-style furniture require hours of insetting 30 pieces of flush hardware. In fact, with some pieces you can install all the hardware in about 10 minutes.

I call this stuff “strap-on” furniture. The brasses are applied to the surface of the piece. No wacky mortise in three axes. Just nail in four pins and you are done.

I’ve seen a number of old pieces that feature this proud hardware, though I have no idea if the brasses were original to the piece. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think that some antique dealers could have applied the straps and corners to dress up the piece.

I recently finished this traveling bookcase, which carries Lost Art Press books to shows, and I decided to give it the strap-on treatment. I purchased eight smallish corner guards from Ansaldi & Sons (corner ornament, item #5293, price $2.50 each) and applied them on Monday using a hammer.

Confession: After spending a week inlaying more than 30 pieces of shaped hardware into a recent campaign chest, nailing some straps onto this bookcase was fun. And the results aren’t bad.

— Christopher Schwarz

Smythe disclaimer: I paid full retail for the $20 worth of hardware on the corners.

Finish details: The finish on the piece is one coat of garnet shellac, then a glaze of brown Minwax stain to fill the pores and then two more coats of shellac.

Before the Bovines come the Aerosol Bugs

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While the raw leather adds a nice Conan-like smell to my shop, I’ve got to finish the legs, stretchers and backrests for the Roorkhee chairs.

My finish of choice: garnet shellac – Tiger Flakes from Tools for Working Wood, to be specific. I love the stuff. It mixes like a martini, is easy to spray and gives me just the right color for vintage stuff.

Of course, spraying shellac always attracts the attention of the new neighbors behind us.

“It’s OK,” I’ll yell. “You can eat this stuff. They put it on strawberries and apples and pills and…”

The neighbors go inside and start closing their windows.

I guess that’s what you get for building a new house in the drainage swamp behind our house.

When I spray lots of pieces like this, I string up a clothesline between a tree and basketball goal; then I hang the parts on some wire hangers. This is how I learned to spray doors while working at the ThermaTru door company. Of course, I don’t have an oven to bake on the finish like I did at ThermaTru (that’s OK, shellac dries fast.)

And there was one more big advantage to spraying at ThermaTru – birds wouldn’t crap upon your work. The inside of my campaign chest still has some poo shadows.

— Christopher Schwarz