Category: Campaign Furniture

English Roorkhee chairs are one of the missing links of modern chair design.

The form has its roots in the 19th-century late-Victorian era of the British Empire. It was the symbol of the changing nature of war (it’s lightweight and quick to pack). And its simple lines influenced generations of chair designers, from Marcel Breuer to the person who developed the ubiquitous camping chair.

I started building a run of these chairs on Tuesday for an upcoming article in Popular Woodworking Magazine and a forthcoming book on campaign furniture. My version is based closely on an historical example – many modern versions are skimpier and have joinery that is unnecessarily complex or just silly (more on that later).

This Roorkhee (rhymes with “dorky”) chair has conical tenons and mortises. And all the stretchers are the same length so they are interchangeable. Also a plus: The seat slopes down from the front of the chair to the back. That makes it nice for lounging. Some of the historical examples I studied had horizontal seats or even seats that sloped forward – perhaps to help keep you awake or to allow you spring from the chair for battle.

As I have no battles planned for 2013, I chose the version that is best for a beer or cigar after safari.

My joinery design is indebted to Greg Miller, a woodworker in Australia who built many of these chairs commercially. He shared his tricks for the joinery and his leg layouts with me.

I should have the chairs all framed up by Friday and finished by Saturday. So here is the plea for help: If there are any leather workers out there who could do the seat and back (for pay, of course), drop me a line this week at chris@lostartpress.com. Otherwise, I’ll head up to our local leather store – they have kindly offered to help me out.

And now down to the shop. I have mortises to bore.

— Christopher Schwarz

You do not have to spend $20 on a corner brace for your next piece of Campaign-style furniture. You can, in fact, spend less than 98 cents per brace and pick them up at your corner hardware store.

While finishing up work on the folding bookcase I’ve been working on the last couple weeks, I walked down to our local hardware store to pick up some cork feet for the bookcase so it wouldn’t scratch the living snot out of the furniture below it.

At the hardware store, I spied some brass mending plates and corner braces that look darn near like the hardware shown on many old piece of Campaign furniture I’ve been researching. A pack of four plates was $3.89. I snatched several sizes and shapes to mess around with in my shop.

The good news: These are available everywhere. You can find them at home centers and hardware stores in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and finishes. You aren’t going to find a corner brace with an ogee ornament, but that’s the price of frugality.

More good news: They don’t totally suck a lemon turd. From a distance, they look pretty good. With some careful insetting and some new screws, them might pass – like bringing home a top-notch cross-dresser to meet maw and pa.

The bad news. The “brass” is one molecule thick on these babies. If you rub them the wrong way with your thumb, the brass will disappear.

Other bad news: On some corner braces the countersink for the screws is on the wrong side of the hardware. These braces are supposed to be used on inside corners. If you have a countersink bit, this problem is easy to remedy.

The bottom line: Don’t buy the “brass” ones. Buy the steel ones and make them gunky with a combination of gun blue, flame and urine. That will give them the grunge they need to look sweet.

I plan to make a lap desk or small chest using these braces – after they have been given a golden shower and the torch (just kidding about the pee-pee). They really are not as bad as I thought they would be. And at less than $1 each, it’s hard to complain.

— Christopher Schwarz

For those of you who don’t read my blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine, I’ve just written a piece on how to make an authentic Campaign chest without spending hundreds of dollars on hardware or wood. Check it out here.

— Christopher Schwarz

One of the interesting features of Campaign Furniture is that some of it is assembled with rivets. Well, that’s what the antique dealers call the fastener.

While the brass or copper fasteners might look like the rivets found in wooden boat construction, it’s unlikely (a nice way of saying “flipping impossible”) that these pieces are riveted.

Why? Because a traditional rivet (or nail and rove) is a joint that requires access to both ends of the fastener. It works much like a clinched nail. (Here’s a description with a drawing.) With these campaign pieces, the “rivets” are put into a blind hole.

My suspicion is that these “rivets” are likely brass screws that have had their heads filed off after they were driven in. However I am keeping an open mind to other ideas that are as simple or even simpler.

This morning I installed the lockset on this folding bookcase and decided to mess around with the riveted look. I had to use longer and bigger screws to do this, so I reamed out the countersinks in the lock. Then I bored the pilot holes all the way through the case and installed the screws.

I used some old brass screws from my grandfather’s stash. Well, I thought they were brass. They actually were brass-plated steel. I found this out when I sawed off the tips of the screws and saw shiny steel instead of shiny brass. Oh well, a coat of stain should take care of that detail.

I think it looks OK. I might try building a small chest using screws and then filing off the heads.

— Christopher Schwarz

I’ve never understood people who build furniture using pallet wood and an Altendorf table saw. Well, I guess I understand them, I just don’t happen to sympathize.

When I buy materials for my projects, I can’t imagine skimping on the wood, the hardware or the tools I use in the shop. For me, it’s a lot like cooking. Getting a good meal from a typical grocery-store steak is difficult to impossible.

Today I made a trip to Midwest Woodworking in Norwood, Ohio, with woodworker Andy Brownell to score a teak board that I have been dreaming about for some months now.

I spotted the board during my first trip to Midwest (read about that here). It was stashed away in a storeroom filled with old doors and other unidentifiable stuff. It’s huge – 24” wide, 1-1/4” thick and 12’ long. Clear. Flat. And at least 40 years old.

I’m going to use this board to build another campaign chest for this book I’m working on – teak was one of the common woods used for these pieces. But there is nothing common about this board.

The owner, Frank David, was kind enough to have one of his employees surface the board on the company’s 24”-wide Italian planer. My jack plane was most grateful of this gesture. As the board emerged from the planer, I got that tingling feeling in my underpants that we are all familiar with. The tingling that comes with good wood.

If you can make any excuse to come to Cincinnati, make sure to visit Midwest Woodworking Co. and then go to Gordo’s down the street for a microbrew and and burger. You will not regret the trip. Bring cash and a big truck. And be sure to call Frank beforehand to set things up: 513-631-6684. His prices are as reasonable as his wood is incredible.

— Christopher Schwarz