Mark Firley of The Furniture Record blog has written up a piece on campaign furniture that is 100 percent false. Except the pictures. Go for the photos.
If you don’t subscribe to The Furniture Record, remedy that now. Firley travels the world with the obsessive goal of photographing every piece of furniture and every dovetail ever made. He collects his photos into sets on Flickr (120 sets as of today) that are a furniture-maker’s delight.
If I want to make a piece of furniture that looks nice, I look at 100 examples of that piece first – at a minimum. Only then will I see the bell curve of ugly, average and extraordinary. And only then will I know where my design falls on that curve.
The Furniture Record is a completely free jumpstart of your furniture education.
I would hazard to say that 99.5 percent of our customers are people I get along with, enjoy hanging out with and would trust to watch my kids. But during my 20 years in the woodworking publishing business, I have encountered tens of thousands of woodworkers with questions and suggestions. So you do get some nutjobs.
Here are the craziest questions I’ve been asked while an editor at Popular Woodworking and Lost Art Press. Every one of these is 100-percent true.
I want to build this secretary but I need full-size plans. I want to be able to stick the paper to the wood and cut out every part.
Can you recommend a table saw fence that is adjustable to thousandths, or better yet, ten-thousandths?
Could you give me a list of every tool I need to start woodworking? In addition to that could you recommend your top three favorite brands for each tool and give me a little bit of your reasoning on each brand? Oh, and links to the best price for each tool would be appreciated.
I don’t have internet access, but I would like to read your blog. Could you print out all the articles you’ve written so far and mail them to me?
Could you tell me where to buy Lie-Nielsen planes at a deep discount – something like 50 percent off?
I’d like to build the project from the latest issue, but I don’t have a table saw. If I send you the wood, could you cut all the parts and mail them back to me?
I’d like a bibliography of all the woodworking books in your library.
If I send you the floor plan of my shop, could design the optimal arrangement of electrical outlets, lighting, dust collection ducts and machinery?
I’d like to start woodworking. Don’t you think it would be a great column if I came to your shop, you taught me the craft and I wrote a column about the process in every issue?
Won’t that interfere with finishing?
If I send you my tools will you grind and sharpen them?
I think your magazine should be peer reviewed like an academic journal by a panel of experts like myself. We could critique each article to produce the absolute best way to achieve each operation.
I can’t believe the terrible tricks in your Tricks of the Trade column. You should be traveling to shops all over the country to seek out the very best tips hoarded by woodworkers.
I really need a table saw. If you get extras for testing, could you send one to me?
Your cutting list has an error. I cut out all the parts to the sizes you specified, and the stiles are too short. I want you to reimburse me for the wood I wasted.
I love the project on the cover. Could you give me a list of woodworkers in my area who could build it for me?
I get asked about the equipment I use to take the photographs for this blog, my magazine articles and the books at Lost Art Press.
I think that equipment has little to do with photography. But don’t tell that to the people on photography message boards. If you think the woodworking forums are kooky at times, they are Romper-Room in comparison to the ones on photo equipment.
Until December, my photo equipment was one small notch above the Harbor Freight level. And while I’d rather talk about composition, lighting, depth of field and exposure, I’d like to get the equipment discussion out of the way. I’ll discuss the more important stuff at a later date.
When we bring a new author on board at Lost Art Press, here is what we tell them about equipment.
Tripod
The one place I’ll never skimp is on the tripod. It is the workbench of the photography world. I have a 20-year-old Bogen/Manfrotto tripod that I’ve rebuilt twice. You can find these pods on Craigslist. Even if they are beat to heck, they can be easily brought back. They were designed to last forever.
Many exposures in the workshop and with furniture can be quite long, so a good tripod is non-negotiable.
An SLR
Any entry-level digital SLR will do the job. I find camera bodies to be disposable. The lenses are where I’ll spend money because those will be with you forever. Until I recently bought a “prosumer” camera, I used Canon Rebel bodies. I don’t give a crap about megapixels. I just buy the camera with the largest sensor that is on sale.
You want a camera that can easily drop into full-manual mode. If you can’t manually adjust the f-stop, shutter speed and focus, the camera will frustrate you in the shop. The exposure meters in cameras are not your friend. The auto-focus is not your friend.
Full manual. Full manual. Full manual.
One last detail, the camera should be able to shoot RAW files (most cameras do). It is much easier to control everything (color, exposure, sharpness etc.) in the frame with a RAW file.
Lighting
A good set of lights can cost as much as a car. Luckily, you those are not the lights you are looking for. I recommend a low-cost continuous lighting system that uses CF bulbs, such as this Cowboy Studio system. Yup, the whole three-light rig is $60 and it is all you need to photograph your furniture and work at the bench.
Yeah, it’s not an Italian light setup. It’s a lot of plastic, and you need to be careful not to break the bulbs. But for the amateur (or someone writing their first book) I think it’s perfect.
The two umbrellas diffuse the light and make things nice and flat. Then you can use the third light to create shadows or highlight some part of the frame.
A Cable Release
One last thing, get a cable release for your camera. This will minimize camera shakes during long exposures. If you are too cheap to buy a cheap cable release, use the self-timer on your camera.
Charleston, S.C., is my favorite city in the world because of the food, architecture, history, weather, furniture and people.
I was first sent there in 1990 to write about the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo and fell in love with the Holy City. I’ve returned there every year since. Lucky for me, I have a built-in excuse – my father now lives there downtown.
If you’ve never been to Charleston, here is a chance to do it, woodworking-style.
This month, March 28-29, Lie-Nielsen Toolworks is holding a Hand Tool Event at Charleston’s American College of the Building Arts, which is currently located in the city’s old jail (an incredible structure). While that is reason enough to come to Charleston, Deneb Puchalski at Lie-Nielsen and I created a special program for the day before the event – March 27 – to introduce you to the city, the food and the furniture on the peninsula.
There is limited space; we can take only 20 woodworkers, so sign up using the instructions at the end of this blog entry. Note: All the following events are on the lower peninsula. No car is necessary to get from place to place.
Here is what we’ve planned for March 27.
Noon – 1 p.m. Curatorial Tour of the Nathaniel Russell House Museum https://www.historiccharleston.org/Russell.aspx 51 Meeting Street, Charleston
Cost: $35 per person
In this specially curated tour of the Nathaniel Russell house, we’ll take a look at the furniture of this impressive home, much of which was made in Charleston. Charleston pieces can be difficult to identify and find. This house has one of the best (if not the best) collections of Charleston pieces. We will all meet at the front gate of the house about noon and go in as a group.
1 p.m. – 2 p.m. Lunch on your own. We’ll recommend several good places in walking distance that will fit any budget.
2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Campaign Furniture, Its Surprising Origins
American College of the Building Arts http://buildingartscollege.us/ 21 Magazine St., Charleston
Cost: free
Christopher Schwarz leads a presentation on campaign furniture that shows its surprising 18th-century origins and traces its evolution – plus its connection to Danish modern. Chris is bringing original campaign pieces, plus pieces he built for his book “Campaign Furniture.” The lecture and multimedia presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Antique Shops of Lower King Street
Cost: free
If you would like to explore some of the best shops for English and American furniture in the South, we’ll give you a map of the stores that have museum-quality antiques that you can examine and study. Many of these shops are filled with amazing pieces you can actually touch – open the drawers (ask first and be gentle) and look at how real furniture is made. We think that even an hour looking at real antiques will improve your own designs.
5 p.m. – whenever Drinks and dinner at the Craftsmen Kitchen and Tap House http://www.craftsmentaphouse.com/ 12 Cumberland St., Charleston
Cost: Up to you….
Afterward, we’ll all gather at the Craftsmen, which has one of the best draft beer selections in the city, not to mention very good, reasonably priced food. We have a section of the restaurant reserved. Come for a drink, then you can get dinner elsewhere if you like, or stay with us and close the place down.
As I mentioned above, we have room for only 20 woodworkers. The only cost is paying for your food and your admission to the Nathaniel Russell House (I arranged for a discount). I hope to bring my father along on the tour because he used to be a docent for Preservation Society.
The Hand Tool Event itself will also be great. I will bring my Dutch tool chest and will teach and demonstrate handplanes all weekend. Not just bench planes, but also joinery planes, complex moulders and hollows and rounds. Also, carver Mary May and chairmaker Caleb James will be there. Mary is a fantastic carver, and I have been eager to meet Caleb (he is helping us edit Peter Galbert’s chair book).
These Hand Tool Events are free and are a true public service for the woodworking community. These events are always casual. There is no hard sell. Heck, there is no soft sell. Just tools, benches and people who will answer all of your questions.
To register for the March 27 pre-show events, please read the following with care.
1. Send an e-mail to me at chris@lostartpress.com with the subject line as “Charleston event.” Do NOT just reply in the comments that you’ll be there.
2. In the email, please include your name, mailing address and best phone number to reach you in case the schedule changes. This is not to spam you or register you for some stupid mailing list. You know me better than that.
3. That’s it. I’ll reply when I get your e-mail. Later in the month you’ll receive full instructions for the event.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. As we get closer to the event, I’ll post information here about other things to do in Charleston, both for you and your family, even if you cannot come to the March 27 pre-show kidney killer. Charleston has excellent shopping, world-class cuisine, art, nearby beaches and is lousy with historical sites.
Our company has grown a lot since 2007, and we now have a lot of first-time customers, commenters and readers. So I want to repeat some of the core principles here at Lost Art Press for those of you who are new here.
1. We will never sell, trade or give your personal information to anyone. Likewise, we never purchase private information for any purpose.
2. We do not accept advertising on our site. Never have. Never will. Yes, our YouTube videos have some advertising pre-rolls that are put there against our will. We hate them and receive no money from them. Our web site has neither donors nor sponsors. The only revenue we receive is from selling products on our site. Period.
3. Every tool that John Hoffman and I own was purchased by ourselves at full retail. We do not accept free tools. Some manufacturers will send us samples for us to test. After testing the tools, we purchase them at full retail, send them back to the manufacturer or donate them to a woodworker or a charity. Our tools are our own.
4. We do not participate in any affiliate programs with any retail web sites. In other words, we do not receive any kickbacks or affiliate payments when we recommend a product. Never have. Never will.
5. Everything we sell is made in the United States. We have nothing against the workers in other countries – everyone’s got to eat. But we believe in supporting our neighbors. And so we work with printers, T-shirt makers and other suppliers who are close by.
If you ever have an ethical concern or question regarding one of our products, please let us know. Our direct e-mails and mailing addresses can be found here.
One last thing: Please do not think this ethics statement is a condemnation of how anyone else conducts his or her business. Their businesses are their own. For us, this is the only way we know how to do business and look at ourselves in the mirror in the morning.
