Lost Art Press

Category: Projects

A Fancier Base for a 6-board Chest

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While the six-board chest is a simple form, there are some variants that make the chest look more high-style, like it might have a fancy bracket-foot base.

Today I decided to convert the chest I built for the Alabama Woodworkers Guild into one of these fancier chests. I removed the moulding that returned down the sides of the chest (see the video here), and made some base pieces to fit under the moulding.

98-01I also removed the crappy hinges I installed in Alabama. One leaf of each hinge was entirely too long. Today I installed iron Lee Valley unequal strap hinges, which look better. Unfortunately, I have some work ahead of me to hide the screw holes from the earlier hinge set.

I also installed a vintage crab/grab lock, which I picked up on eBay for $30 (gloat).

So far, I like the enclosed base, but I don’t want to pass judgment until I get the piece painted. The base coat will be flat black, followed by a coat of thinned hide glue. Then a top coat of dark blue, which will crackle thanks to the hide glue layer between.

And now back to editing Peter Galbert’s book.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Question: How Thick? The Answer: 1-3/16”

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Yesterday morning I turned leg after leg, experimenting with different diameters and shapes to produce a folding stool that would easily hold a 225-pound person but not look like it was made with Tuscan-order columns.

About 2 p.m. I had my answer. Here are the specs on this stool:

Legs: 1-3/16”-diameter x 24” long. The ankle is 7/8” diameter with the taper starting 6” from the floor.

Hardware: 5/16” x 3” hex bolt, 5/16” x 2-1/2” eye bolt. Three washers. Two acorn nuts.

The stool is stout. Sitting in it inspires confidence. And it looks only marginally heavier. The one shown is in teak (yes, more teak offcuts. Will I ever be rid of them?). The design also worked fine in mahogany.

One other note: This stool starts out with a seat about 18” from the floor. After the leather stretches, it ends up about 16” from the floor. Now I can write the chapter for “Campaign Furniture” on these stools.

— Christopher Schwarz

Folding Stools: The Scrapple of the Campaign Furniture World

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Today I’m building a couple of three-legged folding stools for “Campaign Furniture.” We’ve been building these all summer in classes and for fun, but I have neglected to take photos of the process – not that there is much of a process.

The great thing about these stools is they take almost no material or time. The two stools I’m building today are made from scraps left over from campaign chests, Roorkhee chairs and hides I have sitting in the basement.

All you need are three 1” x 1” x 23-1/2” sticks – perfect offcuts, really.

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One of these two stools is based on a late-19th-century example shown in one of Christopher Clarke Antiques’ catalogs. These stools were quite common (they still are, really). In addition to the military, these stools were common among artists, campers, sportsmen and hunters.

The only thing keeping these stools from being a perfect weekend project is the hardware. The old three-way bolts are very hard to come by. Time to talk to a blacksmith.

— Christopher Schwarz

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A Teak (Again with the Teak?) Officer’s Desk

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I thought I was through with teak after finishing up my latest campaign chest, but the woodpile had other ideas. After sorting through my stack of woods appropriate for campaign furniture, it was clear that a mondo piece of 26”-wide teak would be the perfect desktop for a William IV officer’s field desk.

It’s a cool desk – it folds flat thanks to its hinged aprons. And it’s simple to build – I should have it complete by this weekend. After months of dovetailing, a project with only four joints has its appeal.

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When I’m not plowing through that teak, I’m sorting through the research materials I brought back from my trip to England. It is a weighty pile – so much that Delta Airlines almost charged me for overweight luggage.

In addition to tons of images and data, I brought back some fantastic 19th-century accounts by British officers of their adventures in India.

Here’s a taste of one from 1880:

More mosquitos. What a prize for the musquitoes was I a fine, fresh, ruddy griffin, full of wholesome blood, the result of sea-breezes and healthy chylification ! and, in good sooth, they did fall foul of me with the appetite of gluttons. Sleep ! bless your dear, simple heart, the thing was about as possible as for St. Lawrence to have reposed on his gridiron.

Proper bedtime reading.

— Christopher Schwarz

Moravian Stool Madness

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Many time you publish a project or article in a magazine and then brace yourself for the outpouring of interest or controversy. But what you get is the sound of bored crickets.

Other times you write something that you think that no one could like. Something that has complex angles, ugly wood and is painted. And you get scads of e-mail.

Such is the case with the Moravian stool article I wrote for the December 2012 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. I have gotten an inordinate amount of e-mail about this project, and not because there was a mistake in the article (there isn’t, as far as I know).

Instead, readers have been inspired to take up the challenge of the compound joinery – once they are clued into the secret of the “resultant angle.”

This week, I received an e-mail from Mark Firley, a member of the Hillsborough Orange Woodworkers group in North Carolina. The group, founded by Jim Campbell, gets together to build stuff and has an impressive roster of completed projects in its wake.

Recently they built the Moravian stool. And they sent photos of the results. Very cool.

— Christopher Schwarz

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