Plans: A Folding Campaign Bed
Because I spend 18 weeks a year on the road, teaching and researching, I am always relieved when I return home and my key still works in the front door.
I’ve always thought I should have a Plan B in the works, something I could stow in the shop that we could also use when we have extra visitors. But despite all my research on folding beds for “Campaign Furniture,” I didn’t find a plan I liked enough to build.
That is, until I stumbled on this plans from the April 1954 issue of The Woodworker magazine. It is structured very much like a folding campaign bed and collapses into a thin cabinet-like structure.
Download the entire 1954 article here.
It looks comfortable enough to sleep on for a couple days until the florist arrives with a few dozen roses, don’t you think?
— Christopher Schwarz
Hello, My Name is Ipe
The only thing that is tougher on my tools’ edges than ipe is students.
— Christopher Schwarz, who has been grinding and sharpening all morning.
Americans Need Not Apply
One of the oddest criticisms I’ve received about the book “Campaign Furniture” is that I’m not British, and therefore have no legitimate connection to that historical style.
It’s true that I am an American citizen – I didn’t have much control about precisely where I emerged from the birth canal. And it’s true that I have a good deal of German blood. My mom could tell you exactly how mongrel (but not mongol) I am.
But I do have a long and personal connection to campaign furniture. As I mention in the book, my grandparents collected pieces in the style. Plus my grandfather and father built pieces in the campaign style. The West home was filled with all sorts of antiques, and many of them were in the campaign style – campaign chests, coaching tables and my grandfather West’s document box.
My mother brought this to me in May for my birthday. It is probably the nicest birthday gift I have ever received. The box is veneered in a tropical hardwood, likely some sort of mahogany, and joined with miters at the four corners.
The inlaid brass is set in beautifully in most places, except for at the back of the box. The veneer on the lid has buckled a bit, which has pushed some of the brasses around.
However, there are two other details that are far more satisfying than the workmanship.
1. The bottom of the box is covered in green felt, the tell-tale sign that my grandparents owned the piece. And the bottom still has the label noting that it belonged to my grandfather. He affixed this label on items that he took to work with him.
2. All the screws are clocked and filed flush to the hardware.
I cannot wait to fill the box with NASCAR stickers and Slim Jims. Cheerio!
— Christopher Schwarz
Oppressive Burdens on the Mechanical Classes
…Such are some of the considerations, which show the general utility of scientific education, for those engaged in the mechanical arts. Let us now advert to some of the circumstances, which ought, particularly in the United States of America, to act as encouragements to the young men of the country to apply themselves earnestly, and, as far as it can be done, systematically, to the attainment of such an education.
And, first, it is beyond all question, that what are called the mechanical trades of this country are on a much more liberal footing than they are in Europe. This circumstance not only ought to encourage those who pursue them, to take an honest pride in improvement, but it makes it their incumbent duty to do so.
(more…)