One of the core ideas behind campaign furniture was it was a little piece of home wherever British citizens roamed. The soldiers, clerks and support staff who administered the affairs of the British Empire all over the globe remade their local landscape to remind them of home.
Their furniture and clothes were another reminder of where they came from.
Brian Eve of the blog Toolerable sent me the above image of a Roorkee-like chair that was built by a Welsh prisoner of war who was held in Bavaria during World War II. If you ever wondered if the Roorkee chair was imprinted on the mind of the British, I think you have your answer here.
Last night I dragged myself home after five days of building 16 workbenches at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. All of the benches turned out fantastic for two reasons:
1. Wonderful (yet inexpensive) material. We used Horizon Wood Product’s Roubo “bench bundles.” For just $650 per bench, we got some amazing 12/4 and 8/4 ash for the bench. It was all cut to manageable lengths, perfectly dry and clear. Out of the 16 benches, we had only two small, tight knots.
Another testament to the quality of the wood: Due to a mistake I made, I ordered 15 bench bundles for 16 students. We still were able to squeeze out a perfect 16th bench from the material supplied. Without a doubt, I will use Horizon again. The service was outstanding. Pete Terbovich, who handles the bench kits there, is great to deal with.
2. Teamwork. At some bench classes it’s difficult to get students to work together on everyone’s benches, hauling tops around, milling material that is not for their bench, assisting with layouts and goodness knows what. Not this class. These were special students.
I’m back on the road next week – I leave Tuesday for The Woodwright’s School, where I’m teaching a class in the Dutch Tool Chest and filming two more episodes on Roy Underhill’s Show “The Woodwright’s Shop.”
So if I haven’t answered your recent e-mail….
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Day 1 and Day 2 of the bench-building class are covered on my blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine. The music is from freemusicarchive.org and is by the Freak Fandango Orchestra.
I recently found myself in immediate need of a couple of simple benches. So, I sat down and sketched up the quasi-Shaker-esque bench that you see here, sizing it so all of the parts could be cut from one 1″ × 12″ × 6′ and one 1″ × 3″ × 6′. I then headed down to Lowe’s for some “select pine.” While constructing the benches it occurred to me that, apart from a pencil and tape measure, I had used no hand tools of any kind. At that point, I got out a block plane to break all of the sharp edges. (I know what you’re thinking: I should have used a trim router with a chamfer bit. Maybe next time.)
So here’s to all the naysayers out there: See, it really is possible to make decent-looking stuff using only power tools.
Paul Mayon of the New English Workshop blog posted a quite generous review this week of my latest book, “Campaign Furniture.”
It is such a nice review that I am compelled to point out that we never solicit reviews here at Lost Art Press. And we don’t send out unsolicited review copies of our books to seek a kind word. We just sell books.
You can read the full review via this link. Or, if you prefer a blurb, try this one on:
“Whether you intend to make any campaign furniture or not, once you have read this book you will begin to see campaign furniture in a whole new light. The style is abundant, influential, robust in the extreme, looks great in almost any setting, modular and is relatively easy for less skilled woodworkers to make. Once you realise this you will probably find yourself asking ‘Why don’t I have any campaign furniture in my home?’ ”
