Norman Reid of Wood News Online just reviewed “Campaign Furniture” for the latest issue. Here is a short excerpt of the review:
“…(W)hile I was tempted to pass up this book, I’m very glad I didn’t. I came to like it a lot. It is, as we’ve come to expect from Schwarz, informative, clear and entertainingly written. The book is well-illustrated throughout with photos that convey the essence of critical construction steps. It is hard bound and printed on high quality paper, something that’s usual for books from Lost Art Press, which makes this one a definite keeper.”
You can read the full review here. The entire issue of Wood News Online can be read here.
Several readers have reported difficulty laying out the leather seat for the folding stool in the book “Campaign Furniture.” My method for laying it out is unsophisticated. The recipe includes:
1. My butt
2. A stick
3. A nail
4. A can of mushroom soup.
One of the earliest images of a try square that I know of is a carpenter from the tomb of Rekhmire in Egypt, a New Kingdom official from the 18th dynasty (1543-1292 BC). The image shows a carpenter in a traditional (plaid flannel) loincloth using a straightedge on a piece of work. On the floor is a miter square, a form that remained unchanged until the 18th century.
And on the wall is a try square that looks darn modern. It looks nothing like a Melencolia I square.
Many of the hand tools we use today are descended in some way from Egyptian tools that later made their way to Asia and Europe – via Greece and Italy. But as far as I can tell, the Melencolia square emerged sometime after the Egyptians and then disappeared. We woodworkers reverted back to the Egyptian-style try square for some reason.
After making at least a dozen of these Melencolia-style squares, I can assure you that I’ll be keeping the form alive – at least in Kentucky. They are simple, compact and easy to use.
Today I made a pair of squares that are the last in this series. I must get on with building furniture that puts food on the table. These last two squares are the improved “Romanian” form of the Melencolia I square. The improvement is that the blade is a bit wider than the stock, making them easier to true up.
Both of the squares I made today were slightly out of true, and it was indeed much easier to bring them into line because the blade was wider. If you make one of these squares, I recommend this modification.
As a final note, thanks to Jeff Burks for his research and for pointing out these squares to me in the first place. Without his keen eye, I’d have never noticed them.
Once you start looking, it’s easy to see (or think that you see) Melencolia squares in many old drawings.
Suzanne Ellison sent me this 1863 ink drawing of a Sikh carpenter that is in the collection of the University of California. Look at the guy’s feet. One is next to a marking gauge. The other is next to an odd angular thing.
As there is no try square shown in the illustration, it’s plausible that the thing touching the carpenter’s big toe is a simple square with a shaped blade.
