The other day I made a trip through a handle factory and talked about hickory handles and their manufacture for a couple of hours, after which I did some thinking and investigating, the result of which is I have come to the conclusion that we are not giving a prominent enough place in history to inventors of wood-working machinery.
In the handle factory they were using old-style irregular lathes and had quite a string of them, giving good service. I marveled a little at this, as it was a living example of the possibilities of doing good work and successful business with what are termed antiquated types of machines. Then I fell to wondering just how old these machines were in their type, and this led me to consulting a modern encyclopedia, from which I got more disappointment than anything else. (more…)
This book is not a celebration of war any more than driving a Volkswagen or Porsche is a celebration of the Third Reich.
The plain fact of the matter is that conquest and defense are rich sources of innovation, improvisation and technological advances. The moulded plywood of Charles and Ray Eames was used by the Navy in World War II for splints and stretchers. That knowledge was turned to making moulded plywood furniture, including the iconic Eames chair.
The needs of the British Empire and its far-flung colonies created a style of furniture that was rugged, beautiful and stripped of ornament. There is little doubt in my mind that the utilitarian and plain aspects of campaign furniture represent the roots of Danish modern, Bauhaus and other 20th-century design trends.
So I do not regret the 28 months I spent researching, building and writing this book. I think the campaign furniture style is one of the most important and overlooked furniture movements of the last 200 years.
But I do have regrets.
When I set out to build the projects for this book, I consciously set aside my aversion to exotic tropical hardwoods. When I write about a historical style, I immerse myself in it as much as possible so I can understand it from the inside. That means ignoring well-known rules about wood movement, technological advances in adhesives and (in this case) deforestation.
When I reject my modern prejudices I usually find gold. I think the past has a lot to teach us. Time and again, I’ve found that old ways of woodworking are usually smarter, more nuanced and more practical than our own.
But when it comes to selecting wood for a project, I’m not so sure. Most pieces of campaign furniture were built using mahogany, camphor, teak, padauk, oak or walnut. The exotics on this list were beyond plentiful in the 18th and 19th centuries. (Imagine teak being cheaper than red oak.) The supply at the time seemed almost limitless when you read the accounts of the day.
I know that we furniture makers are not the primary offenders when it comes to stripping the land of tropical hardwoods. But I also know that writing a book featuring tropical hardwoods is no small affair.
So as you are picking out the wood for your first (or next) piece of campaign furniture, consider this: walnut. American and European walnut was a common staple of the campaign furniture trade, and so it’s an appropriate and beautiful choice.
Here in the Ohio River valley, we have so much walnut that we used it to frame houses and make sash. Heck, I have a pile of walnut in my shop that is bigger than a car.
If you choose to use mahogany or another exotic, consider looking for recycled lumber. Some of the wood in this book came from a (trashed) recycled dining set I purchased from a woodworker who finally decided to lay down his tools.
That old and recycled mahogany was darker, finer and more beautiful than any other modern stick of mahogany I have laid my hands on. So finding recycled wood can actually improve your finished piece (as opposed to using old McDLT boxes to make a garden bench).
In the end, it is your choice. I encourage you to ignore every word I have just written and do your own research to make an informed choice.
I don’t want blinded readers anymore than I want to spend a single day living in a totalitarian regime. You are free to make a choice about what you build, how you build it and what materials you use to build. So make it.
It is a melancholly Proſpect to view the Royal Foreſts; almoſt all diſmantled; in many ſcarce a Stick left: There is indeed one Advantage, Tyrannical Monarchs may for the future hunt in Safety, where there is not a ſingle Tree to glance an Arrow at them. The Diminution in the Article of Timber Trees, within leſs than this half Century, is no leſs peculiar than deplorable.
To ſee thoſe encreaſing Funds for future Shipping totally ſunk, and no Care taken to raiſe others, muſt ſenſibly affect every Engliſh Heart, who knows that his Nation’s Safety conſiſts in her Wooden Walls: With ſome of which our honeſt Timber-Merchants, even in this Time of Scarcity, have ſupplied our Enemies; and which may perhaps embolden the French to make an Attempt upon the Land where their Veſſels grew. (more…)
An Account of the Manner of bending Planks in His Majeſty’s Yards at Deptford, &c. by a Sand-heat, invented by Captain Cumberland. By Robert Cay, Eſq;
The place, where the Planks lie to be ſoftened in the Stove, is between two Brick-Walls; of ſuch a length, height, and diſtance from each other, as ſuffice to admit the largeſt, or to hold a good number of the ſmaller Sort: the bottom is of thick Iron Plates, ſupported by ſtrong Bars; under the middle of which, are two Fire-places, whoſe Flews carry the Flame towards the Ends.
The Planks are laid in Sand; the loweſt about ſix or eight Inches above the Iron-Plates, they are well cover’d with the Sand, and Boards laid over all, to keep in the Heat. The Sand is moiſtened with warm Water, (for which purpoſe they have a Cauldron adjoyning to the Stove) and if the Timber be large, and intended to be very much bent, ſo that it muſt lie long in the Stove, they water the Sand again, once in 8 or 10 Hours. (more…)
Now that I have completed the first and most intense step of editing and annotating the raw transliteration manuscript for “To Make as Perfectly As Possible: Roubo on Furniture Making,” aka R2, my attentions will turn to and eventually be dedicated solely to the full pedal-to-the-metal effort to bring VIRTUOSO to fruition.
This does not mean our labors on R2 are done; far from it. Instead it means that my time with it will be episodic but perhaps even more intense periodically than the last half-year of my nearly all-Roubo-all-the-time life as Michele, Philippe and I revise and reconcile each other’s modifications to the work. In addition, I need to integrate the observations and suggestions from my readers Bob, Mike and Martin on things that need to be clarified or augmented.
But, the first draft is complete and sitting in the 3″-thick file folder next to my chair, awaiting only my entering of the last sections into the computer for sending off into the ether. About two-thirds is already there, with the remaining third flowing in several sections at a time almost every day.
This process will continue behind the curtain for months through the Lost Art Press editing, Wesley’s design and our galley-proof-review process some time next autumn, when we will once again wash our hands of the project in order to consign it to you and to move on ourselves.
In the meantime, beginning next week I will be stomping down on the gas for the Studley manuscript, weaving the many threads already extant with ones yet to be spun out of my notebook and Narayan’s photo gallery then deposited onto the screen, crafting a volume we hope will achieve some interest in the market.
This will be an exciting and somewhat disorienting time, as I will be ratcheting way back on the energies necessary for R2 to refocus and allow myself a pretty complete dedication to this new franchise. If I find myself crafting impossible syntax into 300-word sentences I will know that the reorientation is not yet complete. All of this is occurring against the backdrop of a time when Lost Art Press seems to be going into hyperdrive with excellent and desirable new volumes in the coming few dozen months.
This new endeavor includes many exciting opportunities, twists and turns, and I will certainly apprise you of them as they emerge.
