Lost Art Press

I dragged the finished teak campaign chest out of the shop this afternoon to get it out of harm’s way down there. Some heavy stuff is about to go down.

I am fairly pleased with the color of the finish and the surface quality of the chest. I went for an old-school texture. You can feel the scallops left by the smoothing plane on the exterior.

But aside from my mild non-displeasure with the piece, the most important comment about the piece was uttered today by my wife.

Lucy looked it over and said: “We get keep this one?”

“Yes.”

“For real this time?”

“Yes.”

That’s the highest compliment from a woman who has seen a lot of furniture go out the door this year.

The only disappointment? My photography. I snapped the quick photo above, which is plagued by parallax and a thousand other words. Perhaps I’ll find the right angle when I shoot some photos of it for my upcoming book on campaign furniture.

On that matter, I finished writing the two chapters on these chests. But I have to set the manuscript aside (briefly) to build another workbench. No, not the massive one from the Barnesville, Ga., French oak project. A different one.

More details tomorrow.

— Christopher Schwarz

Even when I’ve applied a certain finish 100 times, I still make a sample board. There are just too many variables.

The wood might have some interesting chemicals and colors in it. A finish manufacturer might have changed its formula (looking at you Lily/Valspar). Or you are dealing with shellac, which can be old or have some unexpected hues.

Yesterday I made a sample board using teak that was left over from building the chest. I planed it using the same tools I used on the chest – then lightly scuffed it with #220-grit sandpaper. Then I applied one coat of Liberon Bison Wax, the Tudor Brown color. I call this wax: Creepy Janitor.

I love this wax on open-grained woods. The wax gets into the pores and adds brown tones to the garnet shellac. It is easy to apply and buffs to a low lustre that never looks like someone fingered your project after eating a large basket of greasy Freedom Fries.

But the smell – until it dissipates – gives me the creeps.

It’s a very odd perfumy smell that is mixed with cleaning fluids. I have some more descriptive words for it that involve armpits, a greasy rubbing compound for sore joints and glass kittens, but I know it would get me in trouble with the readers.

The sample board looked great, so this morning I removed all the hardware from the chest. (This takes more than an hour. It’s like undressing a Victorian woman.) I applied the two coats of garnet shellac, sanding between the coats with a #320-grit sanding sponge.

Now I’m just waiting for the shellac to harden up a bit more before I apply the wax. And I’m going to first make dinner so I don’t have that brown goo in my nostrils when chewing.

Really, I love the wax. It’s worth the smell.

— Christopher Schwarz

With my French oak Roubo bench sitting in pieces in the back of the shop, I’ve spent the last couple days trying to complete this teak campaign chest and catch up on a month of e-mails, bills and administrative crap.

Getting these casework projects ready for finishing requires lots of tweaking inside and out. I had to patch a few minor areas where the teak splintered (big thanks to Carl Bilderback for honing my Dutchmen skills). And I had to remove some pencil marks, errant machine marks and chalk that had embedded itself in the pores. Oh, and install the drawer stops (the hide glue is curing as I type).

If the weather holds, this project will be finished finished on Friday. And I will drink a huge beer. Perhaps a growler of IPA. Then a nap.

Then I have to decide on the next project to tackle:

Another Roorkhee (I still have a few outstanding orders)
A folding officers’ desk a la William IV
A “riveted” campaign floor chest
Coaching table
My French oak workbench
Nail cabinet

That list makes me want to take a nap – no growler necessary.

— Christopher Schwarz