“With the Grain” by Christian Becksvoort is now available as an ePub for iPad and other readers. The cost is $11 and can be ordered in the store here.
International customers can order the ePub by sending an e-mail to John Hoffman at john@lostartpress.com.
I’m sorry to say we cannot offer this book in a Kindle format. Because of its image-heavy page design, we had to use a fixed layout that simply look like crap on the Kindle. We are searching for a vendor who can convert the book to the Kindle format and produce a readable book.
Read more about the ePub here. The hardbound version can be ordered here for $25.
Next week I’m teaching a class on building a campaign chest at Marc Adams School of Woodworking that is a primer on the principles of casework construction.
If you are interested in blowing off work on May 6-10, check out the class description here. This class is suited for all skill levels, whether you are just getting into handwork or into woodworking in general.
An important part of this class is we will be designing our chests around the materials that each student can source. I wrote up this design document for the students and thought that some readers who couldn’t attend the class might be interested.
Materials
Campaign chests were made from a variety of materials. The most common woods were mahogany, teak, camphor and oak (white or English). However, almost any cabinet-grade wood will do and an example probably can be found in the historical record. I’ve even seen them made out of pine.
What is important to note about these chests is that some of them did not have any secondary woods used for the interior pieces. The best examples were made entirely out of mahogany – even the drawer bottoms and backs. This made the chests much more resistant to rot and bugs. It also raised the price significantly.
There are lots of examples out there that did use secondary woods for interior components. Common secondary woods were oak and pine.
As far as thicknesses go, the carcase materials should be made out of wood that finishes out at 3/4” thick to 7/8” thick. These thicknesses work well with the available brasses, particularly the corner brackets and straps. The cabinet backs should be made out of 1/2”-thick material. The drawer sides, backs and bottoms can be 1/2” or 3/8”. The 3/8” stuff is very old-school English.
If you are going to use turned feet, you’ll need some blanks that are about 2-1/2” to 4” in diameter and about 5” long.
Brasses
The most significant investment on one of these chests is in the brass. For the class, you don’t need to have your hardware with you. I’ll have lots of examples for you to examine in many price ranges. You can then make your decisions without having to spend hundreds of dollars on examples from all over the planet (I already did that for you).
If you’d like to get a head start, call Londonderry at (610) 692-5651 – they have a new catalog section devoted to campaign brasses. Also, get a catalog from Horton Brasses (http://horton-brasses.com/). Orion Henderson at Horton is happy to work with woodworkers to get a suite of hardware together that works for you. He’ll order stuff from England on your behalf and color all the brass to the same color.
Design
Campaign chests were built in a variety of sizes. I’d consider building a chest in one of these three basic dimensions:
• Dwarf chests, which were uncommon, would be 31” high, 28” wide and 15” deep.
• Standard chests are about 40” high, 36” wide and 16” to 20” deep.
• Large chests are 40” high, 40” wide and 20” deep (or more).
Once you decide the overall size you want to build, I think the next step is to decide if you want to build one that is on a plinth, sled feet or on turned feet. We’ll be reviewing a lot of these examples in class so you will be able to get a feel for them. Some things to think about:
1. The turned feet are usually removable (via threaded wood screws). They make the chest look less massive – that’s good or bad depending on your eye.
2. In some cases the “sled” feet are not the original way the chest sat on the floor. The chest might have had turned feet that rotted off or were discarded or lost. So you can design this concept into your chest (i.e. make a chest that is lower with sled feet).
3. Plinth bases are less common than the other two options, but there are examples where they were original to the chest. Original examples with a plinth usually have the plinth as a separate component – so the chest would be made in three pieces: top case, lower case and plinth.
When I design casework like this I begin with the material. What is the widest board I can find that is long enough (10’ to 12’) to wrap the grain continuously along the side, top and other side? If I can find 18”, I’ll make the case 18” deep. If I have 16”, I’ll make the case 16” deep – I don’t glue a 2”-wide board to the case to make it 18” wide.
Let the material dictate the depth and focus on finding one beautiful board for the show surfaces of the case. If I can’t find one wide board, my tendency is to look for boards that are 8” wide and glue them edge-to-edge to make the case sides and top.
Next search out the board for the drawer fronts. My goal is to find one board (12’ to 16’ long) for all the drawer fronts. I’ll usually look for something 8” to 10” wide for a regular chest of drawers. And 12” wide if I am making a secretary.
After you get the boards you need for the exterior of the case and the drawers, the rest is easier.
You need solid panels of primary wood for the bottom of the top case, plus the top and bottom of the lower case. These can be glued up from thinner stock as the only thing that will show is the front edge. Count on getting about 15-18 board feet of primary wood for these parts.
You’ll also need some primary and secondary wood for the two web frames that separate the drawers in each case. These web frames are made from pieces that are 2-1/2” to 3” wide. Count on buying 24’ linear feet of this kind of material for the web frames.
The backs can be made from secondary or primary wood. Plan on 10 board feet of 4/4 material for the backs.
The drawer parts can also be made from primary or secondary wood. Plan on 35 to 40 board feet for all the interior drawer parts.
Finally, source some wood for the base – turned, plinth or sled.
The rest of the design process flows from the wood you have on hand and what sort of chest you want: Do you want a secretary or a chest of drawers with four or five drawers? What sort of drawer graduations do you want (there are many schemes)? These are the things we’ll be discussing on the first day of class – so don’t be hung over.
When I culled my tool set down to the bare essentials three years ago, I sold some of them here on the blog. I abandoned that approach for two reasons: the trolls, and it was much easier and satisfying to give the tools to someone who needs them.
If you have a few extra user tools, you might consider donating them to a project being put together by fellow woodworker and blogger Sam Cappo, who runs PlaneDetails.com. He is putting together a user set of tools, building a tool chest for them and then giving the whole kit away to a deserving woodworker.
I’m donating a portable “Milkman’s Workbench” to the project.
If you have extras, look over the list that Sam has posted on his site here. Sam is totally legit, this project is a great small-scale idea, and I know he will see it through to the end.
I hate the vinyl banner that we hang up at woodworking shows.
While we had the vinyl sign made locally, I’ve never liked having a plastic sign for a company that is all about wooden objects.
So when we decided to exhibit at Handworks in Amana, Iowa, one of my first tasks was to commission a proper corporate sign for Lost Art Press. So we hired David Bignell, a talented Dayton, Ohio, woodworker to carve us a low-relief sign in the spirit of British pub signs.
He’s started work on the sign and you can check out his progress on his Facebook page.
We’ll have the sign at Handworks, along with H.O. Studley calipers and (if our luck holds) a special T-shirt that we’ll sell at Handworks and to customers who cannot make it to the event.
There are still some spots open in my class on building a campaign chest that I’m teaching May 6-10, 2013, at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking in Franklin, Ind.
For me, this class is the most important one I’m teaching in 2013 (yes, even more important than the workbench class with ancient oak). It’s important because it will tie together all the hand skills needed to build high-end casework. It will be a stepping stone for my forthcoming book on campaign furniture. And we, as a class, will be exploring a beautiful furniture form that has been neglected for almost 100 years.
On the casework side, this class is about hard-core hand joinery. Yes, we’ll be using machines dimensioning our stock, but most of the joinery will be handled with hand tools. Why? It’s efficient and fun.
Here are a few of the joints and processes we’ll be exploring.
• Full-blind dovetails to attach the top to the case sides.
• Half-blind dovetails to assemble the cases and drawers.
• Through-dovetails at the back of the drawers.
• Hand-cut dados for the drawer blades.
• Grooves for the back? You can cut them by hand or power.
• Web frames for the drawers? We’ll explore hand-cut mortise-and-tenon, machine-made mortise-and-tenon and the Domino.
• Turned feet (if you build a naval chest).
• Installing inset hardware with power tools or hand tools.
• Dealing with figured exotic woods with hand tools only.
In other words, this class will explore the full range of casework joinery options out there. This class is great for beginners who want to jump into classic joinery or woodworkers who have always wanted to learn to do things “the right way” with a historical approach and a handsaw.
Oh, and this class will also be about scoring some incredible wood. On the Friday before the class (May 3), we are visiting my favorite lumber paradise: Midwest Woodworking. There we’ll be picking out some world-class wide mahogany (or other species) for the chest of drawers.
So if you’ve ever wanted to step up your joinery skills to the top shelf, I think you’ll find this class is an excellent trial by fire. It’s not about one skill or one tool or one sample project. It’s about mastering the suite of skills to make a world-class piece of furniture.
I haven’t been this excited about a class since Dictum gave me the green light to teach a class based on “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.”
For more information on the class, visit the marcadams.com web site here. If you have questions about the class, drop me a line at chris@lostartpress.com.
And for those of you who have already signed up, I hope you are looking forward to this class as much as I am.
“With the Grain” by Christian Becksvoort is now available as an ePub for iPad and other readers. The cost is $11 and can be ordered in the store here.
