I’m in Charleston, S.C., this week to fatten myself up on grits and explore some of the antique shops for campaign furniture examples to study. First the bad news: Antiques of the Indies, the [...]
I’ve used a lot of different methods to add age to my hardware – everything from a propane torch to ammonia to gun blue to (yes) human urine. Whenever I discuss these methods, I get complaints. [...]
When I had a bunch of woodworkers over to my house recently, they spent some time looking over the Campaign chest I finished recently for an upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. Their [...]
I’m building cubbyholes for the gallery in the Campaign Secretary I’m constructing for Popular Woodworking Magazine. I’m now down to the seven little interior drawers and installing the hardware. [...]
I finished yesterday fitting the three bottom drawers to the Campaign Secretary I’m building and I started in on building the gallery – it’s all dovetailed now. I’d be quite happy with my [...]
After much searching, purchasing and examination I settled on a suite of hardware for the Campaign Chest I’m building for Popular Woodworking Magazine. The hardware arrived this week, and I could [...]
When it comes to building chests of drawers, most examples I’ve seen since the 18th century and later have drawers that graduate from top to bottom. Bigger drawers at the bottom; smaller drawers [...]
One of the hardware vendors that is always on my short list is Whitechapel Ltd., which offers a lot of quality, hard-to-find pieces. So after some digging through the company’s catalog and web [...]
My credit card is groaning a bit thanks to all the hardware samples I’ve been ordering to find a selection of quality brasses for some Campaign-style pieces I’m building. Today I received a chest [...]
When I took my first woodworking class in 1993 I was gung-ho to learn two things: through-tenons and through-dovetails. At the time I was intoxicated by Arts & Crafts furniture and exposed [...]
While Horton Brasses has agreed to produce some custom pieces of campaign hardware for the chest/secretary I’m building for Popular Woodworking Magazine, that doesn’t squelch my desire to see [...]
After posting this story about the campaign-style fork and knife, I got an e-mail from woodworking researcher extraordinaire Jeff Burks. Burks, a trade carpenter, is a voracious collector of [...]