Free Now & Forever: ‘Campaign Furniture’

My 2014 book “Campaign Furniture” is now a free pdf download for everyone. You can download it via this link (a compressed version for slower connections is available here). And customers will always be able to download it from the book’s page in our store.

As of now, all my Lost Art Press titles are a free download. Here’s the list:

“The Stick Chair Book: 2^nd Revised Edition”
“Build a Chair from Bulls%$t”
“The Anarchist’s Tool Chest: Revised Edition”
“American Peasant”
“Sharpen This”
“The Anarchist’s Workbench”
“Ingenious Mechanicks”
“The Anarchist’s Design Book” Expanded Edition”
“Roman Workbenches”
“The Art of Joinery”

“Campaign Furniture” is in its sixth printing, with 13,000 copies circulating. The idea for the book came from my childhood. My parents and grandparents both collected campaign pieces, and my father and grandfather built several pieces of it for their homes. So I grew up surrounded by it.

While I was at Popular Woodworking Magazine, I wondered why this style of furniture was never featured in our pages. I kept proposing articles for campaign chests and Roorkhee chairs, but was shot down over and over.

So after I quit the magazine in 2011, I decided to embark on writing an entire book about the furniture style. I traveled to Great Britain to study original pieces then lurked through lots of antique stores all over the United States (a huge source of information).

Working on the book pushed my skills into new places. I learned to cut, rivet and stitch leather. I became really good at installing hardware: locks, plates, corner braces, flush pulls, you name it. I pushed into making lots of full-blind dovetails (probably my favorite dovetail joint). And I worked with a lot of mahogany and teak.

I developed an intense love for mahogany (now I use only reclaimed/recycled stuff), and a sensitivity to teak.

Why Do I Do This?

I get asked by fellow publishers why I offer my books for free download. “Surely you use it to gather emails to market to readers.” Nope. “Are these out-of-print books that you are using to get eyeballs on your website?” Nope. “So what’s the strategy?”

I think – as much as possible – that information should be free. I think the best hope for inspiring other woodworkers is to give them whatever they need to begin in the craft.

And, I fu&%ing hate this world we’ve created where people can’t own anything. Companies come into your house and your phone and change things or take away stuff you’ve bought. Many times they take back stuff you owned then rent it back to you.

That’s why we make books. Buy a book from us, and it’s yours. Its contents can’t be changed by some ideologue a thousand miles away. All of our digital products are free of DRM (digital rights management). That means they can’t be locked or disabled. And you can copy them onto whatever device you like.

OK, the holiday rant is over.

I hope you find something of interest in “Campaign Furniture.” We still use three of the pieces from the book every day in our home. Other pieces are with my kids. So my family’s love of this neglected furniture style continues.