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The Obsession Engine

Monthly Archives: November 2014

New Campaign Furniture Catalog Available for Download

29 Saturday Nov 2014

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I really love this “Campaign Furniture”. Not only is it a great look to decorate with, its fantastic for hauling along for festival or other, longish-term, camping.

Lost Art Press

officersroom

Christopher Clarke Antiques has released its latest catalog of campaign furniture called “An Officer’s Room,” which you can download for free from the company’s web site here.

Sean and Simon Clarke were extremely generous and helpful as I was researching English military and travel furniture for my book “Campaign Furniture.” The brother’s catalogs are a wealth of information on campaign furniture and include lots of original research into the makers and patents that are important to the style.

This catalog is no different. I’ve read it through twice – especially the section on the Fenby patent chairs, which I am researching now so I can reproduce them.

If you like campaign furniture, this catalog is a free little treat for you. By the way, all of the pieces in the catalog are for sale, in case you are also a furniture collector.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Unique gift ideas for the DIYer you don’t hate.

29 Saturday Nov 2014

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Heavy D is on top of things! Here’s a start on a Christmas list for a DIY kinda guy (or gal…I went with the word that rhymed.).

2 Episodes on Campaign Furniture on ‘The Woodwright’s Shop’

28 Friday Nov 2014

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I love this “campaign furniture” stuff! Our cramped garage, work schedule and now bad weather have probably put a halt to any larger projects for the time, but I’m looking forward to trying my hand at them this spring. Until then, I’ll be working on projects like electronics and maybe some leather crafting.

Lost Art Press

WoodwrightsShopScreenCapture

You can now watch two episodes on Roy Underhill’s “The Woodwright’s Shop” on campaign furniture that we taped earlier this year by following this link.

Use the arrows below the main screen to scroll over to the episodes you want to watch.

One of the episodes is an introduction to the style and a demonstration of cutting lapped full-blind dovetails. The second episode shows my strategies for fitting inlaid corner brasses and campaign pulls.

I wish we would have demonstrated something additional: Roy trimming my hair. All I can think while watching these episodes is: Get a haircut, hippie. And a job.

The pieces shown in the episode are also featured in my book “Campaign Furniture,” which is available in our store and through our retailers. We are almost sold out of the the first edition of this book and we will be returning to press…

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Favorite tool?

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

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This is one item I keep putting off buying. My friend Heavy D has persuaded me to grab a few and salt them around the various crafting areas!

Be a good instructor

24 Monday Nov 2014

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My friend and mentor provides advice about instruction that applies to any subject.

tacticalprofessor

Claude, I really like your blog, I have been a fan and a reader, since I saw it linked over at georgiapacking.org

I’m scheduled to get my NRA certification as a firearms instructor for basic pistol next month.

Do you have any advice for me, in starting out as an instructor?

My main recommendation would be to continuously improve your knowledge and skills. I can’t tell you how many NRA Instructors I know who haven’t
read a single gun book beyond the NRA manuals, have never taken another
class, and who don’t do anything to measure and improve their skills.

My personal library has over 400 books about guns, shooting, tactics, police work, and military history. The subjects run the gamut from appropriate rifles for African hunting in the early 20th century to analyses of the effects of using deadly force by the shooter. My collection has over 100 DVDs in…

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Edwardian Camp Equipment

24 Monday Nov 2014

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I see a number of pieces that I’ve been wanting to make listed here. The Roorkhee chair in particular looks fantastic and has been on my project list since I first saw it over at Lost Arts Press. They have detailed plans and intend on producing a how to DVD on them soon.

Preindustrial Craftsmanship

This is a re-post from an earlier entry.  Say what you will about British imperial policy of the 19th and 20th centuries.  They certainly worked out minimalist travel with a fair amount of style and comfort on a very personal level.  These old catalogs give

From The Army and Navy Co-operative Society Store, London 1907

1907-11907-21907-31907-41907-61907-71907-51907-91907-101907-11There are some excellent items here that should give some inspiration for fabricating some classic and classy gear.  From an era before the activity of “camping” was fully segregated from “regular living”.

Much more of this to come…

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Modifying the FourSevens QT2A-X for daily carry: the Quark Tactical Exigent Circumstances Edition

17 Monday Nov 2014

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I always carry a flashlight. Sometimes more than one (What happens if I drop my flashlight in the dark?). I also like the little Tracer glow rings that are hard to get here in the states, as it makes digging keys out of a bag or the grass a snap.

Anyway, here’s one person’s take on the “ultimate carry flashlight”.

Exigent Circumstances

In my last post I mentioned that the QT2A-X was larger than my previous carry light (the Fenix LD10). In this post I’ll show you what I did about that.

After carrying the QT2A-X for a week There are some things I would like to change about it. The length needs to be brought down to something smaller (I can manage with the QT2A-X’s size, and for prolonged use it’s actually pretty comfortable, but at 5.8 inches I have to use the pocket clip, as it won’t sit right in my pocket unless it is clipped to it. On that note, with the standard pocket clip it rides a wee bit too high to be comfortable when I am sitting and standing frequently (I am constantly getting up and sitting back down in my job, so this became apparent pretty rapidly).

So how do we make it better?

My ideal…

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Anyone can buy their significant other flowers…

17 Monday Nov 2014

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My friend Heavy D brings the good stuff again!

Steampunk Fashion: How To Add “Steam” To Your Wardrobe

16 Sunday Nov 2014

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Clothes make the man. Woman, too!

Some Ideas for Unconventional Conventions

13 Thursday Nov 2014

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Howdy folks! Work’s finally slowing somewhat so its time for another blog post. My lovely wife and I attended Teslacon over the weekend and have some ideas for upcoming panels or shenanigans we’d like to see and possibly run ourselves.

1) A shooting gallery. I’ve got a number of ideas cooking here. It needs to be easy to clean up, quick to run, set up and take down, and not dangerous. Repurposed laser tag guns or the like would probably be ideal.

2) A shoot off. I’ve heard of “duels” in shooting events involving 2 steel targets that are placed so that the targets fall across each other. At the sound of the buzzer, 2 shooters draw and put their target down as soon as possible. The target on the bottom dropped first, so that determines the winner.

3) Either or both of the above combined with a panel on arms training in the late 1900s, with anecdotes drawn from J.B. Noel, Reichenbach and similar books. An advantage to writing this blog is that I usually want to do a little more research into a topic when writing about it. For example, I finally looked up just who “J.B. Noel” was – not just an author, apparently! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Baptist_Lucius_Noel

4) Private panel – cocktails of the Old West, along with tastings! I don’t see how I can do this subject justice without building the cocktails, explaining their history, and passing out tasters. I’d need money to cover costs and a limit as to size. A more public panel could cover the saloon in the old West and discuss how it wasn’t the dingy little hole in the wall many movies make it out to be, but a thriving place that was frequently trying to “out-novel” similar establishments just up the street by bringing in more and more extravagant drinks, shows, and decorations. I think a slideshow would be incorporated to show what some of the old places looked like and still look like. A research tour would be fantastic but I doubt I’ve got the time or money to pull it off this year. This book would probably provide a very firm foundation for either undertaking: http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Bartenders-Bible-Byron-Johnson/dp/087719050X/ref=la_B001JRXM0I_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415888536&sr=1-1

As always, questions or comments are welcome! What would you like to see at a Wild West and/or Steampunk convention or event?

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