I thought I was through with teak after finishing up my latest campaign chest, but the woodpile had other ideas. After sorting through my stack of woods appropriate for campaign furniture, it was clear that a mondo piece of 26”-wide teak would be the perfect desktop for a William IV officer’s field desk.
It’s a cool desk – it folds flat thanks to its hinged aprons. And it’s simple to build – I should have it complete by this weekend. After months of dovetailing, a project with only four joints has its appeal.
When I’m not plowing through that teak, I’m sorting through the research materials I brought back from my trip to England. It is a weighty pile – so much that Delta Airlines almost charged me for overweight luggage.
In addition to tons of images and data, I brought back some fantastic 19th-century accounts by British officers of their adventures in India.
Here’s a taste of one from 1880:
More mosquitos. What a prize for the musquitoes was I a fine, fresh, ruddy griffin, full of wholesome blood, the result of sea-breezes and healthy chylification ! and, in good sooth, they did fall foul of me with the appetite of gluttons. Sleep ! bless your dear, simple heart, the thing was about as possible as for St. Lawrence to have reposed on his gridiron.
Proper bedtime reading.
— Christopher Schwarz