Coming to a Sticky End

The final part of the six-stick comb-back

After a couple of months of intermittent chair making, the six-stick comb-back is complete. For me this project has been as much about learning things as it has been about getting to a completed chair. I had no particular timescale in mind. Just as well really, given how long it’s taken. I sometimes tell my construction clients that delay on a project is soon forgotten, but an imperfect end product is there to remind you forever. Unless it’s so imperfect it falls down, though I’ve yet to build anything quite that bad. I avoid telling construction clients that I have no particular timescale in mind, as that doesn’t go down so well. In reality everything we make is imperfect, including this chair. In so, so many ways.

The wall in the background here was bright green when we bought the place. I guess the previous owner was doing some sort of greenscreen video wizardry in here. Probably making Sci-Fi porn, or maybe they just liked green. Either way, I wanted white walls in the workshop to maximise light reflection, so it had to go.

I’m trying to avoid this post becoming like those TV shows that contain nothing new and are just a compilation of old clips. No-one likes those. Although if I was to slip and bang my head on the workshop stairs and enter a dream sequence, that would have some interesting creative possibilities. Then I could make the part where I split the seat into a concussion fuelled hallucination, which goes away when I wake up. If only life was like TV.

The saddling is actually quite shallow, but the leg scoops give it the appearance of something more radical.

For anyone that wants to read back over the journey, links to the posts which followed the build are below. I didn’t set out to write a fully comprehensive how-to guide. For that you need to read The Stick Chair Book by Christopher Schwarz. My posts really just pick out the things that I thought were notable along the way. Often they were the things that went wrong, catastrophically so in some cases. Without wanting to get too philosophical about this, we learn far more from losing than winning. Those mistakes move me forwards with a stronger understanding of the right solution as a result. I reckon you haven’t really rested yourself as a woodworker until you’ve made a few chairs.

Template This - about setting off on the right foot with layout

Pull Up A Chair - an anthology of chair-like objects in my back catalogue

Never Have I Ever - making the legs and the seat, plus a few other bits

Better Than Sex? - on the subject of making round tenons on sticks

Comb My Back - about drilling the arm and seat for the sticks

Brown And Sticky - on the making of sticks from scratch

The Seat Of Power - concerning the saddling of seats

A Nightmare On Oak Street - of glue ups and their challenges

I tried a carved projecting tenon in the middle of the hand here, but I didn’t like how it felt when sitting, so I planed it off. I prefer the clean line of a flush cut here.

When I paint a piece of furniture there’s often debate around the rights and wrongs of a painted finish. It’s subjective, but for what it’s worth, here’s what I think. Colour is life. The world is full of colour, and whilst I love wood in all it’s tones and hues, I don’t want everything in my house to be brown. As I’ve said before, I have no desire to live in the equivalent of a Sylvanian Families treehouse. Paint gives us the opportunity to bring colour and vibrancy to furniture. It amazes me every time how different a piece looks in colour. It unifies the elements and allows us to see the form. Paint is the great redeemer, covering all indiscretions that occurred along the way. In time, when it wears we can see the edges of forms, the places we touch or sit become polished, revealing the life the piece has led. So yes it is painted. What of it?

Broadly symmetrical, or close enough to blame lens distortion for any wonkiness.

Colour is a power that directly influences the soul.

Wassily Kandinsky

The paint is General Finishes Milk Paint, the colour Gulf Stream Blue. It paints on beautifully, brush strokes disappearing easily. The finish is a light satin, which I like. Two coats seems about right to give a good solid colour, without fully filling the grain and losing the life of the wood. I sand with 240 grit before the first coat and again between coats. I give it a burnish with some brown paper afterwards, which doesn’t feel like it’s doing much, but it does bring up a little shine and knocks back any nibs.

The handmade sticks have an irregularity and visible tool marks that make them feel somehow more alive than a piece of dowel ever can. It’s quite a bit more work, but on balance worth the effort I think.

As the build has progressed I’ve been posting the detail on Instagram stories. I’ve made those into a highlight, which you can view here. Then like the cool kids do, I made a selection of those stories into a reel, which you can view here. Or maybe you’re done with my shit already, in which case thanks for reading and have a nice day.