As we established in my Anthology of Chair-like Objects, I’ve made a few chairs, as well as some things that are not quite chairs and a few others that are really not chairs. It’s been a progression of sorts, but in many cases the same techniques have been applied. With this chair, and as a consequence of some of the choices I’ve recently made, things are different. I think it’s healthy to ring the changes from time to time. Sometimes you find better ways of doing things. And sometimes you realise you had it right in the first place and can revert to the original knowing you tested the boundaries. Kind of like that time I took up cricket for a few months, before remembering that I was fairly shit at it and not a team sports guy. I doubt anyone at the club even noticed I’d gone. My greatest cricketing achievement was the fence I built around the boundary of the pitch. That is who I really am.
So here we go, never have I ever…
Made octagonal chair legs by hand plane alone. I’ve always done it on the bandsaw. Yesterday I did this for the first time and realised it was quick and accurate. Not quite as quick as the bandsaw, but not as slow as I thought it would be. I actually held the blank in the tail vice to plane the basic octagon. Afterwards I remembered that the tapering I’ve done previously in the tail vice is a bit of pain, as the work is being constantly re-positioned and there’s a lot of loosening and tightening to do. So I made a planing cradle (shown below) to speed the tapering process up. With this it is a simple movement to rotate the work to the next facet. The lines on the jig also help the tapering cuts be done in more consistent locations. Yes I could have used this for the first part of the process if I’d made it at the beginning. I’m stubborn and have to figure these things out for myself if they’re to stick.
Cut out a chair seat with a jigsaw. I experimented with this approach a little on the Chairmakers Plant Stand and proved to myself it was workable, so it wasn’t that much of a leap. I’m not going to lie to you, it is a lot more effort than using a bandsaw. This 1-3/4” European Oak is dense and hard, so the cutting it is not light work. Forming the basic shape is easy enough and the fact you can use a radius guide on the arc of the seat is quite a nice option for consistency. The large under-bevel is harder work and on my Mafell jigsaw the one criticism would be that there is no dust extraction on the angle-cutting base. So there was a lot of dust. I worked from the underside, which meant the pivot hole for the radius will not be seen and any raggedy edges from the upcutting blade are later removed in the bevel. A benefit over the bandsaw method is that you aren’t manhandling a heavy seat across the blade, the seat stays put. On balance I would probably still take the bandsaw option, but I’ll stick with this approach for the time being.
Made the sticks for a chair from scratch. I’ve always used dowel, which I’ve either bought or made with a dowel maker. Chair sticks made from dowels are fine, but they look like what they are - perfectly regular with an even cross section along their entire length. Using dowel is a good place to start as it’s quick and easy, but it feels a bit like cheating to me now. I think to elevate the chair to the next level you need to be making the sticks. So that is what I will be doing. No picture as I haven’t done it yet. The planing cradle will be put to use in making the initial octagonal sticks before the rounding and tapering begins.
Made a chair without using a Random Orbital Sander to finish it. I have nothing against Random Orbital Sanders - I own two of them. In pursuit of a lower dust approach to woodwork I am determined to try and achieve a finish by planing and scaping alone. In the time before electric sanders that’s what people were doing, so it’s obviously entirely doable. I’m planning a painted finish on this chair, which helps a little with that. I solemnly declare that I will not do a sneaky bit of tidying up with my Festool RO90 on the quiet. If I revert to that, I’ll tell you.
Made a chair with six back sticks. But I’ve done several with four. A fifty percent increase can’t be that hard. I imagine there’s a little more wrangling with the glue up, but I’ll report back when I get to that point. For that matter, I haven’t made a chair with a four-piece arm, or a double medial stretcher either. I don’t see those things as significant challenges as they’re just the same techniques deployed in a slightly different configuration. Time will tell if this is sound logic or completely misplaced bullishness.
I’m not a complete Luddite, rejecting all new technology. Far from it, I’m waiting for a new green laser to arrive which I’ll use on the stick drilling stage of this chair. That said, a DNA test recently told me I have 2% Neanderthal DNA, so if you see me hitting the new laser with a rock you’ll know why (actually that’s about average, so you’re all cave people too).
Love the green laser for following angles. Quite convenient that it has a magnetic base and my doors are metal, so I have plenty of points to place the laser.
Neanderthals were actually pretty sophisticated creatures too according to more recent researches. Crazy that we still carry all these traces in our genes. Good luck with the chair and thanks for sharing the process!