Chair Workshop

Very comfortable!

A great grandfather’s chair!

Aniline Dye with five coats of Tung Oil varnish

Finished in Antique Cherry

The finished product

The above photos are the finished chair.  After many hours of final sanding I applied linseed oil to the seat, then stained the chair with Watco Danish Oil. (Black Walnut).  Then five coats of Tung Oil finish, followed by two coats of furniture wax.   A very comfortable chair for reading, sitting and chatting or for when an extra chair is needed at the dinner table.  The following paragraph was written before the workshop as a place holder.

During the week of June 23rd through the 29th my son and I will be attending a workshop on making a unique style of Windsor Chairs.  I attended the workshop in 2009 and was very impressed with the Master Chair maker Joe Graham and is wife.  (http://www.lenoxworkshops.com/Lenox_Workshops/Home/Home.html  He runs the workshop several times a year and I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to return.  There will be many pictures and narratives to follow on this page.  For the moment I’ll add the picture of the chair I made in 2009.  I should also mention that on Monday morning the workshop begins with the splitting of a white oak log for the wood to make the chair.  By the following Saturday morning a finished chair is ready to take home!

The following photos show a step by step process from the log to the living room for how we built the chairs.  Joe and Barbara Graham are exception hosts, teachers and craftsman.  Joe has a very special knack for teaching this kind of art.  We used tools that have been used in woodworking for thousands of years.  The only power tools we used were: a.  a bandsaw to cut out the parts to rough form. b. A power drill for the various holes for spindles, legs and stringers. c. A 4 1/2 grinder for cleaning up the seating portion of the chair seat.  d. a random orbital sander.  Most of the work was done with a draw knife, spokeshave, adz, scorp/inshave, fro, travisher, cabinet scrapers and by hand sanding and fitting parts.  The work was very physical and exhausting for those of us who are use to shorter days and desk jobs!  Most of the folks in the class started with some light work around 7:00 AM and worked through until 10:00 pm.  The only breaks were for three wonderful meals prepared each day by Barbara.The captions on the pictures tell the story of how a log becomes a chair.  The woodworking skills gained were immeasurable and through the work friendships were formed and a real sense of learning and accomplishment took place.  Graham.

Joe and Barbara Graham’s home

The Workshop

The logs we start with on Monday morning!

Getting Ready to split!

Joe explaining how to split along the grain

Carmen and Chris refining their technique

John enjoying the morning workout while Bill philosophizes

Getting the pieces for the continuous arm

Laying out the continuous arm before using the band saw to rough cut it

Shaving a spindle with a spokeshave

Using a drawknife

Using a drawknife to shape the arm.

The arm for my chair before steaming and bending

Splitting wood with a “Fro” for the spindles.

Steaming the arms

Bending form for continuous arm chair

Chris bending the arm while hot out of the steamer

Carmen taking his arm out of the steamer

Shaping the legs

Sizing my spindles by pounding them through a metal plate

Making a small spindle with a spokeshave

Chopping out the seat with an Adz

Shaping the bottom of the seat

Getting the parts ready for glueup

Taking the arm out of the form

Drilling holes for leg stringers

Bill

Joe Brown

Early morning on Thursday

Jigs for aligning holes for the arm and spindles

Setting my first spindle

Putting wedges into the spindles to tighten and hold them

Wedged and waiting for flue to dry

Chairs everywhere!

Cutting the legs to size and leveling them

Joe demonstrating the use of analine dye to stain chair

Anthony gets out of his chair for a big one

Anthony finds a big chair comfortable

The finished chairs in the white. Ready for final sanding and finishing.