Chairs

[Scoony]

Made a few chairs in the past, but now I am making a set of four. I am making the staked chairs from Chris S's book on staked furniture.  The seat blanks are curly sassafras. I about cried when I was cross cutting it. Would have made a beautiful table top, but it will make beautiful chair seats. The legs are ash and the spindles and crest are air dried red oak. I am kind of debating scooping out the seat a little, or leaving it flat. Not sure yet. Still have time while I get the crests steam bent. Those black lines are where I am considering scooping it. 

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The red oak is crazy straight grain. I was able to cut all four crests and 16 spindles from one board, and all those cuts were made on the bandsaw. Cleaned up the parts with hand planes. The spindles were squared with a hand plane, then the corners were planed to create an octagon shape. The shaping is actually really quick. Each edge only took 10 swipes with a jack plane with a cambered iron, then 2-3 swipes with another jack plane set for smoothing.

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The oak grain was so straight, it didn't make a different on which way I planed it which made the process even quicker. 

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So at this point, all four seats are cut out and drilled for the legs. All 16 legs are shaped and tenons turned. All the spindles are shaped, but I am only through half of them for shaping the tenons. The first crest rail sat in a seam box tonight and clamped into the form. I will leave this in the form for a few days, then repeat the process for the remaining 3 crests.

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[Stwood_]

Looking good. I like your choice of woods.

I would scoop the seats out.

[Bill Holt]

Second the vote for scooping (not that I could do it).

Thanks for posting and keep the progress photos coming.

[Scoony]

Well scooping it is. 

This is actually pretty quick work. Start with a compass plane to remove wood. This has a cambered blade and works much like a scrub plane to it removes a lot of wood quickly. I work on the center area and get that down, then use the travisher and start working from the outside lines towards the center refining the shape. 

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After the scooping is done, the bottom edges gets a bevel planed down, Here I use a #5 set as a scrub plane, then follow up with a #5 set to smoothing to refine and finish the shape.

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I just got the regular size LV shave and really liking it. The large one was a Secret Santa present and that thing is a beast for shaving wood. 

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The first crest has been shaped but no pics at the moment. The shaves, a block plane, and card scrapers were used. Another crest is still in the form for a few more days, with 2 more to go.  I have one chair ready for glue up, but going to wait to get the rest of the seats shaped and crests bent.

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Note: I did not hammer the crest down too much on the spindles.

[GlenS]

That's gonna be a very nice set of chairs!!

[Bibliophile 13]

Are you turning the tenons on a lathe, or are you using some kind of tenon cutter.

I'm getting ready to make some similar chairs in the distant future (read: I'm just now cutting up logs for the leg stock, which will air dry, so it's going to be a couple years yet), and it's really just the tenons that have me stumped. I don't have a lathe and really can't get one--not really.

[Scoony]

Are you turning the tenons on a lathe, or are you using some kind of tenon cutter.  

I'm getting ready to make some similar chairs in the distant future (read: I'm just now cutting up logs for the leg stock, which will air dry, so it's going to be a couple years yet), and it's really just the tenons that have me stumped.  I don't have a lathe and really can't get one--not really.

I am doing them on a lathe, but they can also be done with a tenon cutter, either straight of tapered. I can do them either way, and decided on straight 1" tenons for these chairs for simplicity. I am using a jig to drill the holes on the drill press.   

Also, the tenon cutters are really not that hard to make, just need some thick (12/4) scraps and an old plane blade.

[Scoony]

Finished shaping all the seats and currently have the 3rd crest in the bending form.

After a few days in the form, the crest gets drilled for the spindles. The rest of the crest is done with handtools. A flat and a curved spoke shave and scrapers do the job. Only took one pic as the work goes quick. I am shaving a bevel on the top edge with a curved bottom shave.

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First two chairs are assembled

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The plan is to paint the legs and crest with dark green milkpaint. The seat and spindles will get an oil finish. 

The thing that draws this project out is the need to leave the crests in the form for at least 4 days.

[Stwood_]

 

I see you have your leg wedges all angled nicely.

[Scoony]

So I finally finished the set of 4 chairs for our kitchen table.

Here are two of them.

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I pegged the spindles into the crest with 3/16" dowels. I make the pegs with a simple dowel plate and straight oak. A pencil sharpener comes in handy to make one end pointy to get it started into the dowel plate hole. I step them down two or three stages depending on the size, in this case, 5/16, 1/4, then 3/16. Some of them come out bent, but they still work just fine. When you get the peg hammered through, it gets stuck up in the plate. A simple trick is to take the next peg and just start it and let it push the last one through. I hammer them through a dog-hole in the bench and catch them below. 

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