DC 09 chairs

[Derek Cohen]

I promised a build. Below is a summarised version of the details on my website ...


In December 2023 I began designing and building two carver chairs to accompany the 6 bentwood chairs we have owned for the past 40 years. The chairs we have were purchased all those years ago along with a farmhouse table, which is around 200 years old. Although we cherish this table, we need something larger, and time has come to replace it and add two more chairs.



I started thinking about the chairs I would build, and I took inspiration from this picture ...



It has a name: DC 09, and it was designed by the Japanese- Scandinavian duo, Kyoko Inoda and Nils Sveje, in 2011. It is built by the Miyazaki factory in Japan.




There is a challenge here - can I replicate it purely from photos?

Start of seats for two chairs ...




To reproduce the DC 09 design, I explored and saved all the videos and all photos I could find. From these I estimate or calculate sizes, approximate dimensions, and refine these over multiple examples. Here are some of the photos I used ....

Seat upper and under sides ..



The underside of the seat: note the rounded ends of the tenons, and the smooth flow as the tapered edges link with the base …




First shaping ..



It's rougher than it looks. A travisher begins the process of smoothing the curves ..



Every now-and-then a scraper will refine the tear out ...



Before proceeding, the outline is cut out ...



Shaping the mortises ...



With raking light, the tear out and bumps are more easily seen, and now sanded down with 80 grit (more will be done much later on). The upper side  ...







For the underside,  I relied on a Auriou 10-grain rasp to do most of the shaping ...





 sanded to 80-grit, this was the result. From the underside ...



The upper side, from the rear end ...





The legs were bandsawed, spokeshaved to a square finish, and then mortised ...




The legs will end up oval, and this process was begun on the router table ..



Then spokeshaves and scrapers worked to finish the shaping ...







[font="Times New Roman", serif]A test fit of the loose tenon joinery ...

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All the parts fitted, but not yet glued up ...


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Glued and wedged ...



A mock-up of the arms ...


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There's a photo on the wall behind against which to compare. Also, a first look at the completed through tenons.[/font]

[font="Times New Roman", serif][font="Times New Roman", serif]After much back-and-fro drawing, rubbing out, re-drawing, and transfering to MDF for templates ...


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[Derek Cohen]

[font="Times New Roman", serif]Each of the blocks (seen beng glued up earlier) create four arm blanks ...

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Here is the side elevation ...

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Ends cut on the slider ...



And cleaned up ...







Joining the sections ...


I have a Domino but preferred dowels for this situation. Dowels are easier to position accurately (using the centre points), and just as strong in this situation (I used 3 x 3/8" dowels).

If you mark off the profile of the arms, then you can position the dowels out of harms way of any later shaping ...

A simple wooden block allows you to drill square ...




Some shaping can be done at this point ...








We are at the point of glue up - yesterday.  There was a lesson learned ...


In a similar build, where the sections needed to be clamped together, it was possible to leave "ears" as the blanks were wider/thicker. I could not do that here, and so decided to epoxy these ears on ...





Well, it wasn't particularly successful, even allowing for 24 hours cure time. The ears broke off.


All I could do was clamp the ear on, and pray this would hold.





Later I realised that the problem was that the dowels I used were too tight, and the force needed to drive them home was unexpected. Lesson learned for all - if using epoxy, which is gap filling, the dowels has be a slip fit rather than a force fit. Of course, it would have been easier if I had known this beforehand!





Once all was together, now in one piece (or two pieces if you count two chairs), the rasping and spokeshaving began ...








The aim now was to get the arms closer. This is all slow work, a bit here and a bit there, return to check the symmetry and shaping, and a bit more off. Work stopped to redrill the dowel holes that hold the arms to the legs. There had been a little movement while I was away, or I have measured inaccurately the at the start. It is important that the arms-legs join with as little stress to the joint as possible.





A couple of progress shots of shaping thus far - lots of shaping still to come, but its getting to look like the original chair now.








More to come in a week.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Timberwolf]

...............
WOW!!!!!!!!!!! UNfreakinbelievable is all I can say, Derek!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks Jack. Much appreciated!!

May I ask a favour - quoting my post, which is very long, makes it necessary for all to scan past all for a second time. can you delete the quoted section? Thanks.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Timberwolf]

Thanks Jack. Much appreciated!!

May I ask a favour - quoting my post, which is very long, makes it necessary for all to scan past all for a second time. can you delete the quoted section? Thanks.

Regards from Perth

Derek

......
Thanks Derek.You are right....I will remember that next time..

[FrankAtl]

Wow! Incredible work Derek. Thank you for sharing!

[bandit571]

Looks good to me!  I stick will the Plain Jane stuff...leaves all the fancy stuff for you to build..

Can't wait to see the "Test Drive" of one of those chairs!

[Derek Cohen]

Looks good to me!  I stick will the Plain Jane stuff...leaves all the fancy stuff for you to build..

Can't wait to see the "Test Drive" of one of those chairs!

Thanks Steve. Numerous friends have already tested the chairs for strength and comfort. So far so good. 

With regards the "fancy stuff", I enjoy the challenge, and perhaps (?!) I am somewhat masochistic and tend to choose designs that are over my head!

Regards from Perth

Derek

[MarkSingleton]

Over your head? I don't think so Derek. You are world class, of that there is
no doubt.

Great work , as usual. Looking forward to the "more to come."

Thanks for posting this great thread.

[fredhargis]

Awesome work, Derek.