I have finished writing my book about Samuel Wing. Sure, there’s still editing to be done, but that never ends. The Lost Art Press folks will be here in February to photograph the book and we’ll go from there. Jeff Lefkowitz just sent me the proofs for a set of chair plans to go with the book and Curtis Buchanan and I are signing a contract with Lost Art Press to publish a video on making the chair. The video was Curtis’s idea. I learned chairmaking from Curtis, but this video is going to be me teaching Curtis how to build the Samuel Wing chair. I’m really excited.
The last section of the book that I wrote was about some old post-and-rung chair joints that I inherited from Jennie Alexander, part of her huge collection of old busted chair joints. Here’s a photo of the tenons:
And here’s the mortise (sawn in half):
This mortise is the real kicker. How did all that fuzzy-looking wood from the mortise get into the notch in the tenon? There’s so much wood in there that when Alexander pulled one of the joints apart with brute force, the tenon pulled huge splinters from the mouth of the mortise. That’s one tight joint!
Over the years, I tried various ways of making this joint. Even the most promising and oft-touted option – green mortises and dry tenons – never produced satisfactory results. Finally I stumbled on this video while learning to make wheels for my first wheelbarrow class with Peter Ross:
Beginning at the 10 minute and 30 second mark, the wheelwright puts the hub in a vat of boiling water, leaves it there for three and a half hours, then drives his notched spokes into the softened hub. The hub is able to compress an amazing amount. My heart started beating faster. Would this work with chair rungs? I quickly made a test joint and tried it. It worked, but one inaccurate joint isn’t much of a test. I began boring 20 or 30 holes in various pieces of green and dry oak, maple and hickory. I labeled them all, then brought them back into the house to boil:
Then I went back out to the shop to turn the tenons from air-dry hardwood – oak and hickory mostly. For consistencies sake, I turned them with a turner’s gate exactly 1/16″ bigger in diameter than the mortises. I turned a notch in them with the skew and rounded the ends. For fun, I made one tenon that was 1/8″ bigger in diameter than the mortises (the mortises were 5/8″, so this tenon was 3/4″). After twenty minutes the tenons were done and I got the boiled mortises and began driving them together:
All the tenons went into the mortises without cracking. Even the one 1/8″ oversized tenon went in; it dimpled the mortise some, but didn’t crack it. Amazing! But would these joints stay tight? I threw them in the attic to dry:
It’s been almost a year since I made these test joints. All of them are still tight. None of them were glued, since glue doesn’t bond to boiled wood (I eventually tried that too). But none of them will ever pull apart:
How exciting. I can’t wait to watch it. I love to watch both of you work. You all, along with Schwartz and Galbert have been a big inspiration to me. I finally had the nerve to start on Galbert’s Perch Stool and then a stick and then maybe a Windsor. I’ve never made a chair before but because of access to craftsman like never before, a whole new galaxy of woodworking is available to us. Good luck!
That is really cool! Thanks for sharing. I would love to see a complete undercarriage put together with this technique.
The imprint of the tenon is very crisp! Thanks for sharing that process. The whole writeup reminds me of p. 547 of de l’exploitation des bois, duhamel dumonceau (published in 1764 in France)
He describes what amounts to be a shrink pot, but the body is well dried after hollowing and grooving for the ends (a spout is in the middle, both ends are sealed), and the thing is put in boiling water before inserting the ends. Just like a shrink pot the ends are made to be loose in their grooves so that the sides do not split as it takes its final shape.
“Lorsqu’on a taillé un fond selon le diametre du barril pris
au jable ( il est essentiel de ne prendre cette mesure que
quand le bois est bien sec) on taille les bords de ce fond en
chanfrein il faut que l’intérieur du baril depuis le jable jusqu’au
bord, aille un peu en s’évasant on force un peu le fond
pour le faire entrer dans cette partie évasée quand le fond
est engagé dans cette partie on met le baril avec le fond dans
une chaudiere d’eau bouillante le bois s’y attendrit et est en
état de se prêter aux efforts qu’il faut faire pour faire entrer le
fond dans le jable; comme le barril se resserre en se séchant, le
fond joint exactement. Quelques Ouvriers serrent la partie du
baril qui répond au jable avec une corde & un garot; il vaut
mieux que le fond soit un peu à l’aise dans le jable que trop
serré; car comme le bois se comprime beaucoup en se séchant
& en se réfroidissant, le fond qui ne se retire pas proportion-.
nellement ferait fendre le corps du baril.”
Cool! Thanks for sharing.
Elia,
Interesting process, particularly for wheels.
How do the dimensions of the hole and the rung compare prior to boiling? In other words, if you bore a 3/4″ hole, do you turn the rung end to 3/4″, or do you make them a shade larger?
Have you observed how the finished surface of the legs are after boiling? Are they going to require any additional smoothing or finishing steps? Does the boiling step significantly raise the grain?
When do you think your book will be out?
I turned them with a turner’s gate exactly 1/16″ bigger in diameter than the mortises. The surface is fine after boiling. Any raised grain would only appear later with paint. It may be out next year.
Great work Elia! Clever borrowing of one craft’s method to improve the success of the chairmaking process! Thanks for sharing
Thanks!
I’ve seen these and didn’t know what it was called. Is there any concern for drilling your Mortis into tangential grain versus radial?
Either is fine.
How long did you boil the mortises? 20 minutes? I wonder how this would work with an assembly where there are many joints to put together?
Just a few minutes usually works. I’ve put Windsor undercarriages together using this method.
Thanks!!!! Great information!!!