Chair Stories

The Drawknife I Love

Troy and his wife picked up a set of four loop backs and one continuous arm last week. Troy took a class from me a couple years ago - my chairs will join his chair to form a complete set of six. His a story of his chairs: Drawknives are the tool I’d collect if I ever...

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Joe’s Backyard

Last week I shipped a Continuous Arm Rocker to a customer in AZ. This is a story about his chair: Seth and I stood in the yard and stared. Sheds and and lean-tos filled to overflowing with machines surrounded us; rusty mammoths from a bygone age. Machines that didn’t...

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Fire, Water and Steel

Last Friday I delivered a Velda's Rocking Chair to Patricia.  It's the first time I'd left the house in two weeks and it seemed like quite the adventure, even though it was no more than twenty minutes away.  I started building the chair at Curtis Buchanan's...

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A Day in Dave’s Shop

On my way home from a holiday visit to my future in-laws in KY, I delivered Michelle her new arm chair.  Here's a story about her chair: As I whittled spindles for a Birdcage Arm Chair, I thought back on the day I first made spindles for the man who taught my...

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Dave Sawyer’s House

Painting a Comb Back Rocker for Sandra and Joseph, my mind wandered over the distant past, and I started daydreaming about Dave Sawyer. Dave Sawyer is my chairmaking grandfather. I learned from Curtis Buchanan, and Curtis learned from Dave. When I first visited Dave,...

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Walnut Heaven

Cara had been looking for a rocker her size for ten years. I made her a Comb Back Rocker one thickness of Nancy Evans' 'American Windsor Chairs' shorter than it's usual height, put simpler hand-holds on it and made the seat of walnut. Walnut seats on traditional...

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Glen and Eli

Life's been busy here. Two classes in April (one here and one at Roy Underhill's) and a two week class at Penland the end of May means I've turned about 200 chair parts in the last month. Morgan and I have put in a garden here. I made my first wheelbarrow wheel...

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