I love learning about trees and wood. Wood is both one of human’s simplest and most complex raw materials; anyone with an ax can ‘mine’ wood, yet wood’s chemical structure is so complex that there are many mysteries that still…
Blog Archives
No-Glue Stools
I’ve talked about this “good-no-good” joint a couple times before. Basically you turn it green, dry it for a couple days in a kiln and drive it into a green mortise. I first saw this joint in Jennie Alexander’s collection…
Posted in How-To, No-Glue joints
Old Guy’s Mistakes
My girlfriend and I went up to Brandywine, PA over July 4th to visit friends. One day we walked to a 19th C. three story milk barn that had been converted to an enormous used book store. I spent more…
Posted in Antique Chairs
Testing Wood Owl bits/class opening
I recently posted about drill bit varieties for chairmaking and got a number of comments about Wood Owl bits. I had never used them, but someone kindly sent me a couple to try. Here’s what I found: There is no…
A week in a chairmaking class
One of my students filmed this short video during his week in my shop building a Continuous Arm Windsor chair. It’s fun for me to hear some of the random things I say during a week in the shop. Maybe…
Review of Chairmaking Drill Bits
The following are my thoughts on drill bits for Windsor chairmaking. Bear in mind that I have used some of these bits (augers, bradpoints, etc.) daily for 15 years and other bits I have used infrequently. In these reviews, I…
Posted in Chairmaking Tools and Supplies, How-To
Early 19th C. Settee
My girlfriend Morgan and I went to an estate sale last weekend that had several early 19th C. Windsors, including this settee. I love looking at old chairs – there’s so much to learn. It’s pretty big, 60 or 70″…
Posted in Antique Chairs
American Seat Woods
Nearly any wood will work for a Windsor chair seat. It depends on how much work you are willing to do and how heavy a chair you want to move every time you finish dinner. I refuse to use anything…
Posted in Chairmaking Tools and Supplies, How-To
