CHAIRMAKING SUPPLIES
Note: These are the only seat suppliers I know about.
Green Wood Source List is a crowd-sourced list of green wood suppliers around the world; log yards, sawmills and a mill in PA that sells reject maple blanks for turnings. Add any sources you know about!
Alexander Brothers have seat blanks for sale as of September 2023. They have sent me samples and seem to be doing a good job.
Shawn Murphy has seat blanks for sale as of September 2021 (I have never bought from him, but I imagine the seats are pretty nice).
Hancock Forest Products has single-piece pine seats (I have never bought from them). My long-time source, Nick Cicchinelli is out of pine seats for the foreseeable future (updated Fall 2019).
Currier Forest Products has single-piece pine seats (several reports indicate that their customer service isn’t good – Winter 2020).
Irion Lumber sometimes has lovely air-dried butternut for chair seats, among other beautiful things. They ship, but there is a minimum order of 200bf (I think).
Chair Plans: Curtis Buchanan is now selling beautiful chair plans of his beautiful chairs.
Green Wood: Read about where to find green wood on my blog.
Seat woods: Read about various woods that make good seats on my blog.
CHAIRMAKING INFO
A nice shaving horse: Tim Manney has designed a simple shaving horse that works really well. He has free info and plans for sale on his blog.
Free Workbench Plans: Curtis has free plans for his workbenches, which are similar to mine (mine are a little bigger and disassemble easily).
Free Videos: Curtis Buchanan has over 100 free videos on YouTube on making Comb Back, Continuous Arm and Fan Back chairs, plus videos on sharpening many chairmaking tools. Curtis is the most generous man I know.
Make a Reamer: Jennie Alexander’s website has detailed instructions for making a reamer, plus I have two videos on the subject.
Tool List: Primarily for my students, this tool list has some tool buying suggestions.
Green Wood Book List A list of green woodworking books. Add your favorite books to the list and find new gems.
FINISHING INFO
Blog Articles: There are a series of articles on my blog about finishing chairs.
Videos: Curtis Buchanan has a number of free videos on finishing his chairs (see Comb Back videos 45 through 51). My technique closely resembles his, though I use shellac over the paint instead of oil.
Chairnotes Blog: Peter Galbert has articles on his blog about the way he finishes chairs.
Shellac: This article by Don Williams has excellent info on shellac, plus his website has more finishing info. I really like the shellac flakes from www.shellacfinishes.com.
All about Oil: This highly informative video explains how linseed (and other) oils cure and how to easily accelerate it’s drying time at home using sunlight, heat and oxygen. He says he can make oil that dries to the touch in 30 minutes without additives.
Milk Paint Videos: Curtis Buchanan and I have a online class on milk paint, plus I have a downloadable video.
FREE DOWNLOADS
Bevel Buddy: Steven First made a template for accurately setting your Sliding T-Bevel to any angle between 0-55 degrees. Just print it out and glue it to a piece of plywood or sheet metal (a coat of varnish would help protect the paper). Works much better than a protractor. Requires a PDF viewer to print.
OLD TOOLS & MACHINES
Old Woodworking Machinery: An amazing resource, OWWM is a forum for people interested in old machinery. I have bought several machines from the classifieds on their sister site Vintagemachinery.org, which also has a huge library of free owner’s manuals for machines dating back over 100 years. Incredible.
Old Tools: Mid-West Tool Collectors Association has regional groups all over the country that host tool meets with people selling all kinds of old tools. If there’s a group near you it’s well worth a visit – the tools are usually fairly priced and the people are friendly.