Windsor Chair Build

[Patrick Tipton]

Greetings. I am a frequent reader and infrequent poster. Just wanted to share a chair I finished last night. I didn't take too many pictures of the build, but here is a picture of the unpainted, but mostly finished chair. This is my 3rd continuous arm after taking a class with Peter Galbert. The process is getting easier and I think each chair a little better.

The construction is traditional. The chair is white oak, maple and pine. The arm bow and spindles are hand split/rivved oak, shaped on a shavehorse with a drawknife and spokeshave. The legs were split from hard maple and turned on an electric lathe - one of these days I'll find a nice treadle or build a spring pole, but in the meantime, the modern lathe sure makes turning nice. The seat was shaped with an adze, scorp and travisher. Joints were glued with hot hide glue and wedged. So far, no sanding - turnings were finished with a skew and burnished with shavings. The spindles are finished with a fine spokeshave and the seat and continuous arm with cabinet scrapers. I will run 220 over everything before I paint it.

Anyway, I promised my wife she would have at least 4 by Turkey Day and maybe 6 by year end, so I'll be back in the shop later this week to start another. I think I have about 30 hours in this one, although it is really hard to know because I end up getting shop time in small, stolen moments.

Regards, Patrick

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v51/pittsjock/Windsor.jpg

[Steve Branam]

Beautiful! I'd say that was a good class!

[Keith Harrell]

Very nice chair. I can see why she wants a set.

[Jim Koepke]

Patrick,

Welcome to the Cave by the Creek. What part of the country do you call home?

Thanks for sharing your work. I hope you take more pictures of your build on these.

I would be interested in how the continuous arm is made along with the other processes.

I have built some chairs with flat wood. One day I would like to build something for inside the house.

jtk

[James Owen]

Very nice work!

[Jamie Bacon]

Great looking chair. I really want to get around to trying a Philadelphia comb back one of these days.

Jamie

[Rick Lapp]

Finestkind indeed Patrick; I've rarely seen better. Rick

[Patrick Tipton]

Thanks for the words of welcome and the kind words on the chair. I find these chairs very satisfying - lots of little skills to acquire and a lifetime of work to master them.

Jim - I will try and take more and better pictures of the next chair. I did take a picture of this last arm bow in its form right after I bent it. I will get a picture of my simple steam box - plywood about 7 inches square by 65 inches long. I use a wall paper steamer into a piece of copper tubing that is tightly jammed into the bottom of the steam box. I cook arm bows about 45 minutes and purposefully make the main bend. I then take boiling water and pour it over the arms before I bend them. This system is pretty reliable and as long as you prepare the bow correctly and then support the bend thru a smooth pull, you will likely end up successful. I originally used a piece of PVC pipe as a steam box but broke a bow and decided to "upgrade" to my plywood box. Once in the form, I let the arm bow air dry a couple of days and then toss it into my 100 watt light bulb kiln. The wedges fall out after a day or so and you are ready for the next step in the process.

Regards, Patrick
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v51/pittsjock/IMG_0091.jpg

[Sean Hughto]

Beautiful! Great proportions. So far, I've made a windsor stool following Dunbar's method. I hope to learn steam bending and give what you're up to a try. Very inspiring! Thanks for sharing!

[Gary Hodgin]

Nice chair!

[Doug Roper Chairmaker]

Patrick,
Congratulations on a chair well done...Doug