Wood for chairmaking

[David Ragan]

Making a chair has been in my mind for some time-the quiet is rather appealing.

Last year, a trip to the sawyer was fruitless, I had no idea what to ask for and paid big money for useless wood.

Does it make any difference whether sap or heartwood is used?

Does anyone know of a place that I can order riven wood from suitable for making the spindles, etc for a chair?

Thanks, David

[lowell holmes]

I've made chairs using maple and mesquite. I always use seasoned dry wood. You do not want movement after you are through.

You should be able to find it at a local lumber supplier like Houston Hardwoods. Google Hardwood lumber.
Oak would be a good specie as well.

[Prashun Patel]

Elia Bizzarri sells rivings on his site.

While the choice of wood is critical for chairs, it's not that hard to do. You want straight grained woods for the legs. That can be a challenge for the rear legs if they bend to match the back. It is easy to end up with 'grain run out' at the top or bottom if you can't find a board with grain that generally matches the sweep of the leg.

I found it useful to place my templates on the 8/4 board to get the best grain pattern. You will likely have to over-buy in order to end up with proper grain for all your parts.

[Brian Holcombe]

I do the same as Prashun, buy the straightest possible stock from the mill and then rip along the grain on both sides, you get something pretty close to riven stock.

[Bob Glenn]

It depends on what kind of chair you are going to make. A Windsor has the legs separated from the back with the seat anchoring everything. A ladder back has the rear legs and back continuous. All kinds of info on Windsors at Windsor chair resources. On my windsors, I use maple for the legs and arm stumps, oak for the arm and spindles and poplar or pine for the seat. Work everything but the seat green and let it dry before assembly. Lots to learn about windsors. You'll be money and time ahead by taking a class. I personally recommend Peter Galbert or by his book, "Chair Notes".

[lowell holmes]

We have three suppliers in the Houston area that have absolutely straight seasoned lumber in various species.
We are able to select the boards we want. I am talking about maple, walnut, oak, sapele and the likes.
I can make all three yards if I need to. It is available in 8/4. 6/4, and 4/4. I select the boards I want, pay for them
and head to the shop.
I can make all three yards if I want to in one day if I want to.

One of the yards bring out bundles of the specie I want, break the bands, and allow me to select the boards I want.

I agree with taking classes. I have attended five classes at Homestead Heritage in Waco. Paul Sellers was in charge.
One was a windsor class. :)
We have to buy wood where we can find it. In Houston, I'm not aware of rivings being available, but since the supply available
is so complete, I've never felt the need to look for them. There are saw mills all over central Texas and I have occasionally
visited them. We use the market available to us.

[David Ragan]

Last year before I was taken off track, I made a shave horse (there is a far better one in current FWW), brake, and some dedicated tools-riving knife, drawknife, etc.

A class would be great, except I hate to travel; maybe a class will appear @ Highland here in town.

First thing is to get a buncha books :)

Any diffo w heart/sap wood?

[Brian Holcombe]

Throw out the sap wood.

[David Ragan]

Throw out the sap wood.

Exactly what I need to know, and figured. All species?

[David Ragan]

Throw out the sap wood.

Last year, when I posted a picture of what I came away from sawyer w, all heartwood, someone on SMC says-'you dummy, you just paid $$ for a fence post!'

At the time, I felt rather stupid, and that I'm not sure I would have said it that way.

I coated the piece w Anchorseal and left it outside for a better day.

[Prashun Patel]

...all heartwood.

David-

Instead of sap wood vs heartwood, I would think more in terms of grain direction. The fence post derision may have come from the fact that a good deal of construction lumber comes from smaller trees which may include the pith. This will make them prone to warping and splitting if they haven't dried.

On some trees like beech, the 'sap wood' line can be quite wide. I have some sap beech lumber that - while not pretty - has very straight grain and proved itself to be quite stable. I do not hesitate to use it for structural things including drawers and stool legs.

It's also misleading to call the desirable lumber quartersawn or riftsawn, because even a flatsawn board, once spindled, contains qs, rift, and flat faces. You want straight grain on your finished component.

[Brian Holcombe]

I like VG lumber for structural members (chairs or otherwise), so I might look at the same "fence post" and think...perfect!

Precisely, my logic behind suggesting rift is that it is easiest to read the grain direction and then orient your grain.

I prefer the strongest area of the heartwood for spindles and posts, they undergo some stress and can break if they aren't strong. Same goes for most of the other chair parts, in windsor chairs there is a great deal of reliance upon straight grained wood. Even for the seat, since you will be boring holes and mounting your posts and spindles into the chair seat.

You may want to read over my blog posts on chair building since I detail my approach to selecting stock. Along with that watch Curtis Buchanan's youtube series on chair making, it is really very very detailed.