Vernacular Furniture

[ken hatch]

I've been watching C.S.'s journey into making vernacular furniture with great interest for the last couple of years. I find the form of interesting somewhat because I've always been interested in folk, outsider, and vernacular art. Back in the day when I was spending time doing post baccalaureate studio art at the university most of my study was outsider art. I'm drawn to the form. It is the same with furniture.

For the past year or so I've been making stick furniture, both chairs and tables and while there have been a few useable pieces made there have been more failures than not, but even the failures please my eye. Some of the failures even work in their own strange way. An example was a child's chair with one rear leg that went off in a different direction. At first I thought about making a new seat and redoing the seat mortises but the more I looked at the chair the more I liked the weird leg. Perfect whimsy for a young child.

A photo of the child's chair with a full sized chair before finishing:

405712

The child's chair is a prime example of a common failure if not using jigs. A small misalign can make a huge difference in rake and splay. Splitting of the seat/slab is also too easy and common. One hit pass the "that's the right sound" will usually result in a split. The other day I split a slab when driving a cross grain wedge into a leg mortise. It shouldn't have happened but it did. Sometimes the split can be repaired with a butterfly key.

A three legged stool with a butterfly key:

405715


A staked leg desk:

405713

I know not everyones cup of tea but the form pleases my eye and feels right for my home.

ken

[Graham Haydon]

Nice work, Ken. Especially the table, its light design makes it suitable for many settings.

[Kevin Hampshire]

Ken, Is the desk stable with the staked legs or do you feel it would benefit from some stretchers?

[Andrew Hughes]

Very nice Ken I like it.

[Christopher Charles]

I too like the simple lines of the table. Well done sir!

[Richard Line]

That's some nice work. The chairs are of interest to me, but the table/desk is really nice looking. I've made a couple of chairs similar to your's, but I haven't been able to get quite as unique and stand out leg expression as the children's chair. :p

[ken hatch]

Ken, Is the desk stable with the staked legs or do you feel it would benefit from some stretchers?

Kevin,

The table is sturdy enough for the intended job and because of the joint used the legs should not loosen in time. That said, would stretchers make it stronger, of course but with it being a desk there was no way to complete the box which would be needed to to gain significant strength. If I were to want additional strength without adding stretchers, and I may do it on the next build, I could make the table thicker in the joint area. I'm thinking of building a similar table/desk but with a small drawer and thickeners (battens) in the joint area.

Bottom line you couldn't park a Mack truck on it but as a desk it is very stable with no apparent wobble.

ken

[Steven Mikes]

Very nice work Ken. I enjoyed Schwartz's book as well and am beginning with stools. Very easy to end up with a crooked leg indeed. I did better on the 2nd one by doing a turn or two at a time with the reamer in a brace, then fitting the leg to check for skew.

I love your desk too, simple and elegant. If I remember correctly, Chris's book uses battens for designs of that size, probably makes the legs more rigid.

[ken hatch]

That's some nice work. The chairs are of interest to me, but the table/desk is really nice looking. I've made a couple of chairs similar to your's, but I haven't been able to get quite as unique and stand out leg expression as the children's chair. :p

Richard,

It takes talent to get that far off :p.

BTW, I'm not sure how it happened, I was checking with my dummy leg every few turns of the reamer. My only excuse is working in a one man shop without a "spotter".

ken

[ken hatch]

Very nice work Ken. I enjoyed Schwartz's book as well and am beginning with stools. Very easy to end up with a crooked leg indeed. I did better on the 2nd one by doing a turn or two at a time with the reamer in a brace, then fitting the leg to check for skew.

I love your desk too, simple and elegant. If I remember correctly, Chris's book uses battens for designs of that size, probably makes the legs more rigid.

Steven,

That's one of my first lessons, when working without a spotter check early and often so you can correct before it is a problem. In Brown's book he mentioned he always stands at the same spot to drill and ream, I try to do the same plus I use three alinement references placed in the same spots. All probably overkill but whatever it sure is easy for an OF to mess up.

ken

[Derek Cohen]

Kevin,

The table is sturdy enough for the intended job and because of the joint used the legs should not loosen in time. That said, would stretchers make it stronger, of course but with it being a desk there was no way to complete the box which would be needed to to gain significant strength. If I were to want additional strength without adding stretchers, and I may do it on the next build, I could make the table thicker in the joint area. I'm thinking of building a similar table/desk but with a small drawer and thickeners (battens) in the joint area.

Bottom line you couldn't park a Mack truck on it but as a desk it is very stable with no apparent wobble.

ken

By "make it stronger", are you referring to stretchers beefing up the legs, or supporting the table top? My concern with wider panels, such as tables, is that the addition of staked legs does not provide a way of preventing the top from cupping. Breadboard ends, dovetailed rails across the grain, and a rail surround all go to maintaining a stable, flat surface. I asked this question on another forum, and the owner of the table did not reply (perhaps did not understand).

Regards from Perth

Derek

[James Pallas]

I have to admit I've never done staked furniture. I do think I have an idea that may help. I've done a fair amount of empirical layout. If you have your top clamped in position and your angle layed out to the point where you can pinpoint the angles where you want the bottom of the leg to be. Just hang a plumb bob from the ceiling hovering over that point at the height of the leg. where you want it to land, and drill or ream away.
Jim

[ken hatch]

I have to admit I've never done staked furniture. I do think I have an idea that may help. I've done a fair amount of empirical layout. If you have your top clamped in position and your angle layed out to the point where you can pinpoint the angles where you want the bottom of the leg to be. Just hang a plumb bob from the ceiling hovering over that point at the height of the leg. where you want it to land, and drill or ream away.
Jim

Jim,

I may be envisioning the layout wrong but unless the drill was the same length as the intended leg you would still need sightlines. Also one of the features of vernacular furniture is it isn't perfect, if you wanted perfect you should use jigs like the ones used at some of the the Windsor chair "factories" you see around tourist areas. If I remember correctly, John Brown said of the hundreds of chairs he made no two were the same. I'm not advocating "slop" but for me slight variations add to the eye appeal.

ken

[ken hatch]

By "make it stronger", are you referring to stretchers beefing up the legs, or supporting the table top? My concern with wider panels, such as tables, is that the addition of staked legs does not provide a way of preventing the top from cupping. Breadboard ends, dovetailed rails across the grain, and a rail surround all go to maintaining a stable, flat surface. I asked this question on another forum, and the owner of the table did not reply (perhaps did not understand).

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek,

The legs.

When you add those additional structures you may no longer be making vernacular furniture but are moving into the area of professionally made furniture. Where that line is could be part of my MFA if I wanted to return to the world of "Art Babble" :). At one time in my life I was fluent and could do the cheese and wine with the best of 'em. It is still kinda fun if you stay detached.

Slight cupping can be fixed with a plane, the slabs are thick. If bad enough move the table to the back garden and make another, IKEA before there was an IKEA.

Rereading that sounds flippant and it wasn't meant to, sorry. What I meant to say is it is just part of the form, the original makers were not likely to be professional cabinet makers but local carpenters and wheelwrights with more knowledge of wood than we will ever have but with little care if the table top was perfect.

ken

[James Pallas]

Jim,

I may be envisioning the layout wrong but unless the drill was the same length as the intended leg you would still need sightlines. Also one of the features of vernacular furniture is it isn't perfect, if you wanted perfect you should use jigs like the ones used at some of the the Windsor chair "factories" you see around tourist areas. If I remember correctly, John Brown said of the hundreds of chairs he made no two were the same. I'm not advocating "slop" but for me slight variations add to the eye appeal.

ken
Ken, Just picture a string between the tip of the bob and your mark on the work. Stay on the string and all is well.
Jim

[James Pallas]

I look at it as the fisherman. You prepare your material to build your boat. You use the best for your boat. The cut offs that weren't good enough for the boat you use for stools and stuff, it's already prepared after all. We do the same with shop fixtures, some of us anyway:). A knot in your boat may be a problem, not so much in a stool seat. Why spend a lot of time on something that may not last just throw a few legs in it and go. That doesn't mean that we can't refine something simple and make it beautiful.
Jim