Spindles for chair

[Bjorn Rettig]

Does anybody know where to order spindles for a chair like the one below?

http://www.zitsch.com/spindleback.gif

Or do I need to buy green ash and start making them myself?

thank you!
--bjorn

[Larry Rose]

Rockler has dowels that you can use for spindles but only birch walnut cherry and oak. Lee Valley sells dowel cutters that work very well. I have a set of them and use them frequently. Also, you could do it the hard way and use a spoke shave on square stock. Its actually not that hard just time consuming.

[Richard Wolf]

It's unlikely that if you buy "dowels" they will be satisfactory for your chair. Chair spindles are rived or split from a tree so the grain is continuious thru the lenght of the spindle. Machine made dowel will have the grain running out the sides and be very weak for your needs.
Best to but a spoke shave and draw knife and get to work.

Richard

[Bjorn Rettig]

Yes, I definitely don't want to buy dowels. I was hoping that somewhere out there on the big internet somebody sells chair spindles ;)

Is there a place where the process of spindle making is described?

--bjorn

[Jim Becker]

You'll want to note that the spindles on that particular chair are not straight. Turning/riving your own will likely produce best results, although it can be a bit of work! Riving and rounding with a spoke shave could result in a truely outstanding project.

[Bob Glenn]

Green Ash would be an excellent wood for your spindles. You must find a straight grained log and rive the wood with a froe. This will keep the grain intact from top to bottom. Rive down to about a one inch by inch square then use a draw knife to get close to the finished size. Next go to a spoke shave, turn the spindle often or you will get oval spindles. Final sizing and finish cutting can be done with a card scrapper. Plan on spending a hour per spindle. If the wood is still green, fashion a form to put the spindles in to dry. Go for a little more bend than you want the finished spindle to have to compensate for spring back. If the spindles dry, you can steam bend them or even use a heat gun. Careful with the heat gun, you can burn the wood. With the slight bend of those spindles, you could even bend the wood over a hot pipe in vise heated from the inside with a butane torch, just don't burn the shop down. Good luck, nice chair.

[Scott Loven]

I have been looking at chair kits, here are a few links to try.
http://www.windsorchaironline.com/Spindles.htm
http://www.tablelegs.com/ChairKitsAndParts/WindsorChairParts.aspx
http://www.windsorchairresources.com/
Scott