walnut chair

[Jeff Wittrock]

A couple of years ago I started playing with making light weight chairs. I made a prototype using SYP.
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....air&highlight=

After finishing a walnut table for one of the very few paying customers I have ever had, I was left with quite a few narrow strips of walnut, some cutoffs and a couple small boards.
The last thing our house needs is another chair, but I find them one of the most enjoyable things to try and make.
A chair presents so many opportunities for someone who wants to use hand tools and doesn't require a huge amount of material.

I'm about midway through, so thought I would start posting what I have for now and add as I go.

I started with the seat.
One of the things I liked about the prototype chair I made earlier was the solid, curved seat. This looked like a good use for the narrow strips of walnut I had on hand.
In order to make the curved shape, each strip needed to be cut at a slight angle. Instead of sawing them this way, I just ripped them square initially and used my wooden jointer to add the slight angle.
By just laying the strips in a curved form, it was easy to individually plane them to fit well with each other in the form without having to try for any kind of accuracy on the angle.

I used the same curved form during glue up as well.

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One thing I wish I had is a tavisher. I have been planning on making one for some time, but have not gotten around to it. For now, the Kuntz knuckle buster will have to do.
Planeing the bottom side was easy enough.
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Then I just rough cut the outside shape. I do have a turning saw, but I have been looking for excuses to use my wooden bandsaw.
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[Jeff Wittrock]

As on the prototype, I wanted the back and arms to be something of a continuous wrap around. My first thought for the back curve was to resaw the stock I had into thin strips that could be bent and laminated to form the curve. The one thing I didn't like about that idea was that once I started to shape the seat back, I would end up cutting through the top lamination layer. Even with very good glue up, I was afraid it would look bad.

Instead I decided to just cut arcs that I would glue up vertically to have the back height I wanted. I figured the arc angle was small enough that I wouldn't worry about the cross grain being weak especially since I was gluing up four separate layers ( later 6 layers as it turns out ).
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Yeah, it's pretty homely looking at this point, but things to get a bit better.

[Jeff Wittrock]

The arms need to be thick enough to allow me to shape a slight convex curve and also allow me to 'fair' the arms into the turned legs. I ended up gluing up to give a 1.5" thickness.
Later I decided a needed a bit more for fairing into the leg joints so added small blocks in the area of the though hole for the legs.

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After rough shaping the back and propping up with the arms to give an idea of the angled back and arm joint.
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[Jeff Wittrock]

I decided to just use splines between the back and arm joints. I considered leaving the back and arms oversized enough to allow using finger joints, but the scraps of walnut I had we just long enough for me to make the back and arms.
As it turns out, I struggled enough making the spline joints.

It is not very apparent from the photos, but the back is angled back ~12 degrees. The arms are not flat but are angled in at ~10 degrees. Planeing the joint surfaces to fit was easy enough, but cutting the slots for these compound angles proved to take more time than I would have imagined. I shied away from cutting them freehand and ended up cobbling together a jig on the table saw to slice them. In hind sight, I wish I could have used finger joints after all.

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These ratcheting cargo straps end up doing lots of things other than keeping things from blowing out of the back of my 98 ranger.
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[Jeff Wittrock]

I wanted to use turned legs as I did on the prototype. I didn't have any 8/4 stock in my scraps, so had to glue up 4/4 to have the leg thickness I needed.

I decided to 'fair' the front and back rail into the leg.
In order to make the faired joint, I needed to have a "half pomel" in the area where I will make the through tenon for the rails.
I'll say up front that I am not a wood turner.

Here on the back legs, I have already planed away the outboard part of the pomel and the front legs are still to be done.
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[Jeff Wittrock]

I wanted to have a convex curve to the front and rear rails. I decided to glue up stock to 8/4 in order to give me enough thickness to make the convex front/rear curves.
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I used through tennons with wedges
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Most of the 'fairing' of the rail to leg joints was done using a micro plane and rasp.
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Final shaping will be done after assembly.

[Eric Rathhaus]

Jeff can u add a picture of your wooden bandsaw?

[Jeff Wittrock]

I missed taking any pictures drilling for the legs. I ended up just using a drill press.
Initial roughing shaping of the bottom side of the arms was done on the bandsaw. After that I used chisel and gouge to start shaping around the 'faired' joints and spokeshape for other areas.

The 'plugs' in the leg mortises are to help remind me of the final diameter of the legs and protect the joint surfaces while I was shaping. They also gave me a way to temporarily mount the arms to a 2x4 that I could clamp in my leg vise. It was much easier to shape around the joints without the legs in place.
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At this point, I could trial assemble things and have it start looking something like a chair.
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[Jeff Wittrock]

Jeff can u add a picture of your wooden bandsaw?

Hello Eric. I posted the bandsaw build over in the "Shop made tools" forum.
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....andsaw-project

[Jeff Wittrock]

I'm a bit afraid of trying to get the faired joints too close to final shape without having the legs glued in place, so once the rough shaping was done, I decided it was time to assemble the legs for good.
As with the rail tenons, I wedged the leg tenons as well.
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After glue up, more shaping of the faired joints.
In order to protect the legs while shaping, I slip a piece of plastic bottle around the leg. As I get close to final shape, I just pull the bottle off and use more care.
After I'm fairly close, I switch to a rasp.
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I also started to refine the the rail to leg joints
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With the seat just set in place, it is starting to look like a plausible chair.
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[Mark Rainey]

Jeff, the walnut chair is a winner! Impressive work.

[Curt Putnam]

What Mark said - and then some!

[Derek Cohen]

Very nice! Strongly similar to Hans Wegner’s “The Chair”. Having built one, I recognise the elegance of your methods.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Eric Rathhaus]

Very cool.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Nicely done and a great use for cutoffs.