I haven't posted for some time so thought I would show a couple of mission style chairs I recently completed.
The joinery was done with hand tools though the grunt work of sawing was done with my wooden bandsaw.
These were done for a former boss. He already had a mission style table and two bench seats made by someone else and asked if I could make him a couple of chairs for the ends.
The scale and spacing of the back splats was done to match his existing table.
He also wanted solid seats with very little scallop. He is a large gentleman and was concerned if I put too much scallop in the seats that they might not quite fit him, so I kept the shape simple.
He asked for the seats to be fairly wide for the same reason.
Over the last few years I have experimented with making what I would call 'light' chairs. These are not those. I struggled a bit with designing something heavier.
After cutting the splats I was concerned with them being strong enough since I found much cross grain was present.
I didn't want to give up the figured wood, so I sliced them in half and laminated a solid, straight grained core in the center.
While the joinery is straight forward mortise and tenon, I spent a lot of time fiddling with the joinery because of the angled side rails and the slight taper I gave the back legs/back.
Some years ago, I made a shoulder plane which I rarely use, but this project made good use of it.
The future owner already had someone apply finish to his table and he requested I leave the chairs unfinished so he could have the same guy apply a matching finish to them.
I had to be satisfied with just wiping them down with mineral spirits to see how they would eventually look.
I must admit this was a bit of a disappointment as I always look forward to applying an oil finish to walnut.
Below photos are with no finish.
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