chair build

[Matt Carr1]

Just finished my first go at making a chair. Read Curtis Buchanan's article in FWW and really liked the look of his chair design, started watching his videos on YT along with others. So started gathering the tools, made a shave horse and bought Curtis's plans. Really enjoyed using the drawknife and working with green wood.
IMG_3166.jpg

I need to figure how to rotate pictures before posting more pics!

[John Keeton]

Nice work, Matt!! I hope you don’t fall as far down this hole as I have. Chair building can get addictive!

Flipped your pic.

[Mark Gibney]

Looks great! I like the path you took - watching Curtis' yt videos then bought his plans and got going. Tempted to try it myself.

[Matt Carr1]

Thank you,
I have two more seat blanks and plenty of red oak, but I don’t own a lathe. Do you have a recommendation for a rocker? Was thinking Curtis’s Velda?

[Matt Carr1]

Curtis and Elia also have a video series you can purchase on handtoolwoodworking. It was a fun project

[Tom Wiarda]

Good job on the chair.Looks great. I have taken classes with Elia B and Greg Pennington and they are both great teachers. I recommend a class of you want to pursue chair making.

[John Keeton]

I have taken classes with Elia B and Greg Pennington and they are both great teachers. I recommend a class of you want to pursue chair making.

Matt, I think I have posted this before, but my love of Windsors and desire to build one goes back half a century when I was in my early 20s. But, the plunge neck deep into Windsor chair building started with buying Curtis' plans for the comb back in late 2019 and signing up for an early 2020 class at John C. Campbell taught by Brian Cunfer. The class was a beginner class for building a loop back chair. Brian is a friend, and fellow instructor at the folk school. I told him I would have all of the turnings done as well as the bends (arm rail and crest) and as much of the spindles done as I could do. He agreed to help me with the comb back build during the class. I began the hunt for all of the tools I would need, buying a few things from Elia, as well as on eBay.

Then, Covid hit and the school closed down for an entire year. Not only did I not teach my classes that year, but I didn't get to take the chair class.

But, with all the shutdowns, restaurants closed, and entertainment limited pretty much to TV, I decided to undertake the comb back with Curtis' videos as my "instructor." It went quite well. I do think taking a class is a great idea, but it isn't cheap. Most of the good instructors charge $1500 and up depending on the chair design. It is possible to do this without taking a class. You have one "under your belt" and have learned a lot. I would encourage you to go for it!!!

I closed my website, but started a FB page. Over the past month or so I have chronicled a bit of my chair work on my FB page. If you left click on my name you can click the "visit homepage" link it will take you there. It is no where as instructional as Curtis' videos or taking a class, but it may be of interest.

[Matt Carr1]

Hey John,
I would like to take a class from Curtis or Elia, based on their approach of all hand tools. Looks like Elia is giving a joint class on a ladder back and I don’t think Curtis is doing classes. regardless l have been looking into the bigger name chair makers and most are sold out for the year. Brian is in Lancaster PA which is about 4 hrs away and looking into his classes.
I don’t have Facebook, but hopefully can see your work!

[John Keeton]

Matt, I don’t want to hijack your thread, but here are a couple of threads on the first chairs I built -

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....-Windsor/page3

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....andemic!/page2

If you want to email me I can send you pics of the others.