This is a build thread for a Walnut, craftsman style desk chair. This is my first attempt at building a chair and there were definitely quite a few hiccups along the way.

Once I had a rough sense of the dimensions and configuration of the chair, next step was to create templates for the curved back slats. I started with the two, larger outside back slats and then worked towards the center. I definitely need a better spoke shave because shaping curved chair slats is a task ideally suited for a sharp shave, and my 1970s Record model really wasn’t up to the task.











This is a template for the curved bottom chair rail that would be mortised to accept the back slats.



For added strength I left the cross-section of the back slats over long and wider than the chair rail so an external tendon could extend below the top of the chair rail.







Because the chair back is wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, I SWAGed some angles for crosscutting chair back top and bottom rails that I hoped would establish the desired trapezoidal (?) Shape. Of course my angles were off so I dry assembled and then used a straight edge to redraw/recut tennon shoulders parallel to the vertical chair back. This “dry assembly and then adjust” was an essential part of this entire build.