# Brian Boggs Chairmaking course - West Dean June 2008



## Good Surname or what ? (13 Jun 2008)

... what an varied bunch of students we were. In this picture you may recognise a certain David Charlesworth and at the troughs Michel Auriou and James Mursell (it is them honest, I've another picture showing their fronts - but without the dynamic Mr Boggs).

We were all dying to know how the meticulously precise DC would cope with measuring to the nearest 1/8th inch. :roll: Needless to say, superb craftsman that he is, he rose to the challenge but still maintained certain ideosyncrasies as you'd expect (see the picture of his front leg markings later in this thread).

James Mursell commented to me that he now better understands some of the stress he sees from his students at glue-up :wink: 

Michel Auriou pretended he'd never worked with wood before. I'm not convinced.







Anyway enough of the people. Hopefully these pictures will remind me how we made these Appalachian Ladder-back chairs. Timber courtesy of James Mursell.

*Back legs* 
Starting with blanks of air dried ash, roughly dimensioned to 2 inches, we tapered the top in thickness to 1 inch and tapered the foot to 1 1/4 all round. For some the foot tapering proved a problem - a few deformed under the bending load. (Brian told us early on that we would modify his usual processes to fit the time constraints and the West Dean environment - it wasn't until the failure that we realised that normally he shapes the foot *after *the bend)






Bending former for the back leg (over-bend to allow for springback)






After > 1 1/2 hours steaming the ash bent beautifully but still required the weight of more than one man to bend it.






Once the legs were bent, they lived in these formers (thanks to technicians who made up 22 of them for us) to cool and whenever we we were not working on them. 






Brian demonstrating cleaning up and shaping the legs on a shavehorse.











In this picture you can see how the inside edge of the back leg is marked out to taper from the seat to the top - ending as an inch square.






Before any further shaping was undertaken we chopped the mortices for the back slats. These were laid out to meet chair design criteria that Brian spent some time explaining - let's hope I can decipher my notes in te coming months :roll:






... next the slats, front legs and drrlling for the rails! Stay tuned!


----------



## Chris Knight (13 Jun 2008)

Thanks! Looking forward to seeing more, especially how they turned out..


----------



## Harbo (13 Jun 2008)

Great thread - very interesting - keep them coming.

I see there is some yellow painted planes - did they provide all the tools?

Rod


----------



## Philly (13 Jun 2008)

Cheers Phil! Wondered how everyone got on!
More pics......more pics, please!
Philly


----------



## wizer (13 Jun 2008)

Jealous is NOT the word! Can't wait to see the finished article.

I have ordered meself some hickory bark but won't be trying to attempt the Appalachian chair.

Was good to meet you at West Dean Phil. See you at Westonbirt?


----------



## PowerTool (13 Jun 2008)

Thanks for the pictures;thoroughly enjoyed your previous chair thread,so the more pictures the merrier  

Andrew


----------



## Good Surname or what ? (13 Jun 2008)

*Front Legs*

These started life as 20 inch lengths of 2x2 ash. Brian can turn one into a leg in a matter of minutes using drawknives and spokeshaves. I'm sure I'm not the only one who resorted to adding a plane to that list  











So how's it done...?

... well first you turn the square section to an octagon.






... I did mine by eye, but as I mentioned earlier DC couldn't quite shake off his instincts as you'll see below.






It's a relatively straightforward process to turn the octagon into a decahexagon (16 sides) and then to round from there. The taper starts 9" above the ground. A twopence piece is a good indication of final size at floor level.






... et voila.






... well almost. the sharp-eyed will spot that one of these legs is still a octagon from the taper up. It would have been easier if I'd made it a decahexagon all the way before doing the taper - just like the instructor said!

A simple jig aligns the legs for drilling the mortices for the 2 front rails.


----------



## Good Surname or what ? (13 Jun 2008)

*Slats*

The chair some of you saw finished at the Classic Handtools day at West Dean has 3 slats. The one we made has only 2 as this saves a bit of time and is easier I'm told.






The slats were steamed and then bent on a former - taking care to swap ends to ensure a symetrical bend. 






All the slats were then packed into a series of formers to dry.






I didn't mention before but the back legs and slats are dried in a makeshift kiln (really a plastic tent with an electric radiator inside).

Once dried, they are shaped and the tenons created at the appropriate angles to fit the back legs. More on this later as I have to explain how we created the leg rotation first. For now this image should suffice.


----------



## Good Surname or what ? (13 Jun 2008)

*Sorting out the leg rotation*

The back legs on this chair are rotated in the vertical plane to form a narrow waist at seat height with flaring at floor and slat level.






If I can find my notes I'll check the rotation angle that these blocks create.






The blocks were screwed to one of the leg bending formers to create both the rotation and correct spacing of the legs at the seat height.






The legs clamped in place in the jig. In this position we could measure and mark for the slats.


----------



## Paul Chapman (14 Jun 2008)

Great pics - really enjoying this  Keep 'em coming, please.

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


----------



## MarcW (14 Jun 2008)

Great! Like Paul said, keep it coming.


----------



## Good Surname or what ? (19 Jun 2008)

*Drilling and Final assembly*

This will require some explanation but fro now here are some images.


----------



## wizer (19 Jun 2008)

Phil, thanks for the latest instalment. Spookily, I'm just sitting here with my lunch watching Mr Bogg's DVD.


----------



## OPJ (20 Jun 2008)

Interesting thread to follow, thanks for sharing.

Do they get you to make your own jigs and holding devices as you progress? The ones you're using look almost brand-new, where as pine seems to go a distinctly yellow colour as it ages...


----------



## cerdeira (25 Jun 2008)

Hi,


Did you use regular PVA glue for assembling during the course?
I've heard that Mr Boggs favoured some kind of liquid hide glue for his work.


Regards,


J. Cerdeira


----------



## Good Surname or what ? (26 Jun 2008)

Olly,

Jigs made with help of West Dean technicians for the course. Brian couldn't fit his in his suitcase :lol: 

Cerdeira, PVA - lots of discussion about glues - but he wouldn't let me use my nice slippy Gorilla glue!

I'll try to puts some words to the last lot of piccies this weekend.
Phil

PS:  I leave Nigeria for London tomorrow morning  I've only been here since Monday and I'm going crazy again!


----------



## steve tomlin (18 Feb 2012)

Hi,
I've found this forum because I'm really interested in Brian Boggs' work and have been searching for more information on his chairs.
I'm a green wood worker; I carve spoons and bowls from fresh native timbers and also make ladderback chairs in the same style as Brian Boggs, Drew Langsner and Mike Abbott. I've been trying to find some plans or instructions on making the Boggs chair which is how I ended up here. You can see my chairs and other work through my website 'stevetomlincrafts' at the end of this post.

I know it was 2008 but does anyone still have their notes from this course to fill in the gaps, particularly about the bending jigs used and the angles Brian favours for legs and the back of the chair?

Many thanks and glad to have found you,
Steve


----------



## Max Power (18 Feb 2012)

Sorry can't help you with the chairs Steve, but that's a very interesting site youv'e got on using scythes


----------

