# Making a Sack Back chair



## Good Surname or what ? (13 Nov 2006)

After my earlier experience at the Windsor Workshop I've come back this week to make a Sack Back Chair - like this one.







Phil


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## Good Surname or what ? (13 Nov 2006)

*End of day 1.*

What do I have to show for it.... a basket of turned legs, strechers and arm posts....






.... all ready for drying. They are all from green sweet chestnut btw.

We also steam bent the back bow and arm. These parts were cut from green oak and despite reducing the steaming time - from the hour we had previously used for sweet chestnut - to a mere 40 minutes we suffered 5 consecutive failures during the bend. It was great to see that even a pro like James Mursell has failures. 

Eventually with just 30 minutes steaming all bows and arms were succesfully bent. Pictures to follow.

Tomorrow it's spindles and inital seat shaping. The seat will be poplar (tulipwood) this time; another new experience.

Phil

PS - Forgot to mention. I'm adding rockers to this chair. Hence the fat base to the legs - in case you were wondering.


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## Paul Chapman (13 Nov 2006)

Looking good, Phil. I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment :wink: 

Cheers

Paul


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## Anonymous (14 Nov 2006)

Nice job Phil
I make a few chairs and that as well EG




The pattern for your latest one looks to be a nice hybrid, sort of farmhouse english top bow and spindles but american style seat and undercarriage (and splat-less). Personally am not a great fan of english windsors I think they look silly with ball and claw feet cabroile legs and overly ornate turnings, legs stuck in the corners etc etc, but I prefer the primitive welsh and irish ones I like their distinctive and subversive characters. That little spokeshave in the older pictures looks good. Cherry seat blank must have set you back a bob or 2 :lol: :lol: I just made a seat out of oak worktop and was only partly happy. The form and the carving was easy but the wood itself was poor quality with lots of shakes, havent decided yet what to do with it :wink: 
Good luck with the remainder of your time with Mr Mursell
cheers Jonathan


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## Good Surname or what ? (15 Nov 2006)

*Belated Day 2 update*

A day cleaving oak and shaving spindles... I started by wishing we were making the 15 spindle variant of this chair. By 5pm I was very glad my chair will only have 11 (7 long and 4 short).

My fellow student (nearly 25 years my senior :shock: he exhibits the strength and stamina of someone much younger) demonstrates the art of cleaving oak...






and using the cleaving brake to prevent the split running off at a funny angle thus saving precious wood.  






The master shaves a spindle to provide a template. These are different to my earlier chair. Instead of being smoothly tapered, they are parallel from the top to 9 inches above the seat where they swell out. very nice shape - at least james was  






To round off a busy day we started the poplar (tulip wood) seat...

.. the underside marked out for drilling the leg mortices. Note sight lines and drilling angles...






.. setting up the angles on the wonderful Meddings drill. (one for Scrit)





...with the leg and arm holes in place. We add depth guage holes in the top which will guide the hollowing process which begins with adzing ......... and progresses to the travisher (but now I'm ahead of myself and night has turned to day)


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## Paul Chapman (15 Nov 2006)

Great stuff, Phil. Looks like it's going well :wink: 

Paul


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## Good Surname or what ? (15 Nov 2006)

*Day 3.*

... speaking of travishers. This one I bought from James earlier in the year is a wonderful tool.






The usual rasping (note to Philly: no gratuitous shot of an Auriou rasp  )of the shape was following by scraping and sanding. We were relegated to the open air for this final exercise.

With this out of the way the exciting bit starts. First jigging up for fitting the arm bow...






Marks here establish the position of an oak block that will be added to the bow to be shaped later. 






Planing up the bent bow and the block for edge joining was interesting  






To end the day - the legs we made on Monday (which had been drying for 48 hours) were sanded on the lathe and the tenons were sized accurately ready for fitting.

Spot the un-sanded leg...






With the legs in place and aligned ready for drilling tomorrow ,it's time for a well earned beer.


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## PowerTool (15 Nov 2006)

> it's time for a well earned beer.



Dead right,you've certainly earned one or two :wink: 

Excellent thread with excellent pictures - makes very compulsive reading!

Good luck with the rest of it,and looking forward to the next installment  

Andrew


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## RogerM (15 Nov 2006)

Blimey! This is as gripping as a good novel! Lovely work - great to see these traditional skills thriving.


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## NickWelford (15 Nov 2006)

Good Surname or what ?":3iheuck1 said:


> *Day 3.*
> 
> ... speaking of travishers. This one I bought from James earlier in the year is a wonderful tool.


 
My lovely wife bought me one from (I think) James at the westonbirt show - it really is a joy to use. A tad expensive though.


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## dedee (16 Nov 2006)

Keep 'em coming Phil, riveting stuff. Thanks for taking the time.

Andy


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## Good Surname or what ? (16 Nov 2006)

*Day 4 - What a day!*

Too knackered to write anything - but here's a picture.






Thanks for sticking with me. I'm off for a beer and some live music


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## Good Surname or what ? (16 Nov 2006)

*Day 4 (after beer)*

Day started with "legging-up". Selloptape wrapped around the legs prevents breakout when drilling with a brace and bit.






... drilling legs first (for side stretchers) then the side stretchers for center stretcher. The legs come out of the seat between each operation. 











.... with the undercarriage ready for glue up we move on.






For me that meant cutting housings for the rockers - before gluing up; while Peter and James started on the arm bows. James shaped the hand hold and started the scraping of mine because I was running out of time.

[





James has clever jigs to help locate the position of the holes for the arm supports.






Drilling and reaming the holes in the arm bow for the tapered tenons is still done by eye.


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## Anonymous (16 Nov 2006)

I see your using a marples bit in your brace I just got one and it cuts the cleanest holes I've seen, superb (mattools on ebay)
Are the rocker blades made from sawn beech ?
Nosy arent I is that one of the brian boggs  bronze spoke shaves on the bench top? have you used it?
Looking good
cheers Jonathan 

ps can you do us some close up pictures of the little spokeshaves in the rack please??


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## Good Surname or what ? (16 Nov 2006)

Jonathan,

I didn't notice the brand of bit in the brace ! Who does? 8) 

However, the Boggs shave is mine and I love it for fine work but I have to say I prefer the wooden shave that James loaned me. The small shave is by Muingfanfjang or whatever (chinese) and is lovely to use. I've had one since the start of the year and wouldn't be without it.

I think the rockers are kiln dried cherry. But to honest, I've been too busy to worry. I'm now full of of beer and good music (tonight they had a live band on at the Swan in Fittleworth where I've stayed this week) and still don't care - but I'll check tomorrow.

Phil

PS - I think this chair is made of (in vertically descending order)

---- Oak (back bow, arm bow and spindles)
---- Tulip Wood (seat)
---- Sweet Chestnut (legs and stretchers)
---- Cherry (rockers)


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## Paul Chapman (17 Nov 2006)

Fascinating, Phil - I'm really enjoying seeing the progress of your chair. Makes me wish I was there :wink: 

Cheers

Paul


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## Good Surname or what ? (17 Nov 2006)

*Day 5* I'll post more over the weekend., but for now here is the final product.


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## PowerTool (17 Nov 2006)

Very nice,Phil - hope you're pleased with it  

Been great fun following the building process (although hopefully you had more fun making it.. :wink: )

Andrew


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## Colin C (17 Nov 2006)

=D> =D> 
Very nice Phil
It makes me want to start my own one as I have repair a few :roll: :wink: 
plus I do like them


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## Paul Chapman (18 Nov 2006)

Really nice, Phil =D> =D> 

Cheers

Paul


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## CYC (20 Nov 2006)

Some skills there! Well done, thanks for the report.


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## dedee (20 Nov 2006)

excellent Phil,

Looks a little lonely though :wink: 

Andy


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## Good Surname or what ? (20 Nov 2006)

*Friday (update with a few more pic)*

It was going to be a busy day; starting with cleaning up the seat ready for fitting the back and arms. It's 8am.







Holes were drilled on the seat and the arm bow. You'll have to go on the course to see the clever new laser-based method that we used for drillinng the bow and seat on the same angle. Alternatively study the penultimate picture closely because we used it again on the top bow.






With the spindles and arm supports glued and wedged in place we are "cooking on gas" and it's not quite 10:30am.






The sliding bevel gives us the angle to drill a hole in the arm bow to take the top bow.






With the top bow shaped and in place we drill the holes for the spindles. God it's quarter to 1 where has the morning gone. Spot the laser!






For Peter it's a leisurely cleanup. For me it's shape and fit the rockers - too busy to take pictures.






Quarter to 5. A happy chairmaker  - until I try to fit the chair in my car. :evil: in the pouring rain and wind. :evil: :evil: and break the rearview mirror off in the process. :evil: :evil: :evil: 






I returned on Sunday in a van to collect the chair. There's a lesson there I think. Probably the one SWMBO has suggested many times... get a sensible car!


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## Philly (21 Nov 2006)

Congrats, Phil! A really nice chair-you must be very proud!!
Philly


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## Paul Chapman (21 Nov 2006)

That's been an inspirational thread, Phil. Looks like you had a good time and came away with a lovely chair :wink: 

Thanks

Paul


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## RPM (21 Nov 2006)

Fantastic! great thread.

Well done on a very nice chair :wink:


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## Anonymous (21 Nov 2006)

Here, here, great thread, enjoy the chair. Hope its comfy.


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## whoops! (29 Nov 2006)

Seriously impressed, I really do feel a bit mickey mouse when I look at these phots's :shock: 

I do woodwork for a living and I don't honestly think I could produce such refined work and do it quick enough to turn a profit..... if I could do the work at all.
I'm afraid that looking at these photo's make's me aware of how much I have yet to learn,and yet aware of how much more I want to learn.

I am impressed in no small measure. Well done. I hope to see many more of your photo's and future projects,

Decklan. P.S . I resent the mass production of such furniture and the subsequent loss of the old skills ( even though we buy it with hand made furniture being too costly for the majority,) so I applaud all those who retain and pass on these time honoured skills.


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## woodbloke (29 Nov 2006)

_Really_ good chair - very impressed - Rob


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## Good Surname or what ? (29 Nov 2006)

Thanks for the compliments.  

However the praise is really due to James Mursell, without whose guidance and patience I could not have completed the chair.

If you were not aware you can enter a draw to win a week with James at http://www.classichandtools.com/


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## Chris Knight (29 Nov 2006)

Phil,
Thanks for the great story. I saw James Mursell at Westonbirt and thought that looked like something I would like to do. If I hadn't gone back to work full time, I'd have probably been there with you.

Chris


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## wrightclan (4 Dec 2006)

Lovely. =D> 

I'd love to learn to make something like that!

Brad


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