Another carved oak chair.

[Blackswanwood]

Superb Adam.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Outstanding work Adam, I don't have the patience for carving, if spend more time throwing a tantrum from rushing it and going wrong

 

[Adam W.]

You're too kind.

I'm getting off on the mitred tenons to be honest, and am now thinking about a his n' hers for another day.

This ones Elizabethan, so late 1500's. I like the way the strapwork goes straight across the crest rail and the rear stiles. The turning's fancy too and very well done and that inlay, mmmmm, nice Betty!

And the arcading, don't get me going about the arcading.

 

[MCTWoodwork]

Bloody Amazing work there Adam! I would love to learn carving. Do you teach?

 

[hertspretendchippy]

Wow! A true art and talent.

 

[Adam W.]

Bloody Amazing work there Adam! I would love to learn carving. Do you teach?

I can put you in touch with someone who does teach and she's the only one I would recommend. She holds a week summer school in London and will put you through the carving ringer and spit you out at the end with some nice carving skills.

PM me for details and I'll point you in her direction.

She taught me in the beginning and knowns me as "That difficult student." as I had my own agenda which was historic joinery with a bit of carving tacked on the end.

 

[Jacob]

Thank you @profchris .

I have a little trick learnt from looking at the originals, which is that the rails and rear stiles are only planed face and one square edge, with their back sides and lower edges just tidied up. It cuts the workload considerably and was normal practice at the time for that reason.

You can only see the secondary surfaces if you're underneath the chair or behind it and as a rule, if its a surface that you either look at or come into contact with, it gets finished and the rest doesn't matter.

I'll take a picture of the secondary surfaces later to show what they look like.

Lovely stuff!

Actually that trick of just finishing visible parts was widespread. I've seen table tops where the top, sides and underside as far as the apron are all well finished but the unseen underside between the aprons is as rough as a badgers, with axe/adze marks etc. And much thicker than you expect from looking at the outer edge.
And we joiners are pulling that trick all the time e.g. sash window pulley stiles untouched on the inside except where housed into the head/cill - usually because concave on the inside so the thicknesser only hits the ends and leaves the middle untouched i.e. thinner.

 

[Adam W.]

Thanks Jacob.

All the action is round the back, I reckon.

I'll do a blow by blow on the panel then, for those who would like the lowdown. The central part is roughed out first and the complete design has been fleshed out with the other flowers drawn in as circles, which is all you need to start chopping.


The panel is dry jointed and held together with dogs, as the mallet blows will bust the glue apart. I'll butterfly the back together once I find out where the thicker areas of the panel are.

It gets offered up regularly to check on the design and to get an idea of what needs changing as it progresses.

 

[Rodpr]

As ever, this is amazing work, Adam. I am always deeply impressed by anyone who is able to carve cleanly in wood, where grain always tries to mess things up! I was given David Esterly's 'The lost carving' for Christmas, about his work on the restoration of carvings by Grinling Gibbons at Hampton Court. I absolutely loved it but it has made me even more convinced that I would not have the patience needed for woodcarving!

 

[Adam W.]

It's impressive stuff Grinling Gibbons. I had a tour around St. Pauls with Tony Webb who was the master carver in charge of all the repairs. He was a red hot carver and worked at St. Pauls for quite a while.

English gothic is more my bag though and I think it's underrated, especially the stuff from 1400-1500. I love it and Westminster cathedral has some amazing carving in its Lady chapel.

Here is the chopped out bit from the top of the panel. I'm not going to slavishly follow the original design after this and I'll add a bit of strapwork from the other chair instead of the arcading on the original.

Edit: Deleted photo

Light wasn't so good, but that's the top bit done for now. There have been some alterations as I went along.

That's better.....

 

[Adam W.]

Time to start thinking about the arms and seat overhang whilst finishing the panel off.