Good Surname or what ?
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After my earlier experience at the Windsor Workshop I've come back this week to make a Sack Back Chair - like this one.
Phil
Phil
Making a Sack Back chair
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Good Surname or what ?
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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.
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.
Paul Chapman
Established Member
Looking good, Phil. I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment :wink:
Cheers
Paul
Cheers
Paul
A
Anonymous
Guest
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
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
Good Surname or what ?
Established Member
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)
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)
Paul Chapman
Established Member
Great stuff, Phil. Looks like it's going well :wink:
Paul
Paul
Good Surname or what ?
Established Member
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.
... 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.
PowerTool
Established Member
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
NickWelford
So many tools, so little to show
Good Surname or what ?":3iheuck1 said:
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.
dedee
Established Member
Keep 'em coming Phil, riveting stuff. Thanks for taking the time.
Andy
Andy
Good Surname or what ?
Established Member
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
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
Good Surname or what ?
Established Member
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.
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.
A
Anonymous
Guest
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??
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??
Good Surname or what ?
Established Member
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)
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)
Paul Chapman
Established Member
Fascinating, Phil - I'm really enjoying seeing the progress of your chair. Makes me wish I was there :wink:
Cheers
Paul
Cheers
Paul
Good Surname or what ?
Established Member
Day 5 I'll post more over the weekend., but for now here is the final product.
PowerTool
Established Member
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
Been great fun following the building process (although hopefully you had more fun making it.. :wink: )
Andrew
Colin C
Established Member
=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
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
Paul Chapman
Established Member
Really nice, Phil =D> =D>
Cheers
Paul
Cheers
Paul
