Victorian chair steps - WIP

[AndyT]

Ok, a bit more progress to report. As promised, the bottom/top step is lap dovetailed into the sides. Pretty standard stuff. Mark out and cut the tails:

Transfer to the pins; saw down as far as possible:

Clamp down with a couple of finest holdfasts (Thanks Richard!) and chisel out.

I still like the old blue handled Stanley chisels - I bought this one new back in the early 70s. I haven't re-handled it - but then I haven't worn out the present handle yet! (Don't worry Jim - I do have some chisels without handles and will be following your example when I get round to it.) Carry on till done, and check for a reasonable fit:

This step needs its edges bevelling to match the slant of the legs. The drawknife is quicker than anything else for this sort of job:

This is not very old - probably 1940s - by Brades of Birmingham - and keeps a lovely sharp edge.

Clean up a bit with a jack plane - to remind you of school woodwork days:

The next step is to shape one of the intermediate steps. First square the end - showing that a shooting board does not have to be anything special - this is a bit of old contiboard and a Stanley no 4 (with more plastic handles - but it performs brilliantly).

This needs a moulding on the ends and on the back. I've decided to use an ordinary ovolo, using this Mathieson plane. It's a very common plane used for making window sashes. It has the decided advantage of an extra-deep fence:

To prevent break-out when planing across end grain I clamped a piece of scrap behind the work - with the grain going along.

This shows the moulding beginning to develop

and here it is done

Repeat for the other end, and cut off the corners to fit into the housings:

And that's about it for now. There will be a bit of a pause while I carry on with the same moulding and fitting on the other steps. Then I will find out if it all fits together!

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Now that's interesting - the moulding plane looks to have a bedding angle of about 45 degrees, but still seems to cope very nicely with cutting an end-grain moulding. Would that be down to the mild nature of the wood? I seem to recall that cabinetmaker's moulding planes were often bedded rather higher - up to 60 degrees, so as to cope with harder woods, tricky grain - and end grain.

 

[AndyT]

Yes CC, you are right on both counts - common pitch, and really easy wood - the plane is nice and sharp, but would not perform like that on pine. I do have a 'selection' of moulding planes, including some at much steeper angles, and might choose a different one for the edges of the seat, where most of the time the moulding will be visible from above. I think I have just enough wood to do an experiment first, so I'll put some pictures up and see what people think.

 

[Richard T]

'selection' ....... :lol:

This is great work Andy - I'm particularly impressed with the dovetailing right across the ends of the three pieces.

... and for the countless people who have asked me what holdfasts are used for - see above.

 

[AndyT]

More than a month since the last update and progress has not been quick - but here's a little update to prove that I am going to finish this chair!

I needed to mark the front and middle legs for housings to hold the step. This is marking the position by squaring up from the drawing:

I found that a cabinet scraper was a handy set-square to transfer marks from the paper to the edge of the wood.

I also realised that I could square across the tapered leg by bridging across the full-section parts of the legs:

If anyone else is masochistic enough to try one of these, do be sure to keep two square bits on the tapered or turned legs - even if they are extra bits that get cut off later, you need them to get the angle right. It meant that I could cut the depth of the housings square to the bench (not the surface of the wood) and so make the notch in the step with a square cut.

I cut the through housings in the usual way and then glued up the triangles.

This picture shows how I glued up the front and front middle legs. I have used the back legs and back middle legs which are already glued to the correct angle. My objective is to make the front bits fit the back bits, so this makes more sense than building a new triangle. To stop anything sliding away, I've screwed some scrap bits onto an offcut of chipboard. Bits of thin ply prop it up level and a sash cramp bears onto an angled block at the back. This worked well and produced two glued up front leg bits.

This was disappointing; somehow, my front leg bits would not line up with the back ones. I decided that the answer was to make a front rail 1/8" longer. Fortunately I still had enough wood to do this!

and put a bead on the edge again:

There now followed a long, difficult period, spread over several days, of trying to get the step to fit into its housings. The trouble is, everything has to fit at once - notches out of the step fit into four oblique housings, the front rail fits across between the two front legs, which have to be vertical, and then I want the slanting legs to be parallel with the other ones along the whole of their length! I've never attempted anything quite so awkward before. There was lot of head scratching, fine paring and adjustment - which is always difficult if you are not quite sure which piece needs to be made smaller.

To make it more interesting, I decided not to check the angle on one of the oblique cuts:

which gave me a chance to find out about how well filling up a saw cut with a sliver of wood works:

Here it is carved down flush ready to make the correct cut: I hope that a good dark stain will hide some of this!

Anyhow, several hours later and I got to this stage:

which is significantly different from the one above and looks as if it will fit together ok.

Anyone watching very closely will have realised why the drawings in the book showed the housings in the legs as being stopped (top right hand side diagram)

I'd sort of decided that my front legs were different and forgotten that subtlety. The result is that if I put a moulding on the front edge I will be left with an unsightly gap. What's more, this piece of wood is a little bit narrow already. I think that I will have to fill up the hole in the front (ie make the through housings into stopped ones) and then plant on an extra bit of wood with the moulding on. I could make it out of the front rail if I hadn't drilled the screwholes in it!

So, looked at one way, I "only" have to finish the step edges, cut and mould the two pieces for the seat, and then assemble the thing.
Time to explore stains and finishes a bit I think. I've been watching the thread on Van Dyck crystals closely and will be doing some experiments. I already have some scraps with holes filled with glue and sawdust that I hope to make disappear!

 

[Teckel]

Well done Andy. That is excellent work you are doing there. I look forward to it being finished.

 

[devonwoody]

It is a very interesting project to watch and see your techniques of getting there.

 

[bugbear]

This step needs its edges bevelling to match the slant of the legs. The drawknife is quicker than anything else for this sort of job:

A tip (from Kirby) IIRC, is to hold the workpiece end-to-end in a sash cramp, then hold the sash cramp in the vise. Gives excellent access, and the workpiece can be rotated.

It's an improvised version of a "fiddle".

BugBear

 

[condeesteso]

Very nice dovetails indeed, and the mouldings looking great. It appears to be fairly close to finished?
The most extensive display of hand-tool work (and patience) I've seen in years - brilliant!

 

[adidat]

This step needs its edges bevelling to match the slant of the legs. The drawknife is quicker than anything else for this sort of job:

A tip (from Kirby) IIRC, is to hold the workpiece end-to-end in a sash cramp, then hold the sash cramp in the vise. Gives excellent access, and the workpiece can be rotated.

It's an improvised version of a "fiddle".


BugBear

But if your using this method with a router, be very careful not to catch the clamp head. DAMHIK


adidat

 

[woodbloke]

Try finding 'normal' Araldite in a local store these days...

B&Q :wink: - Rob

 

[AndyT]

Ok, progress is slow but here's another stage - working the moulding around the seat.

First, cut to length:

mark the width, and plane parallel.

I wanted this to be an ovolo shape again - like the underside of the other steps - but a slightly different size. Also, I faniced making it a different way, using just rebate planes and a hollow. (This has been written about with great enthusiasm by Matt Bickford, who makes moulding planes in the USA and runs courses on their use.)

The first step is to define the rebates, using a cutting gauge when working across the grain:

I actually need two lines, as I shall be making a deep narrow rebate and a shallow wide one. I also marked the depth of the deep one, on the edges of the wood.

Here I am starting to cut the deep rebate - 1/8" wide, 1/2" deep - using a moving fillister plane:

The skew blade makes these lovely curly shavings, even when working across the grain:

To cut the broad shallow rebate, I did have a go with my old East German "Universal-Hobel" which worked ok, but needed a bit more push than in this posed shot:

However, I finished them off with a Faithfull 778 copy which I forgot to take any pictures of. This got me to this stage:

- a bit whiskery, but that will clean up later.

This shot shows how different the shavings look when taking a narrow rebate along the grain - and are further proof of the usefulness of Richard's holdfasts:

Here is a slightly later stage showing the corner, and also the deep score line from the cross-grain nicker - I should be able to make this disappear, but I should have withdrawn the nicker sooner.

Actually, this will be one of the corners that get cut off, so the seat can fit between the back legs.

The next step is to chamfer the long arrises:

for which I used an un-named skew rebate plane - this has the distinction of being the first wooden plane I ever bought, and is still in frequent use. A previous owner has extended its life with a new boxwood sole.

I realised that the mouldings need to line up on the back and front parts of the seat, so I clamped them up together so I could plane through in one go and make any adjustments:

My home-made shoulder plane was useful for this:

So, having got to the stage of having a long chamfer in between two rebates, the next step was to round over the arrises using a hollow - in this case a number 8 by Preston.

It takes only a few strokes - occasionally working backwards to avoid breaking out the corners.

This shows the finished profile ready for sanding. I just happen to have a similar size plane without an iron which makes the ideal shaped rubber:

This is the sort of shape I was aiming at, though I will later round off the square part so as to prevent it from getting damaged:

And here are the two parts - now with their meeting edges bevelled - resting on my toolbox:

Now, I know that I could have just put an ovolo bit in an electric router (I do have one, and can use it!) but I wanted to experiment doing things the slow way, just for the fun of it. As a hobby woodworker, enjoyment is more satisfying than speed.

Nearly there now!

 

[devonwoody]

Nice work and excellent wip

 

[condeesteso]

Never a foot wrong, Andy (or leg, whatever).
So, yet more planes coming out including the 'home-made shoulder'. The very essence of that elusive British understatement.
So you angled the mating faces of the seat... that's part of the foldy feature I cannot visualise, isn't it?
Is this whole thing seriously going to go together without a single biscuit? (I mean a 'joint' Andy, not a rich tea.)

 

[AndyT]

Biscuits? A bit too modern for this job!

This picture might make the workings a little clearer. It's still just pushed together dry. Imagine a pair of hinges along the slanting joint in the seat. Then you should be able to see that the front part (with the fancy legs) stays where it is, and the bigger back part tips up and over it. The wide part of the seat rests on the narrow part and the top of the back rests on the floor. This reveals a set of four steps. (The front intermediate step is not in place in the picture - that needs a bit extra to be glued on and moulded.)

I know it looks nearly finished but it will take ages yet - and will get interrupted by weekends away, holidays etc. Just lately I seem to have been rather distracted by some surprisingly interesting Olympics coverage most evenings!

As for the shoulder plane, there was a little glut of them on here a while back. I described mine here. It's not pretty but it does work really well - every home should have one!

 

[condeesteso]

Ah yes, I can see how it works now. The legs look excellent - i still think the square section suits the overall design better than turned ones.
Took a look at the shoulder plane thread - a fine plane indeed but not for me I'm afraid, not patient enough and I'm not sure me and metal get along. Odd for someone who just got a Myford eh??

 

[AndyT]

It does seem rather a long time ago that I started making this step chair. Fact is, apart from the usual interruptions of summer, I've lost my enthusiasm for it. It's all very well making a kit of parts but the real struggle is going to be getting the bits all fitting to each other. However, it won't do itself, and it's in the way, so it's time to crack on. And you've all been so encouraging - your kind words have been a real help.

I didn't take any pictures of dull ordinary things like sanding all the bits or filling in some old nail holes and cracks with glue and sawdust, but I have spent a few hours doing them. For the sanding I used the Mirka Abranet hand sanding block attached to a vacuum cleaner which works brilliantly well, with no dust problems at all.

So, having tidied up a bit, I glued the back slats together:

On this job, as before, I'm using Titebond liquid hide glue. For fiddly things like these little stub mortices I just pour some into a foil dish and put it on with a small cheap artist's brush. So far so good. The back and the other bits fit nicely into one of the main side pieces:

After that, the other side fitted reasonably easily - I knew it would as I had put it together dry before.

The dovetails weren't so good - they needed clamping in the vice and the use of a proper hammer:

(No, that's not an action shot - I didn't want to mess about during the glue up just to take photos!)

Even after a spot of persuading there were still some gaps. I should have ignored the old advice about not test fitting dovetails to their full depth. It's disappointing, but it will be a further chance to practice 'making good' with slivers of wood. I've done some experiments on the finishing, which will be quite dark and will (I hope) help hide the many little "character features " of this piece.

Having got the whole thing together, there was time to clamp up the horizontals to make sure that those joints were properly tight:

So there it is for now. Brace yourselves for another wait before the next exciting instalment!

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I know what you mean about losing enthusiasm. Jobs seem to go one of two ways for me; either it becomes all-consuming, or once it's put down for some reason, it's very hard to pick up again. There seems no rhyme or reason to which way it goes, either.

However, it's clearly rounding the last curve into the home straight now, and looking good. One more glue-up and a bit of hinge-fitting, and Robert's your father's brother. Or mother's brother. It'll all be over by Christmas...

 

[condeesteso]

Very close now Andy, and looking really good. Keep the momentum up
CC is right, my fluted leg chess table is suffering from having been set aside.... it seems to freeze up and needs a good kick to get it started again.

p.s. re 'character features', I sometimes call them 'handmade detailing'. No piece is complete without I feel.

 

[AndyT]

So, you wait three months for an update and two come along at once...

Bucked up by your comments, I have made a bit more progress today.

With the glue set on the main structure I could adjust the bits that I had left to sort out after assembly. That was some of the slanting edges, which need to align with the sloping legs and also the top step with the dodgy dovetails.

Clamping a strange wedge-shaped lump is quite a challenge; I have just enough room on my rather shallow bench, with various bits of wood getting in the way behind it.

Here I am working on the slant edge of the top step - the whole thing is braced against a wooden bench stop and held down with one of Richard's excellent holdfasts.

To work on the top I could catch the back in one side of the vice and rest the middle step on a bit of scrap board - again held down with a holdfast. Before I had the holdfasts I had an assortment of improvised clamps but for something like this would probably have had to screw the board to the bench. It's the sort of bench that can have screws put in it without spoiling anything, but the holdfasts are quicker and easier.

After a pleasant planing session and another trial fit it was time to glue up the other half:

with sash cramps to hold it together, plus a lightweight bar and clamp head combination. (A simple tip when using these lighter-wight sash cramps - I use plywood pads with a little slot cut in them - the slot fits on the bar just tight enough to not fall off, but can easily move when needed.)