Classic Settee Part 3

Now I have the seat completely carved and ready for the undercarriage. I will finish scraping the seat after the legs have been installed. 

  Here is a shot of all the stretchers after they have been drilled and the tenoned sized on the ends. Fresh out of the kiln.

 The first operation in glue up is the stretcher assembly. So far so good.

 Everything found a place so all I have to do is saw kerfs in the leg tenons for wedges.

 And marry the legs to the seat. I hope this is a long happy marriage. Careful measurements to level everything then cut the legs to length. Looks like my workbench could have been just a bit longer.

 Here you can see I have drilled the arm to fit the arm posts. This took a little time to be sure things were right. I don't want to bend another arm.

 The arm lines up perfectly and true center came out dead center. Lucky day! Next you can see how I drill the many holes through the arm into the seat. Now I will start the very long process of sizing all the dry spindles. Won't be long now.

 My good friends Ziggy and April had to leave to go back home in Missouri today. I really enjoyed having them here and hope they learned a few things they can use back home. This is a bowl April was carving by hand to use with dough.

 I like this curved bench she made with the steam bent stretcher. This was sawn from a curved branch of a local walnut tree. Great job you two, see you down the road, stay sharp!

Classic Settee Part 2

 The 6' settee is moving right along. Here are all the spindles roughed out and ready for the light bulb kiln. I think there are a few extras thrown in for good measure.

I am always amazed how much waste (or wood stove starter) one settee can create. This pile is from an 8' arm, 8' back, and 45 spindles. It filled up two 50 gallon bags. I should learn to make white oak baskets.

I forgot to show the back on the bending form the other day. It has a slight curve to help lift the piece and add some grace. 

 I typically carve white pine seats but all my blanks are for chairs. This settee seat blank measures 72'' long by 15 5/8'' wide. I found some one piece poplar blanks at Mimm's Lumber company out of Nashville at a very reasonable price. They were 90% heart wood which is easier to carve. SCORE!

After surfacing both sides I laid out the sight lines which I had to figure with the help of some rake and splay tables. The legs will splay out further as you go out to the ends again adding more grace to the piece. As you can see I have 5/8 drill bits demonstrating all the front leg holes drilled from the top. Those lasers sure keep everyone in line.

After all the drilling and reaming the legs I started the calorie burning task of excavating 10 pounds of shavings out of the seat. It felt like I was trapped inside a big tree and digging my way out.

As straight as the grain appeared in this slab of poplar there always seems to be a grain change in several places. Be patient and you will finally get to the bottom of the 7/8'' depth holes I drilled in about 5 places down the deepest part of the seat.

I finally have a giant dough bowl after scorp, travisher, and scrapers. I finished today by cutting off the ends and finishing the front edge. Later I will start turning all 9 stretchers. Much more to come.

This week I have Larry Clinard here making a sackback. This will be his first chair which is always exciting to see come together. He is having way too much fun with that drawknife.

A Classic Settee

I have built a handful of settees in my life but only a few like the one I will start today. Follow along and I will attempt to capture what is involved in building a six foot long, ten legged settee with a triple back. There is nothing difficult in designing this piece I just stretch a sackback chair and add a crest on top. I'll try not to bore you with too many details. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

I start with an 8 foot long log and split down an arm piece. 95.5'' long for the arm and 97'' long for the back. 

 Here is the arm mounted to the bench to help lay out the details.

 I will carve knuckles on this arm later after bending and drying. I don't glue a piece but leave the knuckle solid.

 This shows the arm roughed out and ready for the steamer. Very awkward working pieces this long.

 Here is my beautiful steamer. 8 ft long pvc with a wood block strapped to keep the tube from bending. This runs on only one wallpaper steamer and did fantastic. I left it in about 50 minutes.

 My bending form for the arm with the arm successfully bent. Notice that I modified it to use the same form for 4 foot settees. Hey, plywood is expensive.

 Next is a mass spindle splitting party. 45 spindles total including 25 thirty inchers, 12 twenty-four inchers, and 8 twelve inchers.

 The party continues inside on the horse roughing out square. This took me to closing time today. I'll continue rough shaping the spindles to get them ready for the kiln in the morning. Stay tuned.

 Here are the stools that Logan and I finished the other night. I think they turned out great and so fast. Good job Logan!

Harvesting Large Trees for Seat Wood

I get really excited about carving seats and trying different woods. The seat material I use on my painted chairs comes from white pine or poplar. The white pine I use comes from the north east and usually I order it from Nicholas Cicchinelli out of New York. I use a lot of pine for chair classes. Lately I have sawn some Sassafras into seat material. I flat saw these into 8/4 boards to get the widest possible seat blanks. Other woods I have sawn for seats have been Walnut, Cherry, Elm, Poplar, Basswood, and  Catalpa. If you have never carved Catalpa then you are in for a treat. We just sawed a 3' diameter Catalpa for seat blanks. It reminds me of carving butternut or Sassafras. Seat blanks are the only thing I have to saw then wait for a couple years to dry for chair making. As I stack these sometimes very large boards I get so inspired thinking of different chairs I can make. It is tough to have to wait. 

Here are some pictures a friend of mine sent me the other day. I wonder how many seat blanks one could get from these giants.

 Check out the length of that crosscut saw. These were some real men. Or maybe that lady helped too.

 Here is a shot of an Elm seat. I have cut a lot of these and although it is very tough to carve they make a very warm inviting texture. Very nice wood to use with white oak turnings.

Walnut always makes a nice seat material and takes such a nice finish with hand tools. This is a seat for a writing arm chair. Whatever you choose to carve make sure it is easy to work with hand tools and you will have a blast. Let me know if anyone has carved something unique for seats. 

 Ziggy finished his Galbert style ratcheting shavehorse which turned out very nice. It is made from a Sassafras natural edge piece with maple legs and dumb head. Works great. Pete Galbert and I are teaching this horse at Kelly Mehler's school this spring along with some tool tuning and other goodies. Spaces are filling fast but I think there might be some left if you hurry.

Quality Time

Years ago when I first started blogging about what I did around the shop( hence the name) I wanted to go into details about what went on around here on a daily basis. There is so much more than just chair making that happens around here. This post shows just a few of the things that have taken place this week. First and foremost Logan, my son, has taken interest in making a simple stool. Now when Logan takes an interest in something like this I have tried not to overlook the fact that this is quality father and son time that I should not take for granted. We both approached this project with the idea we would use only hand tools and I took advantage to teach Logan all I could about legging up a stool which is the foundation to the lower end of the windsor chair. I am so close to getting Logan ready to build his first chair and I could not be more enthusiastic about this adventure. Below you can see the bottom of Logan's stool which he has used the scrub plane. He loved this surface and will not refine it any further. 

 Here are the legs to the stools which Logan preferred the copper wire burning for his legs. I opted for the simple cigar style turning with no ornamentation. I turned all the stretchers and they are cooking in the kiln. We should be assembling the stools maybe tomorrow or Saturday which I will post some completed photos. Logan helped and mostly designed this simple stool.

 Last weekend I found my way to the Nashville flea market. Not expecting to find much I came across this beautiful 4'' timber frame slick. I could not resist and wondered what such a hunk of metal would feel like through cross grain tenons. I think I got a really good deal and brought it home. Looks like someone really pounded the handle to an early death.

 Below you see after a new handle of sugar maple and a little sharpening it is ready for work. I still plan to build a garden tool shed later this winter and plan to test her out.

 Moving along I wanted to show my progress on my library which has been in shambles since last year when I put in the loft steps. My books and woodworking magazines have been out of control for over a year until last week when I got this bookcase built along with a new desk in one end of the loft. This is a great place to read or just relax in my rope chair. I don't know if this will make my productivity go up or down.

 Logan took this picture last night of me working on the stools. We are using the laser method to drill the holes and ream the legs. Logan designed the stool you see in the foreground. I will be teaching a weekend class on this stool next summer at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Cookeville.

 Also this week April has finished her side chair. Ziggy and April have done a great job completing their first chairs. Ziggy who has already finished and painted his chair is building a Galbert style ratcheting shave horse. I'll post some pictures when it's done. April is going to paint her chair before they head back home to Missouri.

 I can't leave out this week without a picture of my good friend Pete Wiens who is sawing out bowl blanks from the beech log I brought home. I have turned 2 bowls this week from this which came out pretty good. I have lots to learn about this process but Pete is a great turning instructor. There is nothing more fun than turning green wood. This has been a busy week but I love the variety of things that have happened. I have not evened mentioned half of what has gone on this week but it has been quality time.

St. Peter's Cross

If the best addition to my shop was my workbench then the best addition to the workbench has to be the new criss-cross from "Benchcrafted". Anyone who has the leg vise with the pin at the bottom to adjust to whatever thickness that you clamp should not walk but run to your computer (or phone) and order this update from Jameel. If you are looking to buy vises to build your next bench then Benchcrafted is the place to go.

 Above you see the old leg vise assembly. Below you see the retro kit with what they send to you. It is pretty straight forward and they offer really good instructions and a video to make it very doable.

Be careful lying the bench over to mortise out the leg. I did this alone and the 300 lb. bench came down faster than I wanted. I had help picking it back up. No harm done, just woke me up.

Here is the leg mortised with the cross installed. Careful measuring makes this easy along with a good router and fence system. Love those dusty, noisy routers!

You do have to replace the chop since it has to be bigger to house the other cross piece. You can drill most of it out on the drill press which makes the routing quicker and easier.

Here is the finished leg vise and it work fantastic with no adjustments. I just have to get some more leather and I'm back in business.

My good friend Pete Wiens came over and turned this bowl on my new Jet lathe. This is the biggest bowl I can turn on this lathe and Pete is getting me set up to turn things like this. This is nothing like turning chair legs and I have lots to learn but wow what fun. Now I just need to start carving spoons.

Anyone who knows me knows I have a problem with collecting drawknives. The problem is I can't stop. This is my newest addition. "Barr's" chair makers drawknife designed by my friend Curtis Buchanan. I had Barr make it as a bevel up knife. After some final honing and slightly bending the handles this guy really sings through wood. Well now I have an improved bench vise and a new drawknife. I guess I need to make some more chairs.