I still stumble along
a chair-maker's palimpsest
[a free-to-all post, about me stumbling my way back through Windsor chairmaking.]
When I was teaching the carved box class last month, I was telling the students that I don’t remember what it feels like to be them - I don’t remember learning carving. I know I did it alone. I had photos of period work and a lot of time and a lot of riven oak. And I carved and carved until it clicked. It didn’t take too long to get competent, then a bit longer to get good. Once I worked at the living history museum, things took off quickly for one simple reason. Everyday practice. Every day.
Here in the real world, I’m still trying to re-learn how to make Windsor chairs. And at times, it’s a bit of a muddle. And there’s one simple reason - not enough practice. I know how the tools work, I know what to expect from the wood. I know the steps - but because I don’t go through them regularly enough, it doesn’t click for me. Doesn’t click yet, I hope.
I made this bowback windsor (above) in June - I could have sworn I just finished it...but now it’s October. I was mostly happy with it - but the spindles are too chunky. The seat is barely dished, it’s based on the work Elia Bizzarri is doing researching Samuel Wing’s chair work - a different, long story. The seat is small by today’s standards. I like that aspect of it, but next time I’d dish the seat more.
Now - a continuous arm chair.
I built one after taking Galbert’s class in February. Don’t know when I finished it - but I know I didn’t like it. I blew the boring of the innermost long spindle-to-bow mortise. And had to plug & rebore it. So I stuck it up in the loft. From there it would either be a second-rate chair (which I need like a hole in the head) or what?
I decided that because the seat and undercarriage were fine, it was worth cutting the top off & trying again. I cut it apart a couple of weeks ago, then today I bored out the spindle mortises in the seat and turned new arm posts, bored the “hands” to set on the arm posts. Then I needed a new set of spindles.
I keep plenty of shaved stock like that around - left as shaved square stock. Much of it is shaved into rung blanks for Jennie Alexander style ladderbacks, (shaved as 3/4” square stock, 15”-18” long) some slightly heavier (13/16”) for spindle blanks, in various lengths. Red oak, white ash or hickory. I pulled a bunch down from the racks in the ceiling joists and sorted and shaved them. A mish-mash of woods, but that doesn’t matter.
I tried to take my time shaving these today, dug out my notes from Galbert’s class and when step-by-step, at least as close as I could get to doing so. Now those are ready to dry in the kiln, then I’ll go back to sizing them and boring the arm/bow. But now it’ll be a couple more days before I get back to it.
Oh, well. I remember how to carve boxes, I’ll work on them in the meantime.