The best Windsor chair I’ve made in years & years…

Under Pete Galbert’s tutelage

Well, this student has finished the week-long class in making a continuous arm Windsor chair with Pete Galbert. And this post will sound like the mutual-admiration society - I know I appeared on his blog the other day. And I know that many of my readers read his posts and vice versa. Makes sense, we used to work in the same circus - but I could never tell who owned the circus. Sometimes it seemed to be a Lie-Nielsen circus, other times a Chris Schwarz/PopWood/Lost Art Press circus. And yet other times a Fine Woodworking circus. It’s a small field really.

So we’ve known each other for quite a few years now. Most of our interactions were short snippets here and there during pauses in our demos at various woodworking events. But during the past few years I’ve been teaching the Jennie Alexander chair at Pete’s (with Joel Paul) a couple of times a year. And that’s when we’ve got to spend some in-depth time together. And each visit Pete would show me the latest thing - be it a tool, a jig or just a technique - all designed to make chairmaking not just easier but better. Usually more accurate.