time for some chairmaking

chopping slat mortises

I got all my travel-junk sorted and began working in the shop again today. First up is some JA ladderbacks. I sometimes make 2 at a time, I don’t think I’ve ever done more than that. First thing I did was sort out some rung-stock and set it out to kiln-dry. Summertime, I opt for an easy route - the dashboard of the car with a sun-roof.

makeshift kiln

Having just driven over 2,500 miles in the past couple weeks, I don’t feel like using this car anyway. So might as well get something out of it. In the Jennie Alexander papers I read where Dave Sawyer told her that Charles Christian of Ben’s Branch, Arkansas used to dry rungs on the tin roof of the shop:

“Rungs are dried by sun on tin roof shed. 150 degrees F on occasion.”

Once I had them sorted I turned to the posts - time to chop slat mortises. Maybe the first mortises I ever chopped were for chairs like this, back in 1978. JA showed how to do them at a low-bench back then. She used a mortise chisel made from a file. Long, with a long handle.

Jennie Alexander, at Country Workshops c. 1980

JA alternated between using a mallet-like object (above) to using shoulder pressure to work her way through mortising. Later, we learned how to actually chop mortises like normal people. I do it at the bench with a real mallet & chisel.