new project

Despite the fact that I already have more projects started than I care to admit I’m tackling yet another – chair making.  More specifically my goal is to make a post and rung chair as shown in John Alexander’s book & video “make a chair from a tree.”  The cool thing about this method is that all the chair’s parts are split directly from the log and worked while the wood is still green and thus easier to work with hand tools.

As you may suspect, this type of woodworking requires some rather specialized tools and materials. The first thing you need to make a chair from a tree is ,well, a tree.

This is the trunk of the big ash tree that used to overhang my shop before the infamous emerald ash borer killed it. I want to turn at least some of this tree into something more than firewood (for that matter LOTS of this tree is already on the fire wood pile).  As you can see, I’d already cut off a section & started to split it when I took this photo. Did you notice that a quarter of the log is missing from the split section in the foreground?  I used that section to make the shaving horse below.

I already had a bunch of the tools needed such as a chainsaw to cut the log into chunks, a sledge & wedges, an ax, as well as a froe & maul to split the chunks into blanks chair parts, and various draw knives and spoke shaves to form the blanks into finished chair parts.

The first big step in the project was making a shaving horse.  This is used to hold the blanks as they are shaved to their final shape.  Even this step involved making and modifying tools.  The thing on the ground is a reamer (made from the blade from a old saw set into a body that I turned from a scrap of maple) to taper the holes for the conically shaped legs fit into properly.  I also had to make a new handle for my froe (that’s the “L” shaped thing on the right).  Used a chunk of hickory that I saved from the woodpile for that bit.

In any case, I’m off to a good start – I’ll try to keep you posted on my progress.

Cheers – dj