Tools
- Adzes and axes
- Braces
- Carving tools
- Drawknifes
- Lathe
- Measuring tools
- Planes
- Saws
- Scorps
- Spokeshaves
- Travishers
- Workbench
Construction
Building a chair
The building of Windsor seating requires unique skills, and knowledge of old construction techniques. The chairs takes at least 40 to 60 hours of work to custom build.
A PDF presentation, that also details all the building steps, is also available. This document, is, however, quite large (5Mb) and will take some time to download to your computer.
From a log...
The chairs start from a freshly cut log of ash, oak or hickory (for the bendings) and of maple (for all turned parts).
The logs are split into eights using axes, cauls and hammers. The log parts are then split using froes into future chair parts for the bent bow (back), arm rail and spindles. Riving the wood ensures that the spindles and other pieces are formed of wood that is very straight grained, which makes it very strong and lightweight.
Steam bending
Windsor chairs may have, depending on the model, multiple bent parts. These bent parts, after having been shaped with drawknifes and spokeshaves on the shaving horse, are put into a steam box to plasticise the wood. After about an hour in the steam box, the wood is rendered pliable. They are then quickly bent (within a minute) around a wooden form into their final shape.
This process often leads to broken or badly out of shape pieces that have to be redone.
Saddling the seat
Windsor chair seats are usually made from 2" thick slabs of white pine that is shaped into either an oval, a "D" shape or a shield shape, depending on the exact model.
The seats are carved using successively adzes, scorps, compass planes, travishers, spokeshaves and scrapers. The seats can also be custom fit to each customer's specific dimensions.
Hand carving
Windsor chairs are composed of multiple carved parts. Knuckles and crest ears are sometimes carved. However, lets not forget the seat! Each one is hand saddled.
lathe work
Each leg, stump and stretchers are hand turned using a lathe and lathe chisels. Mostly I use a combination of roughing-out gouges and skews to turn each piece individually.
Great lathe work requires skill and years of practice. The quality of a chair's turnings may make or break the beauty of each and every chair.
To a chair !
Each Windsor chair is assembled from over thirty different hand made parts.
The whole process takes from 40 to 60 hours.