Windsor High Chair Plans From Curtis Buchanan Available

Dave Sawyer Windsor High Chair
Photo by Joshua Klein of Mortise & Tenon Magazine

Thought you all might like to hear that Curtis Buchanan has released his Windsor highchair plans. This chair seems to capture the affection of every Windsor chairmaker I know. Honestly many of them use it as a high stool for setting in. It's just perfect for squeezing into. Almost like a high perch when you don't really feel like lounging. A place to set when you feel alert and want your mind to actively wonder and plan your next project. I think I'm talking myself into making one of these for my own personal use. Anyhow now I have no excuse not to.

If you want to know more, hop over to curtisbuchananchairmaker.com and check them out. Also Mortise & Tenon magazine will be featuring an article on Dave Sawyer who made the high chair in the opening picture. Dave was a huge influence on the windsor chair world. His designs and mentoring were felt by makers like Curtis and Peter Galbert. If you have Pete's Chairmakers Note Book then you'll note the drawing of Dave's high chair in the introduction (page xiii). He's a big fan.

Whatever you're doing in the shop today have fun and stay safe!

More Windsor Chair Plans From Curtis Buchanan - Plus Videos!

Curtis Buchanan has been pretty busy in the last year. If you are a windsor chairmaker then you may already know much of this. Curtis started making a series of Youtube videos back in 2011 on making a comb back windsor arm chair. I happened to get connected with him to draw up the technical plans for that chair so that he could make them available. It was a long process as I am not a professional illustrator. It was done in my spare time - so you can image the improvements that could be made to the process. I got quite busy after the first two plans were finished and it was at that point that we decided to find someone who could focus on the drawings full-time and bring professional illustrator skills to the table, as well. After filtering through a couple of illustrators we landed on Jeff Lefkowitz. He is a chairmaker and a former graphic designer. He's a real gentleman to work with, too.

There are now four plans available - the comb back arm chair, continuous arm chair and rocker, fan back side chair and the hoop back side chair. You can check those out here. Most recently, the comb back arm chair has been updated to have 1:2 scale front and side views in addition to the patterns. It has been a pleasure to be a part of this project that brings such high quality plans to the general public.

You might also enjoy a few recent documentaries that have been made regarding Curtis' work and life. This first one is from the PBS show "A Craftsman's Legacy" entitled "The Chairmaker". You'll need to register to view this episode. It's free and so far I haven't received a single piece of spam. The other episodes are quite enjoyable as well.

Fine Woodworking also made a nice video here.

Enjoy!!!

Peter Galbert Demonstrates How to Refine a Windsor Chair Seat Using a Claire Minihan Travisher

This is probably my favorite video of the the series I have posted on carving a windsor chair seat. It is just great to see the process and learn so much so quickly. Here Peter refines the shape of the seat. He has already adzed the bulk of the material away and followed it with an inshave/scorp as was shown in the previous video posts.

Warning! This video sounds like a paid advertisement for Claire Minihan's travisher. Sorry about that but they are really that good. If you happen to want one you can contact her at cminihanwoodworking@gmail.com or visit her site here. I of course don't make a dime off any sales she makes. 

Enjoy!

How to Carve a Windsor Chair Seat with an Inshave or Scorp

Here is the next step to the process of shaping and carving a windsor chair seat. This follows up the adze work in the last video I posted. This was taken while Peter Galbert was teaching how to make the chairs from his book at my shop a few months back. Peter here makes the process look easy as always. This is a watch and learn kinda video. Not too long but you get the gist. I hope you enjoy it!

Windsor Chair Seat Carving Video with Peter Galbert - How to Use an Adze - Part 1

I promised to post video of Peter giving instruction on carving a seat during the class we had back in May. As you'll see, it all starts with the adze. Peter and Tim Manney collaborated to develop an adze specifically for carving seats (although it would also work just fine for bowls, etc.). I highly recommend it. I already owned an old school adze, but after giving Tim's a go I had to have one. It is so light and effective. I don't think his wait list is super long right now so if you need one it might be a good time to contact him.

Anyway, Peter does a nice job of explaining the function and use of an adze in this video. Enjoy!

Windsor Continuous Arm Settee Plans?

I was recently asked if I would be making continuous arm settee plans for the curved settee that I make. I would love to but the likely hood of that happening is nil considering the other things I have on my to do list.

So, I have something that is probably better. If you have ever wanted to make a regular (non-curved) settee then here is how you can do it with the continuous arm chair plans that I recently completed for Curtis' Buchanan.

Curtis Buchanan Settee

The only difference between the single chair and the settee is the width plus two more legs. You can even use the same bending form, really no kidding. Here is basically how to do it. By the way I don't know if this is how Curtis does it on his settee design but this is how I do it when making one.

Take the plans and add 20" to the bow length. Then add 20" inches to the seat width. The additions are just straight lines. So for example the seat will have more center spindles all at the same angle of the center spindle in the single chair plans.

The bow is, again, a straight section being added. Simply take the bending form for the single chair and steam and bend only one side at a time on the form. Do one side and leave it in the form for a few days or however long you want. Take it off the form and repeat for the other side. It is actually easier than a regular chair because you are just bending one side at a time rather than doing both in one go. By the way this isn't a cheesy way to go about it. Peter Galbert is the one I first saw do this rather than make a new form just for the settee.

Now for the center legs... You can simply use the center line as the sighting line and use the rake angle from the front and rear legs respectively for the drilling angles. The only catch here is that for the elements of the turnings to line up properly the center legs must be "squished". As I was writing this it hit me that Pete has written about this in the past. Here is a link to his blog post on the subject. Thanks Pete!

That is about it. I think you can figure out the rest!

Proof is in the Pudding - Wedging Tenons

My pudding is pistachio, what's yours? That makes no sense but that is what just came to me when I looked at my photos.

What am I talking about? Well an interesting little thing that I came upon when wedging through tenons has proven to be true and not just theoretical. I think it was about a year or two ago that Pete Galbert was talking about glueing only one side of a wedge when putting them in. I hadn't given it much thought as being anything ground breaking but once he started talking about it I realized that this was in fact what I had been doing and was significant to the longevity of chair joinery.

Why glue only one side of a wedge. I started doing it as I recall because I had heard about someone actually splitting the end of a tenon before assembling it with the mortise. I don't remember who it was. But the idea was that the tenon would have a weak area in it so that when the seasons changed the moisture content of the wood, thus expansion/contraction would happen, the stresses would simply spread the split in the tenon rather than break the glue joint.

So basically I figured that if you only glued one side of a wedge then the other side would serve as the weak part of the joint and spread rather than stress and break the glue joint. So here is the proof that it actually works. My house has been really dry. All my wood flooring has gaps between the boards and the humidity has been down around 10-20%. After coming from humid south east Texas this is all new to me.

Look at what the joints on my settee have done. One is the leg tenon coming through the seat. The other is the tenon coming through the handhold. One side of the wedge has opened up rather than there being a failed glue joint.
Very interesting, is it not.

By the way, I have been doing a lot of reading and editing of Pete's book that is due out this year. This post didn't start out as a way to plug Pete's book but I have to say that if this sort of stuff interests you then trust me you will love this book. It is packed with, among other things, little nuggets like this.