Designing
and Building Chairs
Best of Fine Woodworking
Softcover
215 x 275mm
155pp
Published by Taunton Press, CT, USA
R.R.P.$29.90
ISBN 1-56158-857-1
The Three-Slat Chair
Arts and Crafts Style
Slim, Comfortable Slip Seat
Light Settee in Cherry
Post-and-Rung Stool
As reviewed in The Australian Woodworker Issue 132
We live in a society where chairs are plentiful. We generally expect to be able sit down just about everywhere we are - whether it's at home, in a theatre or stadium, in cars, buses, trains, trams, ferries, airplanes...
Why then are there so many uncomfortable chairs? The problem is that despite the number of chairs that are made, making one that is strong, durable and comfortable is not all that easy.
This collection of articles has been drawn from past issues of Fine Woodworking with the express purpose of helping you to make better chairs. It collects together the ideas and work of some of America's top designers and makers - including such legendary contributors to modern woodworking as Sam Maloof and James Krenov.
The book is divided into three sections. The first, which occupies some 30 odd pages, contains 8 articles on subjects ranging from Compound-Angle Joinery and Shaping the Arm of a Chair, to Jigs for Joints on Curving Parts and Working Green Wood.
The second section - another 30 or so pages - is devoted to making chair seats. There's an article about Carving a Softwood Seat and another about Sculpting Chair Seats with a Shop-Built Duplicator. There is also an article about Weaving a Cane Seat and one about Weaving Shaker Tape Seats.
The third section, which takes up the rest of the book, contains six projects - A Light Settee in Cherry, Post-and-Rung Stool, Shaker Rocker, Oval Chippendale Stool, Bowback Windsor Step by Step and The Shaker Revolver.
Woodworkers who choose to make chairs soon find that they have embarked upon an odyssey that leads them into arcane alleyways of the craft. This book should help to provide some guidance on their journey.
Photos: Colour
Units of Measurement: Imperial
Contents
Introduction
Section 1 - Chair Making Basics
Chair
Making Simplified
- Garret Hack
Compound-Angle
Joinery
- Will Neptune
Working
Green Wood
- Harriet Hodges
Shaping
the Arm of a Chair
- Sam Maloof
Building
a Basic Stool
- Harriet Hodges
Jigs
for Joints on Curving Parts
- Brian Boggs
Built
for Comfort: The Three-Slat Chair
- Christian H. Becksvoort
Building
a Chair, Arts and Crafts Style
- Rex Alexander
Section 2 - Making Chair Seats
Sculpting
Chair Seats with a Shop-Built Duplicator
- Dan Trimble
A
Slim, Comfortable Slip Seat
- Michael Fortune
Carve
a Softwood Seat
- Curtis Buchanan
Weaving
a Cane Seat
- Judy Warner
Coopering
a Chair Seat
- Charles Argo
Weaving
Shaker Tape Seats
- Glenn A. Carlson
Section 3 - Projects
A
Light Settee in Cherry
- Matthew Teague
Post-and-Rung
Stool
- Brian Boggs
Shaker
Rocker
- Ernie Conover
Oval
Chippendale Stool
- Randall O'Donnell
Bowback
Windsor Step by Step
- Harriett Hodges
The
Shaker Revolver
- Mario Rodriguez
Credits
Index
Shaker Rocker
Oval Chippendale Stool
Shaker Revolver