I built a slant front desk http://lumberjocks.com/Newton/blog/series/899 and needed an appropriate chair to go with it. A friend had a chair that I thought was pretty neat and hope you will like it as well. The chair is a folding chair of the type used by sea Captains aboard ship in the 18th Century. First I had to do a mock-up to test the layout and theory. I definately believe that a mock-up doesn’t have to be beautiful. I made my mock-up from left over panel product from various projects.
The challange was to size the parts correctly so the chair would fold. After making adjustments to the mock-up I was ready to cut wood!
Once the pieces were cut I thought I would take a break from the woodworking and begin the seat. The seat frame was made from Poplar. I used bridle joints at the corners so I didn’t have a joint in the center of the piece that would cause problems with the location of the decorative tacks later on.
Next I machined a slight “V” groove all around the frame to help align the decorative tacks when they are nailed on.
Now it was time to add the webbing to support the foam.
And then the burlap to cover the webbing so the foam will not get between the webbing.
To complete the seat I added the foam and covered it with some stitched brown leather finished off with solid brass decorative tacks.
I will continue with a second posting showing the finished chair parts.

Here at Lumberjocks we are all about safety in the shop but we should alway strive to be safe in our homes as well. Recently, a friend of mine had a minor accident at home that included a modest amount of bleeding. Not being able to locat a Band-Aid, and being a resourceful person, he sought out the only other thing that seemed practical, a panty liner. He reports that it worked well. To assure that he is always (no pun intended) able to locate one in the future I spent 15 min. in the shop and fashioned this emercency device. I wil not be patenting this in the future and offer it for all to copy.

Well my friends this is truly a “scrap project”. If you viewed by last project, the blanket chest, you will see that the material is Pomelle Sapele with an upholstered top. The scraps were too nice to throw away so I made these boxes. The size was pretty much determined by the sizes of the scrap pieces. I lined the boxes with the left over upholstery material and added a mirror to the lid. The challenge was to miter all of the pieces, including the lid, as I had no edgebanding to conceal any exposed core. Mitering the lid on all four edges so it dropped into the edge was pretty cool since it worked! If it hadn’t worked you would not be reading this. I’m kinda proud since the scrap didn’t sit around for a decade then get thrown away.

I don’t think I will ever be able to sell a project. Why? Because I have a daughter with a house! Dad….I NEED a blanket chest, and of course, she gets one. It is rather long but is made for the width of her bed. I used some left over 24” x 24” Pommele Sapele panels for the sides and solid Sapele for the base. I just love the grain of the Pommele. I used a clear finish and am expecting the veneer to darken naturally. The top is another story. You don’t have to look very close to see that I am no upholsterer. The lid is fitted with toy box supports to hold it up. The handles on the ends are also left overs. I finished the inside with left over house paint. Hey…maybe I should call it “The Left Over Chest”! Actually, the only thing I had to buy was the waterbased Polyurethane for the topcoat. Now, If I can get her to pick it up I can begin on her next project.

Recently I adopted a 7 year old Maine Coon cat. His name is Percy and one of his conditions to live with us was for me to make him a scratching post. How’s that as an excuse to make a project? The store bought ones were over $100 and of course if you have a woodworking shop you can always make one that is better than a store bought one, no matter what it is. I had to scale it for his size, 18 pounds. I used 3/4” bamboo plywood and some carpet remnants left over from the living room. It took an afternoon and you can see that it was well received.

This project was an 18th C flatware chest copied from one in Colonial Williamsburg. The material is cherry except for the lid which is Pomelle Sapele. I think the lid blended exceptionally well with the cherry. The base and chest are 2 seperate pieces. The chest has drawers lined with red felt. I thought the lid was rather plain so I comissioned a coworker to paint a federal style eagle on the underside. The eagle was a great touch and well executed. The base has two pull out candle trays.

This project was a cherry chippendale mirror frame. The finish is a clear oil and wax. I cut all of the parts on my 10” bandsaw and cleaned them up with files and drum sanders in my drill press. The frame was fitted with a piece of beveled mirror, but as you can see, I was smart enough to take the picture BEFORE the mirror was installed! Of course this project was confiscated by my wife and hangs in our entry.

This project was a Honduras Mahogant 18th C Newport style chest on chest. A lot of research and hand labor went into this project. It took over 16 years to build as raising kids got in the way. All of the drawers were dovetailed by hand.