Windsor Chair

I built this Windsor chair in a week-long Windsor Chair class I took with David Wright, Windsor chair maker from Berea, KY.

Traditional green wood construction. Mr. Wright rived (split the wood with the grain) a “kit” of all the necesssary rough sticks of wood from the green log for each class member to make the legs, spindles, arms, stretchers, etc. – The seat blank was the only dry wood.

Then, we sat all week on a shaving horse with a drawshave and spokeshave making the back spindles, the steam bent back bow and steam bent arm bow by hand. We used a hand scorp, draw shave & spokeshave to scoop out and shape the seat. Brace and bit for holes to recieve spindles, legs, etc., – back spindles and legs all wedged. It was my first foray into turning as well for the legs and stretcher parts. I understand that a famous Windsor Chair maker, who wrote a book on the subject, provides pre-turned legs for his students. This was a fun class but I was physically exhausted at the end of the week.

After turning the legs and stretcher parts, some are put into a simple drying kiln and others are left green. The grain in the green stretcher parts is oriented in such a way to the dry stetcher parts that after assembly and the wood of the green parts dries, the parts lock together. We used very tight tenons and glue, too, but as the round green parts dry they actually dry into a slightly oval shape in a round hole which binds the parts together mechanically as well. It’s not “supposed” to ever come apart. Traditional mik paint finish.

Someday, I would like to try make another.

-- Paul, Texas