Popular Woodworking 2008-06 № 169, страница 12

Arts & Mysteries

BY ADAM CHERUBINI

18th-centuryChairmaking

Building a 'Rush Bottum'd Chaire' - part 1

'm going to turn my attention to chairmak-ing for a while. I've been hesitant to make chairs because they are fairly difficult to build, and frankly, I didn't feel I was up to the task. Joint quality is much more important in chairs than casework. If 80 percent of my dovetails are tight, my carcase will be fine. But if a chair has 20 percent of its joints loose, it's going to fail.

To make matters worse, chair joints are often not perpendicular to their reference faces or to other joints. I have been getting away with fairly crude stock preparation and in some instances, marking and measuring. A cabinetmaker can often simply mark one piece directly from its mate. You generally can'l do that with chairs. Parts are built up individually and joined later.

I think I've had good reasons to shy away from chairmaking. But I've decided to face my chair phobia head on. I'm going to start with a relatively simple chair and work up from there. My goal is to acquire skills, not chairs. I'm hoping this pursuit will make me a better woodworker.

A Common Chair

There were a variety of seating forms in the 18 th century, from stools to chairs to upholstered pieces. Early 18th-century documents include what we call "ladder-back" chairs more often, and in greater numbers, than any other form of sealing furniture. Sorry Windsor chairmakers -these uncomfortable, structurally marginal chairs were the ubiquitous sealing of the 18th century. The basic frames were made with great speed. One late 17th-century source indicatesa chairmaker's apprentice could build two-and-a-half frames per day. Seats could be woven at a rate of nine per day.

Primarily identified by their seating material (flagg, straw or rush bottomed), ladder-

Back first. In this article (part one of two), I'm going to build up just the back of this chair. In part two, I'll build the front and finish the job. This isn't a lot of work, but there are many little details that deserve our attention.

12 ■ Popular Woodworking June 2008