Popular Woodworking 2009-08 № 177, страница 13

■ Arts & Mysteries ■

BY ADAM CHERUBINI

Adapting the Lessons

Philadelphia Chair: Incorporating carving instruction learned from a master.

Many lessons. This is my first formal chair. Sometimes when I look at my work. I only see my mistakes. But in this case, I'm thrilled to see this fabulously beautiful chair coming to life in my shop. I have no delusions about the quality or grace of the finished product. But for me. building this chair hjt taught mo so much. In this article III discuss the assembly of the seat rails.

'm building a Philadelphia Ch ippendale (rococo) chair. This has proved Lo be a fabu lously difficult piece of woodworking that has challenged me at every step. From the very first saw cuts, I've made mistake after mistake inshapingand joining the twisted and curved parts that comprise chairs of this style. At thispoint,! have the back ofthe chairglued up and 90 percent ofilcarved. 1 have a ton of cleanup work to do and the most difficult carving, the leafage on the crest rail and knees of the cabriole legs, left to do. The side rails are roughed out a nd the jointsaredone. I've roughed the cabriole legs lo shape and carved the ball-and-daw feet while referring to (no kidding) my February 2009 Popular Woodworking article "Making a Ball-and-claw Foot" (issue #174),

In this article, I'll look at the assembly and detailing of the seat rai Is. This seems like a simple step, not worthy of precious page space. But ifthisprojeci has taught me anything, it's taught me that every single step has been wholly unfamiliar and deceptively complex. As you'll soon see, this step is no different

Goals

This is one of those jobs where halfway through the fitup, the scant reference faces are going lo start disappearing. So it's worthwhile to set a few goals: I need good tight joinery. The basic structure ofa rococo chair features few, but highly stressed, joints. There are no lower stretchers to help courtier the force of someone leaning back on the chair or moving themselves closer to a table with their full weight on the seat (a feat few chairs w ilhout casters can survive for long). A rabbet in the front andside seal rails must be cut to supporl a drop in "slip seal." The rails must be faired in with the legs, and

18 ri Popular Woodworking Augusi2009

some moulding and carving is required to unify the design.

English chairs ofthe same period often featured upholstery that wrapped the outer surface ofthe seat rails (Chippendale wrote that he preferred this design). But Philadel-phiachairstypicallyhadexposedseat rails, so 1 have to do all this work neatly. Lastly, glued-on knee returns must be joined to both the legand lhe seal rails to soften the transition between the vertical legand the horizontal seat rail.

Getting Good Fits

As you may recall from my December 2008 article (issue #173), the side seat raits are twisted, The tenon in the front leg is square with the floor. The tenon in the back leg is angled to remain in line with the rear legs, which are farther apart at the top than they are at the Hoor. For lhe seat rail to fair into the vertical from legand the angled rear leg, il must twist. This is really not as com-plicatedas it sounds. When I originally cut the mortises, I flushed the front joint. .All I

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