Woodworker's Journal 1992-16-5, страница 16

I Woodworking Basics

An Introduction to Chairbuilding

Fundamental techniques not hard to master

For many years, f avoided making chairs and turning wood whenever I could. I'm a cabinetmaker at heart, happiest when wielding saws, planes and chisels on nice rectilinear chests and tables. Chairs were full of all sorts of weird angles and places where too many joints met in too little wood. And turning, with its own special tools and techniques, seemed too demanding for someone still trying to marshal a modest repertoire of cabinetmaking skills.

Then, a few years ago t took a fancy to Windsor chairs. Unfortunately, Windsors, which consist largely of turned parts joined at all sorts of weird angles, neatly combined my two woodworking phobias. 1 felt like a child confronting a monster beneath my bed.

I'm happy to say that I conquered my

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monster, and it you're similarly af-fhcicd. you can i<hi, Windsors turned out to he an ide.il project for a reluctant chairmakcr and turner: once I got started. I had a lot of fun. If you need a ready-made project, the child's Windsor shown here is excellent lor a beginner— the turning-, are simple and the construction ts forgiving (See Child's Windsor, page 4<l. for plans.J

Simple and accessible as this project is, it is impossible to leach a beginner how to turn or to make a chair in a magazine article. I'll map out the process and provide some guidance and suggestions, but for the lull treatment. I strongly suggest you consult the same experts that I did when I started out. Michael Dunbar, who has done touch to revive the art of Windsor ehairmaking. covers the subject thoroughly in his

book. Make a Windsor Chair with Michael Dunbar (Taunton Press, $13.95). I had tried and failed to learn woodlurning from a number of books before I watched Richard Raff art's video-tape. Turning Wood (Taunton Press, S39.95). Turning skills are fluid, and video is the perfect medium to convey them. Watching the tape cleared up a great deal of confusion for me.

The Project

Although at first glance Windsors appear to be a daunting collection of complicated angles, they are actually much easier to make than what I call cabinetmaker's chairs. Made of more-or-less rectilinear parts, a cabinetmaker's chair might be said to grow from a piece of paper—its dimensions and angles must conform exactly to those laid out in drawings or the chair doesn't work. A Windsor, on the other hand, grows from its wooden seat, the final dimensions and angles being determined as you make and assemble the chair. Of course, there is a plan, but think of it as a sketch, rather than a rigid template. Hie actual length of the stretchers, for example, and the angles at which (hey join the legs are determined not from the plan, but directly from the legs afteT they've been socketed into the ^at. None of the turnings on my first Windsor, or the angles at which they joined together, matched those on the plan, but I'm still silting on the chair almost 10 years later.

Hie luile Windsor shown here, which was discovered in a friend's antique collection by one of the folks at The Woodworker' Journal, is also a good project for the novice woodturner. Consisting of cylinders and a few gentle curves, its turnings are ideal for practicing basic gouge and skew-chisel cuts. (I'll discuss cutting techniques later.) It is oddly proportioned—its legs appear to be the top third of a full-size bamboo" pattern leg—but it has an ungainly sort of charm.

Tools

You don't need a lot of tools to make this chair. I used the two gouges and two skew chisels shown in Photo A. and several outside calipers to check diame-Thc WtMHliMKier's Journal