There’s almost certainly a sort of Reinheitsgebot for chairmakers. If you don’t use hand tools at every stage, you receive one evil eye.
Truth is, lots of chairmakers I know use power tools at some stage of the process. Many use a band saw. Others use an angle grinder to roughly shape their seats. Many use electric lathes. And a few – gasp – use sandpaper.
Me, I’m indifferent to this claptrap. I like to use the tools I like to use. I avoid the tools I dislike. Simple.
So this is how I saddle my seats.
I don’t have an adze. Why? I don’t know; it just never happened. Sure, I’ve tried a few adzes here and there at woodworking shows, but I’ve always started saddling my seats with a scorp (mine is from Barr Specialty Tools). It takes longer than if I had an adze, but I’m happy I don’t have to take care of an additional tool.
So after marking out the saddle I begin by traversing the seat with the scorp. Traversing in chairmaking is not like traversing with a jack plane. You don’t work with the cutter 90° to the grain.
Instead you pull the tool directly across the grain, but you angle its cutter in the direction the grain is flowing in the board. If this sounds odd to you, try it with a jack plane. Say you are traversing a board where the grain directions runs from right to left. The best plan is to push the tool directly across the grain of the board but angle it 30° to the left.
Try it and it will click.
I usually bottom my seats to be about 5/8” deep at the deepest point near the back of the seat. Then I saddle it about 3/8” near the front of the seat.
After I get it as clean as possible with a scorp, I switch to a travisher (mine is from Claire Minihan). Again, I work across the grain with the tool angled in the direction of the grain. I take lighter and lighter cuts as I work. When I can’t refine the surface any more, I switch to a card scraper.
I scrape out the tops of the dawks and try to remove any high spots my fingers can feel. I scrape and scrape until I can’t get it looking any better.
Then, finally, I wrap a piece of #180-grit sandpaper around a cork sanding block and try to refine the surface even more. After I scuff up the surface entirely with the sandpaper, I come back with a scraper and remove the sanding scratches.
The last 15 minutes of the process is me switching back and forth between a scraper and sandpaper, trying to get it as perfect as possible.
Eventually I give up – never satisfied with the final surface. But that’s typical.
— Christopher Schwarz
I have to admit that I used a portable circular saw to carve out the seat on a Windsor bench once.
Brian Eve filmed the event, so I guess I am damned for all eternity..
I like the idea of not using tools that you don’t like to use 🙂
Brgds
Jonas
Did it work? I’ve never seen anything like that!
Yes, it actually worked really well. I guess it was because I was lazy and it was a settee.
Brian even uploaded a couple of videos to Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6uYlZk7v5M
And now we will all be required to grow our sideburns out to filter dust and debris!
You are crazy Jonas (in a good way)!
Ha! That’s crazy! Good times.
Haha! I almost forgot about that. When Jonas told me his idea, I thought for sure he was going to cut off a body part, and I wanted to have it on film.
good for you!
If only everyone did it this way
Reblogged this on Lenora's Culture Center and Foray into History.
To get your scraper doing sweet, sweet shavings like that – do you use ‘just’ that lee valley mini carbide sharpener plus a burnisher? I can’t get those 2 tools alone to work. I have to step through file, stones and burnisher.
File, stones and burnisher. Just like all mortals.
Have you done any saddling with a gouge chisel (out cannel) instead of your scorp? Any observations or hints?
Nope. Sorry.
I have tried it, it works but is very hard to control with the grain fighting you the whole way. I got a scrop and never went back.
Thanks. I will try this on a board for a simple stool before trying something more ambitious. On the otherhand, “what’s one more tool”…
Where’s the pommel?
There is none. This has a contemporary seat shape.
Great post! Have you carved seats in harder woods like cherry or walnut? Does the inshave and travisher work out ok, or are more aggressive tools needed in these wood species?
Yup. I have also done oak and elm. It’s all about sharpness and knowing how to make the wood fail with the least amount of effort and tearing.
Do you still use your Veritas pull shave?
looking for address for LOP stickers
On Sun, Jan 29, 2017 at 4:31 PM, Lost Art Press wrote:
> Lost Art Press posted: ” There’s almost certainly a sort of Reinheitsgebot > for chairmakers. If you don’t use hand tools at every stage, you receive > one evil eye. Truth is, lots of chairmakers I know use power tools at some > stage of the process. Many use a band saw. Others use ” >
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2017/01/06/new-stickers-and-a-new-way-to-order-them/