Templates are the foundation of my design process. While I occasionally make a full-size mock-up of a new design using cheap wood, it’s my templates that guide the process.
And when I teach a class, I encourage students to trace whatever templates they like onto the huge sheets of butcher paper we keep here. My first chair teacher – Dave Fleming – offered me the same courtesy in 2003, and I still have those templates today (stored in my basement).
Other teachers were not as forthcoming. They either said “no” or insisted on selling the information. Woodworking is a tough business, so I can’t blame them. But I’d rather lose a few dollars and see more people make their own chairs.
If you are just getting started, I encourage you to make a set of templates. If you’d like to experiment with one of my sets (drawn by Josh Cook), download the file below and print it out at your local office supply store. The plans are drawn at full-size – 100 percent.
I like to make my templates using 1/8” hardboard. It is inexpensive, doesn’t warp as much as plywood does and its edges stay crisper than those of MDF. I affix the paper drawings to the hardboard with spray adhesive (available anywhere). Then I cut out the templates on the band saw and refine the shapes with hand tools.
Hardboard is simply wood pulp and linseed oil, so it cuts cleanly and doesn’t wreck your tools’ edges unnecessarily.
I write a lot of information on my finished templates – resultant angles, notes from previous builds and details on angles and joints.
But the most important thing I write on the template is the date that I made it. That helps me figure out if I am moving forward or backward in time with my designs (either direction is OK).
The templates above are from my latest video “Build a Stick Chair,” which is available in our store.
— Christopher Schwarz
Thanks for sharing!
So I’m confused. Are hardboard and masonite one and the same? If not does hardboard go by a different name?
As I understand it, Masonite is an old brand name. And “hardboard” is a generic name for the type of product.
The terms are used interchangeably in my neck of the woods. Perhaps someone else here is a hardboard/Masonite expert and can speak up.
There are three basic types that i know of. The first has a smooth side and a rough side. It makes a lot of dust, and I don’t touch the stuff.
The second type is smooth on both sides. It’s the one that is sold as “tempered hardboard” and is impregnated with linseed oil under high heat. It’s harder, cuts cleaner, and makes less dust.
The third kind has a white coating, usually just on one side. It’s also “tempered,” but I like the white coating. It makes leaving measurements and other writing on templates much easier to read. I also use it as a backer for messy glue-ups, as the white coating makes scraping off dried glue easier.
The white coating makes it more waterproof. It was supposed to be used in really low end bathrooms. I’m a little shocked you didn’t rip some out in Blaze.
Your passion for woodworking and the written word are compelling, never have wanted to read so much, I have yet to get your chair book, I’m halfway through building the chest, having loved that book! Now I’d love to start on a stick chair!
In these current times with pressure on finances and prices of timber having gone through the roof, will this chair work in pine?
Many thanks again for the pleasure your passion brings to many!!
Hi Martin,
You could use white pine for the seat. And yellow pine/fir for the other components.
You might check prices in your area, however. Here in Kentucky pine is now more expensive than red oak…..
I’m probably just missing it, so a referral to the right text would do fine… but what would be really great, for those of who live in the western states, is a text that shows us how to use all that green Ponderosa and Lodgepole pine for furniture. I would like to use the “wood I can find” instead of the wood I have to buy. Where I live, hardwoods other than Russian Olive hedges and small fruit trees are pretty rare. Doug Fir and Larch are available, but are mostly harvested for firewood or the timber industry. I’d like to know how to use the softwoods that that are so common in my area.
…unless the answer is just to timber-frame everything. That idea is well-explored.
Thanks for the work you do.
I’m greatly enjoying the Stick Chair video series and book, and these blogs are greatly helpful as well. Thank you.
I’m putting together a toolkit to build these chairs and have a reamer question. If your tendonitis wasn’t a factor, would you still be using the electric reamer over a hand reamer? I’m trying to determine which to buy. In your book, you mention the advantage of removing less material with a hand reamer. Are there any disadvantages?
Yup. I discuss the disadvantage of shallower reaming angles in the book (smaller tenons, which is an issue with strut legs).
Either reamer is fine. I like the electric one because it’s inexpensive and easy to sharpen.
I have used Doug Fir in the past, with an undercarriage and slightly beefed-up sizes. This was a proof of concept exercise that has no issues after years of daily use.
In The Stick Chair Book I remember there being recommendations for testing different wood and size recommendations when not using Red Oak.
Yup. A sledge is the answer to the question: Will this part work in a chair?
That question … and at least a few others.
For what it’s worth, here’s something I was taught during my apprenticeship: make sub-master templates. If you’re going to buy templates or make your own, always make a template that you will make templates from, and use those. Keep the master templates safe and only use them to make templates from. For chairs, it may be less important, but if you’re cutting 300 identical decorative rafter tails, you’re gonna burn through templates.
That music! Who dat?
Siri says it’s Jim & Jennie and the Pinetops from their album Rivers Roll On By.