A stack of red oak ready to become a stick chair. Guided by this squishy spirit animal.
This weekend is the calm period before our class with The Chairmakers Toolbox next week. The wood in the above photo? Y’all paid for that with your contributions. The money you donated will also feed them all week. And there was extra cash ($2,700) left over, which was donated directly to The Chairmakers Toolbox. So thank you.
So onto today’s Open Wire, which we hold almost every Saturday. Type your question about woodworking into the comment field below. Megan and I will try our best to answer it. Apologies if our answers are brief and not surrounded by the usual pleasantries. Saturdays are a lot of typing.
We have three new items in stock here in Covington that are ready to ship.
First up is a brass Warrington-pattern hammer. This tool was at the request of readers and the machinists at Machine Time (which makes our hammer heads). The brass is hard enough for the light duty of a small hammer – and it won’t corrode.
I do not know if we will make this a regular stock item – it depends on how it sells.
Also new are the Crucible Engraving Tools. This small knife handle and cutters allow you to engrave straight lines and arcs (with the help of a compass) on hardwoods and softwoods. This tool was developed during the writing of “The American Peasant,” my next book. The tool is used to do work such as this:
A peasant wall cabinet engraved using our new cutters.
And the tool itself looks like this:
The Crucible Engraving Tool and its cutters.
The tool with two cutters is $27. It includes instructions for sharpening and use.
Finally, we have a new batch of all-cotton, US-made T-shirts. The shirts are made in Tennessee and printed in Covington. They are soft, true-to-size and printed with our logo in white. Sizes Small to XXXL are available.
Oh, and we are closing out the last of our grey T-shirts. They are on deep discount and can be found here.
The green paint can appear almost black in some light.
I’ve used linseed oil paint on casework for some time; this is my first chair using the stuff. This comb-back is painted with Holkham green from Allbäck. On top of the paint is a thin coat of beeswax and washed linseed oil.
I am pleased by the result. The hand-brushed paint shows the grain’s figure. And it has a smooth feel, without being plastic-y. Like all hand jobs (no pun intended), the paint is not perfect. Some very small areas are worn a bit, especially on the chair’s facets. I like the look. It will only look better as it ages – that’s one of the many charms of linseed oil paint.
This chair is built with a mix of woods: red elm for the seat, undercarriage and comb. The armbow is red oak. The sticks are ash. All parts are sawn or rived for maximum strength. All the housed joints use animal glue (Death Grip, to be exact). It is reversible, should repairs become necessary in a few dozen years.
The chair is set up for general use. The back tilts at 14°, and the seat tilts back 5°. The seat height is 16-3/4”, offering 19” between the arms. The chair is 40” tall overall. If you need the seat lowered, I am happy to do that – no extra charge.
Or you could run some thread through the crease….
The hands of the chair feature an unusual crease detail that I saw on a chair at St Fagans National Museum of Wales in the museum’s storerooms. It is decorative. But, yes you could perch a cigarette there.
I am selling this chair via a random drawing.
Purchasing the Chair
The chair is $1,650 plus $250 shipping to your door in the lower 48. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.) If you wish to buy the chair, send an email with the subject line “green-comb back” to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 5 p.m. (Eastern) on Thursday, Sept. 14. In the email please include your:
First name and last name
U.S. shipping address
Daytime phone number (this is for the trucking quote only)
After all the emails have arrived, we will pick a winner that evening via a random drawing.
If you are the “winner,” the chair can be picked up at our storefront for free. Or we can ship it to you via common carrier. We now charge a flat $250 to ship a chair anywhere in the lower 48 states.
After Open Wire Live last week in Amana, Iowa, we are happy to be back to the electronic question-and-answer format. (Yes, we loved hugging you in Amana. No, you didn’t smell too awful. And it’s OK about the drool.) Also, people tended to duck every time I yelled “Open Wire!” when I was asked a woodworking question.
So here we go.
Here’s how it works: Type your question in the comment field. I will post my answer. It is that simple.
Today we’ve released the revised edition of “The Stick Chair Book” on better paper and at a lower price than the original: $47. In addition, the pdf of the book is now a free download forever. No need to register or give up your email for any spammy marketing techniques. Just click this link and it will download to your computer.
Of course, we hope you will order the physical book. Like all our books, it is made in America with a sewn binding and cloth-covered hardbound boards. But if you can’t afford the hardback, or you aren’t sure if stick chairs are for you, download the pdf and (I hope) enjoy it.
If you forget about this blog entry, the link to download the pdf is on the product page for the hardbound book – right at the top of the description.
The revised edition of “The Stick Chair Book” is 10 percent shorter than the first edition, but it contains the same information. The same techniques. The same five chair plans. Same dork-a$$ sense of humor. During the summer, I rewrote the entire book to streamline the language and fix a few typographical and factual errors. (Why did I do this? The answer is on page 17 of the book.)
Finally, the colors I wanted.
The print job of this press run is particularly spectacular. It is gratifying to see the images in the rich colors I intended. Pandemic shortages forced us to use a paper for the old edition that was very expensive and not very vibrant.
