Most professional woodworkers and finishers are guarded about the way they finish their pieces. No matter how many articles or books you’ve read about finishing, that’s only a small part of the knowledge out there. Finishing is still a “black art.”
So when Megan and I drove out to John Porritt’s shop in Upstate New York to shoot photographs for “The Belligerent Finisher,” I wasn’t sure what the trip would hold. I have made many similar trips that ended with the woodworker saying: “You know, I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going to tell you how I work.”
Thankfully for all of us, John was incredibly generous with his knowledge and technique. In fact, he showed us exactly how he finished two chairs that he built. Even after three decades of finishing pieces and working with professional finishers, I learned a lot.
And even though I don’t finish my chairs like John does, the methods he shows in the book have been extremely helpful in improving my own finishes.
I can’t give everything away because I really want John’s book to succeed. But here’s one little thing that I think you should try.
An inexpensive chainmail burnisher.
One of John’s finishing tools is a chainmail pot scrubber. You can buy these at any good kitchen store. I bought mine for $10. It’s stainless steel.
This tool has many tasks in the finishing process. I have been using it to burnish raw wood surfaces before applying finish. The pot scrubber burnishes the wood, bringing up a sheen. The burnisher consolidates material, turning hard corners into hand-friendly surfaces. And it just generally brings the level of finish up on the piece, making it nicer to touch.
The burnished chair, ready for finish.
I encourage you to give it a try. I am 100 percent sold. But even if you don’t like it, you can use the scrubber in the kitchen. So you have nothing to lose.
“The Belligerent Finisher” is a hands-on, no-secrets finishing book that details how John Porritt adds years of age and patina to a piece. John is a life-long furniture restorer and chairmaker in Upstate New York. In his book he shows the simple processes and common chemicals he uses to make beautiful, tactile surfaces.
In my 24 years of working with woodworking authors, I have never met anyone as generous as John is with finishing information. Most professional finishers and restorers keep their techniques to themselves.
We are thrilled to offer this book – our first title devoted to finishing.
The Stick Chair Journal No. 1 is a personal project. After 10 years of being out of the magazine business, I realized that I missed it. The Journal is the publication that I wished existed when I first became interested in chairmaking. It’s about techniques, tools and what we call “big thoughts” related to chairmaking. And there is a complete plan for a chair that you can build and even sell if you like.
Plus no ads. No “advertorials.” No sponsored “stories” masquerading as editorial.
Even the way we print the Journal is unlike any magazine I know of. Many magazines are bound by staples, called “saddle stitching”. Others are sheets of paper that are glued at the spine, called “perfect binding.” Both methods make an object that I consider temporary.
We print the Journal in signatures. Then sew and glue them together – just like our books.
The Journal is an annual publication – I’m already deep into working on issue No. 2.
Another difference: When you buy the printed Journal, you also get the pdf for free. Plus a download of the full-size patterns for the chair featured in that issue.
One last detail: We have printed 4,000 and will not reprint the issue. Once the printed copies are gone, they are gone for good. We are making this available to all our retailers worldwide. But it is up to them as to whether they carry it.
Diving back into the world of periodicals might be a financial mistake – but it makes me endlessly happy. So let’s see what happens.
After a long dry spell – the last book we sent to press was in December – we now have four books on press. (Actually, we have five books if you count the somewhat-cursed edition of Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises” that has been on press for six months. More on that below.)
Today we finished our work on two books and won’t see them again until a semi backs up to the warehouse in 11 weeks. You can sign up to be notified when any of these books arrive in the warehouse on this page.
“The Belligerent Finisher” by John Porritt. This is our first book devoted to finishing, and it is a doozie. Porritt, a furniture restorer and chairmaker, shows many of the tricks he uses to add subtle (and beautiful) wear and age to a new piece. Porritt is not attempting to show you how to make fakes. He is trying to show you something deeper – how to add color and texture to a piece so its form matches its finish. Most of his processes use simple and common tools (a chainmail pot scrubber, a deer antler, a handheld propane torch, washing powder). The book walks you through all the steps for two backstools. Then there’s a gallery that shows how you can mix and match these techniques on other pieces. The book should arrive in our warehouse in September.
“Sharpen This” by Christopher Schwarz. I think of this book as a piece of historical fiction. What if someone wrote a book about how to sharpen, and that person wasn’t making sharpening equipment. And the internet didn’t exist. This is a pocket-book-sized treatise that boils down everything I know about sharpening media, steel and technique to give the reader a clear understanding of sharpening. The book embraces all the sharpening systems. But it focuses on how to work with a minimum amount of expensive gear. And how to work fast. This is a book I never wanted to write. But after teaching so many beginners who were so horribly confused, I decided to just lay it all out there. The book should arrive in our warehouse in September.
“Euclid’s Door” by George Walker and Jim Tolpin. Geometry lovers rejoice. Jim and George are back with a new book about how to make your own insanely accurate woodworking layout tools using simple hand tools and geometry that blew our minds. Honestly, both Megan and I had to step into the shop to confirm some of the geometric constructions really worked (they do). If you have been resisting geometry and whole-number ratios, this book will show you how to apply it directly to tools that you will use for the rest of your life. Really good stuff – and the book is entirely hand-illustrated by Barb Walker and Keith Mitchell. The book should arrive in our warehouse in late August.
The Stick Chair Journal No. 1. A crazy experiment. Can we make a beautiful journal about vernacular chairs and have it be slightly more successful than our money-losing posters? The first issue has techniques you can use, a tool review, folklore about a cursed chair and complete plans for a new vernacular chair design, which you are free to build and sell if you like. When you buy the journal you will also receive a download of the full-size patterns for the chair. The Journal should arrive in our warehouse in late August.
You can sign up to be notified when these books arrive in our store. It’s a simple process, and it is 100 percent not marketing. We are not trying to trick you into signing up for ads or some worthless newsletter. It’s a notification service that costs a lot of money to use. But we encourage you to please use it to make your life easier.
Oh, and about that cursed edition of Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises.” That has been at the printer since December. Then the plant shut down because of COVID. Then it shut down because of ransomware. Then they printed one of the signatures with a missing page and had to redo the signature. The whole situation is almost laughable.
The plant told me they would ship those books on June 24. I’m not holding my breath.
One aspect of furniture finishing that has not been fully explained is how to achieve the gently worn, warm and human surfaces that you find on antiques.
Sure, there are lots of people who “age” furniture by thrashing it with heavy chains and burying it in a dung pile. But their furniture looks like crap (at best) and not believable (at worst).
During the last few years, I’ve gotten to know John Porritt, a British chairmaker and antiques restorer who works from a small red shed in upstate New York. Porritt has been at his trade for many decades, and his eye for color and patina is outstanding. I’ve seen many examples of his work, and it is impressive because you cannot tell that any repair or restoration has been done.
For his first book, “The Belligerent Finisher,” Porritt explains all the steps in taking a new chair and transforming it into something that looks like it’s 200 years old. The goal is not to produce fakes, but instead to create a finish that looks correct for pieces built on antique patterns.
His techniques are simple and use (mostly) everyday objects and chemicals – a pot scrubber, a deer antler, vinegar and tea. How you apply these tools – with a wee bit of belligerence – is what’s important.
The book will be lavishly illustrated with color photos. Megan and I spent two long days with Porritt in his shop, documenting every process for the book. We are currently editing the text and working on the page design. If all goes to plan, the book will be available in late summer or early fall.
Both Megan and I were properly amazed at the results Porritt achieved in a short period of time. We think almost anyone with a little patience (and belligerence) will be able to achieve beautiful results.
One of John Porritt’s comb-backs. The form and the finish are top-notch.
The stick chairs that I make are on the contemporary side, with lots of chamfers, sharp angles and crisp facets. But the chairs I love – the ones that take my breath away – are the old ones, especially from Wales. These chairs are worn and polished from hundreds of hands and thousands of nights in front of the fire.
The materials the chairs are made from are nothing exotic – they are built from the hedges and woods surrounding the maker.
All of these things add up to a chair that I don’t have the materials or skills (especially finishing skills) to make.
But John Porritt does. You might remember John from a 2019 blog entry when I visited him in New York. Since then, we’ve tried to arrange for him to teach a class here, which was unfortunately cancelled by the pandemic.
A four-stick comb-back. Note the shape of the arms and how the through-tenons are proud.
Recently John finished up his latest batch of chairs and had a professional photographer, Lydia Curran of Monster Machine in Chatham, NY, take some photos. I have been staring at these photos for more than a week now. The chairs are gorgeous, like nothing I have seen from any modern maker.
John is one of those rare makers who understands how these chairs should look and feel. The forms are spot-on – like something that is 200 years old. The surfaces and finishes are truly extraordinary. Though John isn’t trying to make fakes, these chairs look like the chairs I’ve seen at St Fagans National Museum of History and Tim Bowen Antiques in Ferryside, Wales.
This is how many old chairs look.
John has invited me and Megan to his workshop to learn more about his finishing techniques. And I am eager to take him up on his offer. “One of my finishing techniques,” John writes, “maybe the most important – is belligerence.”
These chairs are extremely special. And though this might sound weird coming from a guy who sells chairs: If you are at all interested in the real deal, talk to John about buying one of his chairs. In addition to his deep knowledge of chairs from the British Isles and finishing, John restores old tools for several prominent tool dealers. He’s a delight to talk to and one of the hidden gems in the United States.
