We just released an entirely revised video on how to build a comb-back stick chair. But before you consider purchasing it, check your email. If you bought the original video sometime during the last four years, you should’ve received an email giving you free access to the new video.
If you didn’t get the email, log into your account at lostartpress.com. After you log in, click on the button that says: My Downloadable Files. If you bought the previous video, the files for the new video will be there.
If you didn’t buy the previous video, here’s some important news: You can buy the new video for 50 percent off for the next 30 days. Here’s the link. Like all of our videos, this one has zero DRM (digital rights management). That means you can download the files and transfer them to any device. The files won’t ever just disappear (unless you delete them).
If have trouble accessing the new video, ask [email protected] for assistance.
Why the Revised Video?
During the last four years I’ve come up with a lot of ways to simplify and streamline the process for building a comb-back stick chair. The new video shows all these processes. The new techniques are the result of teaching chairmaking to hundreds of students during the last four years and building 100+ more chairs on my own.
This video is suitable for anyone who wants to start making chairs. No previous chairmaking experience is needed. And the tool list is mostly stuff you probably already own.
Later this year we plan to update the video on building a Gibson chair as well. And we’ll distribute that revised video the same way we’re distributing this one.
My first chairmaking students in a class co-taught with Alexander Bear at my home shop, the Kansas City Woodworkers’ Guild.
I started teaching chairmaking one year ago, fresh off a week assisting Christopher Schwarz’s Chairmaker’s Toolbox class. I had just a few chairs under my belt and probably wasn’t quite ready to teach anyone else how to make them, but I had a willing co-teacher and enough reckless abandon to try. We set off on a 10-week adventure, building chairs in three-hour chunks on Monday nights.
After a few weeks, one of the students came in and said, “I’ve been reading the book after class – you sound exactly like Chris!”
Learning to narrate your actions while also maintaining accuracy only comes with practice — which sometimes means messing up in front of an audience. Luckily that didn’t happen here!
He wasn’t wrong. I am a self-taught woodworker; the closest thing I had to a woodworking education was “The Stick Chair Book,” the LAP blog, and two weeks at the Willard Street shop. I pored over my notes before every class. It made perfect sense that I was teaching in Chris’s voice. Each week felt like a final exam that I was cramming for, hoping we could make it through the evening with everyone’s parts intact.
I had to cram because I wasn’t fluent in chairmaking yet – I knew the steps but I didn’t really speak the language. I studied and memorized so I could remember how to do something and confidently answer student questions about “what if?” or “why?”– even if those answers weren’t based in personal experience. In other words: I faked it ’til I made it. And we ended up with a batch of decent chairs.
I approach every visit to LAP with a specific goal. Last year I wanted to understand how Chris structured a class. This year’s priority? Stock prep and tool maintenance.
On the last day of the CMT class in 2025, Chris invited me back to co-teach the next one. I wasn’t ready when he asked me but I had a whole year to get there.
Fluency only comes with time on the tools and hours at the bench. I committed myself to making more chairs, from “The Stick Chair Book” and of my own design. I was determined to fix my mistakes (of which there were many: cracked arms, failed finishes, spelched mortises … the list goes on!) so that I could fix student mistakes. I challenged myself to build without referencing notes, relying instead on instinct and memory. It worked. Once I absorbed the processes, teaching became less like reading off a script. It morphed into something more creative, more fun. The act of teaching became a constant soothing affirmation: You know what you are doing. You Are A Chairmaker.
When I walked into the LAP shop two weeks ago, though, I was hit with a whole new set of doubts. I knew I could build a chair and teach a class, but what would it be like teaching in front of the person who taught me? Would the students ask me any questions or would they just want to talk to Chris? How embarrassing is it going to be when he hears me rip off one of his jokes? Am I just a bad bootleg?
Chris taught me how to build my first chair at the Willard Street shop in September 2023. I’m amazed by how far I’ve come and how much further I have to go.
Turns out I didn’t have anything to worry about. I surprised myself: I had built the muscle memory; developed my own questionable jokes (ask me about Tenon Town!); and developed the confidence to teach in my own way, injected with my personality and my experience. I didn’t feel like a mimic anymore; I felt like a part of a craft tradition.
And the student feedback this time?
“You and Chris are so different – you make a great pair.”
The Chairmaker’s Toolbox is accepting applications for a scholarship class this August at Lost Art Press. All six students will receive free tuition and materials (plus some meals) during the week-long chairmaking class, Aug. 3-7.
Apply for this scholarship class here. Applications close on May 15.
The class will be taught by Grace Ambrose and me (Chris). During the five days, we will all build comb-back chairs using basic tools and simple techniques practiced by peasants and farmers during the last 300 years. No previous chairmaking experience is required. You don’t need to own a chest full of tools. You just have to really want to build chairs.
The Chairmaker’s Toolbox helps people who have historically been excluded or under-represented from the craft. We have supported this organization from its inception and welcome anyone and everyone into the craft. In addition to The Chairmaker’s Toolbox, we support many other scholarship programs for veterans, woodworkers with financial needs and those who struggle with mental health.
This class will take place in our workshop in Covington, Kentucky, which is a converted German barroom in the inner city. Each day begins with pastries, tea and coffee. Our bench room is filled with natural light and traditional workbenches. After a morning of chairmaking, students eat lunch in our converted biergarten (weather permitting), followed by a long afternoon of work at the bench.
Evenings are up to the students. Some go out to dinner in one of the many dive bars and restaurants in the 100-percent walkable neighborhood. Others cook for themselves.
By the end, all of the students will walk away from the class with a finished chair and the knowledge to make chairs in their own workshop.
This is one of our favorite weeks every year. These classes are filled with sharp and interesting people who are ready to change the craft for the better.
If this sounds like fun (it is), apply here and join us this August.
I’m showing two stick chairs in black cherry that are based on the 18th-century Bebb chair from Wales (one of the key chairs in my design language). The chairs will be for sale, and I am selling them at a friendly Cincinnati price. (If they don’t sell, I’ll put them up for sale here on the blog.)
The show features furniture from students at University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP), plus independent designers (that’s me!) and regional brands.
The show opens this Friday, April 17, from 6 to 10 p.m. with beverages from Northern Row Brewery. I’ll be there on Friday – hopefully with a few other Lost Art Press employees. I always love furniture shows. There is no better way to see where you stack up in terms of technical skills and your eye.
Today we offer two comfortable stick chairs for sale that Kale and I recently finished. As always, the price includes crating and shipping anywhere in the lower 48 states. Here are the details.
The Bebb Chair, a Welsh Comb-back in Olive Ash
This chair is my interpretation of one of my favorite Welsh stick chairs. I first saw the chair in Richard Bebb’s booklet “Welsh Country Furniture,” and the chair kicked off a personal design cycle that has yet to subside.
My version is as close to the original as possible in form, except for the seat. The original was unsaddled. My version has a saddle that looks good and adds some comfort.
The chair is compact and comfortable, with arms that are 10-1/4” above the seat and a low comb that supports the sitter’s shoulders. The seat height is 15-5/8”, with the chair’s overall height at 37-1/2”.
The entire chair is made from one board of extraordinary quartersawn olive ash. All the joints are assembled with animal glue, so the chair can be repaired in the far future. And the chair is finished in soft wax, a non-toxic finish that can easily be repaired by simply applying more soft wax. It is a low-lustre finish that allows the texture of the ash to radiate.
All the surfaces are finished with edge tools. The legs and sticks are shaved with planes and shaves, leaving a faceted surface that looks and feels nice.
This chair is ideal for lounging by the fire. The back isn’t tilted much, as per the original, but the seat’s tilt encourages the sitter to relax against the comb.
I’m selling this chair for $1,900, and that price includes crating and trucking. For details on purchasing the chair, see the end of the entry.
— Christopher Schwarz
Chapel Lane Irish Chair in Elm, Sycamore and Pigmented Oil
This chair was built alongside Rex Krueger, James Wright and Eoin Reardon a number of weeks ago when Lost Art Press hosted a chairmaking extravaganza. “Chapel Hill” refers to the name of the antique dealer who owned the original chair this form is inspired from.
With a significant tilt, this chair is destined for lounging. The seat sits 15-1/2″ above the ground, and the arms rest 10″ above the seat. At a 31-1/2″ total height and a seat width of just under 20″, this chair cradles your back just below the shoulder blade and can fit just about anywhere.
Made mostly from elm, except for its sycamore seat, this chair holds true to its vernacular roots. Through-tenons on the comb and arms are left proud and textured. The occasional plane, or scraper mark may be found due to this chair being finished with hand tools. And just like Chris’s, this chair was also assembled with animal glue – making future repairs easy peasy.
Most exciting, this chair was my first go at using the “dirt, soot, and oil” finish, featured in the latest “The Stick Chair Journal.” Made from two parts linseed oil, one part black pigment and one part red pigment, this finish provides a depth and well-worn look that allows the grain to sing.
The legs, seat and sticks are left faceted, while the arms and comb are slightly rounded for comfort. Grab a footstool and let yourself sink in to this form.
I’m selling this chair for $1,300, which includes both crating and shipping. For more information about how to purchase, keep reading.
— Kale Vogt
How to Purchase a Chair
If you wish to buy one of these chairs, simply send an email before 3 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, March 12, to [email protected]. If you want to buy the Welsh Bebb chair, please use the subject line “Bebb Chair.” If you wish to buy the Irish chair, please use the subject line “Chapel Lane Chair.” In your email, please include your:
Name
Street address, city, state and ZIP
Your daytime phone number (for quoting shipping charges only)
If your name is randomly selected, we’ll send you an email. Sorry, but we cannot ship chairs overseas.
