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UPDATE: This chair has been claimed.

I’ve just completed this comb-back stick chair with some old-school details in black cherry sourced from the Ohio River Valley. 

This chair is definitely designed for lounging by a fire or window with a good book, a coffee or a beer. The back is pitched at 20° off the seat, and the seat is pitched to slide your body toward the armbow and the back sticks. If you like lumbar support, this chair has a good deal of it.

Yes, you could use this chair at the dining table. The chair that my wife, Lucy, uses is pitched similarly. She sits up straight while eating and then settles back into the chair as we mull over the day’s business.

The seat height is 17”, which is about as high as I’ll make a chair seat. (If you want it lower I’ll be happy to cut down the legs before shipment.) The chair is constructed with hide glue, so the joints can easily be repaired a few generations down the road. And the finish is an organic linseed oil/beeswax blend. This finish is designed to age and patinate. It doesn’t provide a lot of protection, but it is easy to repair and looks better and better each year.

Stylistically, this chair uses many details found on old stick chairs in Wales and Ireland. Both the comb and the hands of the chair have a shape that’s best described as a circle intersecting an arc. This shape is found over and again in old chairs and gives the chair an organic look.

I’ve also allowed the sticks through the arms to remain proud and have faceted them. They do not interfere with the comfort of the chair, but they are a delight to touch. All surfaces on the chair were shaped with rasps and scrapers, so you will find texture on all surfaces, from the hands to the faceted sticks.

Look for more old-school chairs from me in the coming weeks.

— Christopher Schwarz

When I make chairs with an old-school feel, it’s nice to leave the through-tenons on both the arms and seat a little proud. Lots of old chairs have proud tenons, which is likely a result of things shrinking and getting worn.

For years, I shaped my proud tenons with a shallow gouge (or a chisel) and a mallet. It worked, but if I struck the mallet too hard there were times that the grain would get torn up and the tenon would be ugly-ish.

Years ago I changed my technique to what is shown here. I think it’s easier and produces better results, but I’m not the best woodworker in Covington.

Step 1: Seal the Surrounding Surface

When I use proud tenons on a chair with a clear finish, I first seal the surrounding surface with two coats of shellac to prevent glue from fouling the arm or seat. It’s a quick process. I rag two thin coats of shellac on the unassembled arm or seat. 

After the shellac is dry, I assemble the chair as usual, wedge the tenons and remove any excess glue with hot water and a toothbrush.

Step 2: Saw the Tenons

After the chair is assembled, I saw the tenons so they are all 3/16” (about 5mm) proud of the arm or seat. On the seat, I just eyeball it with a saw. On the arms, I take a scrap of crap 5mm plywood and drill a 3/4” hole through the center. Place the scrap over the wedged tenon and saw it flush to the scrap.

Step 3: Shape the Tenons

Now the fun part. I tape around the tenon. The tape prevents the surface from getting dented. Then I chip away at the tenon with my scorp. I press the scorp’s cutting edge against the tenon and lever the handles up, removing a chip. I work all around the tenon until it looks like I want it to.

Then I pull up the mass of tape with care and place it over the next tenon.

When all the tenons are shaped, I decide if I need to remove the shellac. If I am adding a film finish (such as shellac or lacquer) then I leave the shellac as-is. If I am finishing the chair with an oil/wax blend, I need to remove the shellac. This is easily done by flooding the surface with alcohol and wiping it up with a rag. I do this a couple of times, then lightly sand around the tenons.

— Christopher Schwarz

On this day in 79 AD, Vesuvius erupted and forever changed our understanding of the early life of Romans and Greeks. The eruption caused a staggering loss of life, but it also preserved a snapshot in time at sites surrounding the volcano. 

We have learned a lot about early woodworking because of the eruption, and my book “Ingenious Mechanicks” explores the early workbenches preserved in paintings at Pompeii and Herculaneum. 

But my favorite Roman workbench from this era was preserved by water – not fire. Far north of Pompeii, the Roman fort at Saalburg (now Germany) has what I think is the oldest extant workbench, which was found in a well. I got to examine and measure it. And I reproduced it for the book.

To commemorate this important day, I am giving away the chapter on how to build the Saalburg bench.

Many people have dismissed my love of the low workbenches, but I use mine all the time in the shop and find it practical for many operations (particularly in chairmaking).

— Christopher Schwarz

Here is the window for our stick-chair livestream. You can also watch it on Vimeo via this link. After it’s complete, we’ll clean up the livestream, add some show notes and post it for those who couldn’t join us live.

Remember: We are Lost Art Press. Not Lost Art Podcast or Lost Art Videoblog. So it’s gonna be a little agricultural.

Also, commercial content: This is the book we’re discussing: “The Stick Chair Book Early Adopter Digital Package.”

— Christopher Schwarz