Lost Art Press

For Sale: A Welsh Stick Chair by Chris Williams

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Welsh chairmaker Chris Williams is teaching classes in our storefront this month and has brought over one of his truly remarkable Welsh stick chairs, made from Welsh woods in the old tradition by a 100-percent Welshman.

Chris is, quite simply, the best stick chair maker alive. He’s the one we all look up to, and he’s always pushing the design of the chair forward in terms of design and backward in terms of using armbows made from curved branches – the traditional way that the best chairs were made.

In fact, I would put up his work against any fine furniture maker in terms of fit and surface finish. Chris absolutely tortures himself to get it right. And it shows in the results.

Chris, the author of “Good Work,” was shown how to make Welsh stick chairs by John Brown, and Chris worked with JB for many years, making these chairs.

Here’s a little about the chair from Chris:

Dimensions:
Overall height: 41”
Seat height: 17-1/2”
Seat depth: 16-1/2”
Seat width: 24”

The hedges in Wales where Chris sources the wood for his chairs.

The chair is made from timber I source myself from around my home village of Llanybri in Wales. Small-diameter ash logs are split by hand and are used to construct the legs, stretchers and sticks. The three-piece ash arm bow is made from naturally curved ash from the hedgerows, which is cut in winter and seasoned for a few years before use. I follow the tradition that the armbow dictates the shape of the seat, which in turn makes Welsh chairs visually and uniquely distinctive from other chair forms. The two-piece elm seat is jointed with loose tenons and the oak pegs which are used in this construction technique form a pattern on the seat which is visible when a raking light casts across it. The chair is stained with a black dye and topcoated with a linseed oil finish. The open grain of the timbers is clearly visible through the matte/satin finish.

Typically, Chris has a buyer for the chairs he brings over. But for this one we decided to offer it up in a silent auction here on our blog. All the proceeds go to Chris. (We never take a cut when we sell other people’s work.)

Purchasing the Chair

This chair is being sold via silent auction. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.) If you wish to buy the chair, send an email to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 3 p.m. (Eastern) on Thursday, June 15. In the email please use the subject line “Welsh Chair Sale” and include your:

  • Your bid
  • First name and last name
  • U.S. shipping address
  • Daytime phone number (this is for the trucking quote only)

This chair has a reserve. The sale price will include shipping to anywhere in the lower 48 states. Or you are welcome to pick it up in our storefront here in Covington, Ky.

‘Cadi’ Visits Nannau Hall

Posted on by Kara Uhl

Martyn Owen, a filmmaker, has been working on a mini-documentary about Nannau Hall, a Grade II* Georgian house on the grounds where the Nannau Oak, featured in “Cadi & the Cursed Oak,” once stood. Earlier this year, Nannau Hall received some attention after the Facebook page “Hidden and Forgotten Wales/England” shared some of Martyn’s photos, videos and stills. Why? Unfortunately, Nannau Hall is rapidly deteriorating.

Although the hall’s current state may be too costly to fix, Martyn hopes his documentary will help raise awareness. Here are some photos and stills to give you a sense of what Nannau Hall looks like today (and also what it may have looked like in the past). Also, “Cadi” made a visit as well!

You can also see a video of the interior of Nannau Hall by Martyn in this “North Wales Live” article. An article about the situation also appeared in “Wales Online” here. We’ll share more information about how to view the mini-documentary when we can.

— Kara Gebhart Uhl

Where to Put Your Carver’s Vise

Posted on by Lost Art Press
Sorry Megan, I drilled a hole in your bench.

I know some readers are loath to drill a new hole in their workbench (or file the mouth of a handplane, or reshape a saw handle) without a court order. Today I’m putting on my robes and firing up the wooden gavel. Judge Crissy is in session.

The advantage of the carver’s vise (on sale at Grizzly until August – not sponsored) is that it can go anywhere there’s a hole. But where should the hole go? 

Here’s my thought. Put it at the far end of your bench, where a tail vise would go. Drill the hole about 3-1/2” from the front edge of the bench and 3-1/2” from the end of the bench. That allows the vise’s sheet-metal base to contact the benchtop fully. And it allows you to stand anywhere in a 270° arc around the vise to use it.

But here’s the best reason: It will speed up your work with a tenon cutter. By rotating the vise diagonally, as shown above, you can tenon both ends of a stick without reclamping it or re-leveling it. It’s just level the stick, clamp the stick, tenon one end and then tenon the other.

The second advantage is that I usually have a garbage can under the bench there, so about half my waste from tenoning ends up in the bin automatically. And the rest is easily brushed from the benchtop and into the garbage can.

— Christopher Schwarz

LAP Open Wire, June 10, 2023

Posted on by Lost Art Press
Because Chris Williams has been teaching a class in the bench room, I’ve been doing some design work at my desk.

You are stuck with me again for the LAP Open Wire this week. (We have a special guest lined up for next week, however.)

So let’s hear your woodworking questions.

Here’s how it works: Type your question in the comment field. I will post my answer. It is that simple.

Before you ask a question, please read this.

  1. If you could limit the number of questions you ask to one or two, that would be appreciated. 
  2. If your question is your first comment here, it will automatically be flagged for moderation. Your question will appear after I approve it.

Comments have been closed. See you next week!

— Christopher Schwarz

Comparing Carver’s Vises (Don’t Waste Your Money)

Posted on by Lost Art Press
The green carver’s vise I adore.
The red version from StewMac.

I’m a big fan of the Taiwanese-made “carver’s vise” sold by many vendors with slightly different paint jobs. The vise is inexpensive and incredibly versatile, especially for chairmaking operations. Most students who take a chair class here seem to end up ordering one after using one of ours. The vise basically replaces a shaving horse.

Recently I decided to buy a few more of these vises so that every student could choose between one of the carver’s vises, or one of our also-excellent Hi Vises from Benchcrafted. 

After writing about my love of the green Taiwanese vise, several readers told me I should try the version from StewMac. The company has upgraded the vise to improve its performance.

I ordered one and immediately put it to work on the comb-back stick chair on my bench. Here is the short version of the review: Don’t bother with the StewMac. The upgrades are unnoticeable.

Instead, buy the Grizzly version of the vise, which is on sale for $129 with free shipping until Aug. 14. This is not a paid advertorial. If someone asked me to do something like that I’d tell them to poop up their own butts. The Grizzly version is basically half the price of the StewMac version (after shipping and taxes). And they work the same.

Let’s take a closer look.

The StewMac version is supposed to have hardwood jaws. They aren’t hardwood. They are a softwood – just like the jaws on the green versions.

The StewMac version has roller bearings to make the vise operate more smoothly. There is no difference in the speed or ease that both vises close. Both are swift. Neither is smoother than the other.

The StewMac version has a round handwheel with a plastic handle. The cheaper green versions have a simple cast handle. I prefer the simple cast handle. I don’t like plastic, and there is literally nothing wrong with the all-cast-iron handle. 

Nylon locknuts.

The StewMac version has nylon locknuts on the jaws. The green versions use common threaded bolts. This is the tiniest upgrade ever. Yes, the locknuts are smart and a bit better. They prevent the jaws from freezing up temporarily when you over-twist them, which is not a big deal. So yeah, good call. But it’s not worth the $74.75 extra for the StewMac.

Oh, and the StewMac is painted red instead of green. Whoever painted these vises – both the red ones and the green ones – had just failed an eye exam. The paint job is B- at best. But I don’t care about the paint job because it doesn’t hold the work.

Note the front jaw is ash instead of the softwood. After replacement, this jaw has yet to fail.

What I Would Upgrade

If I wanted to “upgrade” the green vise, here’s what I would do.

  1. Improve the jaws. They are softwood covered in a tough urethane. But after a while the jaws and their screws fail. I have fixed this on some of my vises by using a tough hardwood for the jaws, such as ash. 
  2. Lengthen the wingnut that secures the vise to the bench. The cast wingnut is pretty perfect. But I would prefer a bigger one so that I could get some more leverage to tighten and loosen the wingnut. It is easy to overtighten the vise by rotating the vise’s body in use. A larger wingnut would fix this problem.
On all these vises, a bigger wingnut (longer shafts on the balls, please), would be an improvement.

But other than that, the green vise is cheap and perfect. Unless you just prefer red.

— Christopher Schwarz