Lost Art Press

Chairmaking on the Cheap(er) Part 4: Stationary Bevels

Posted on by Lost Art Press

We make sliding bevels here at Crucible Tool, and we love them. But you don’t need them for making chairs. 

Once when I couldn’t find my sliding bevel, I made some blocks of wood with fixed angles sawn on the ends. These guided my drill bit while making mortises. A few years later, I saw an improvement on the idea in a photo of someone’s shop (I cannot remember where). These doo-dads (shown above) were in the background – I don’t think they were even discussed in the article. But they are brilliant.

It’s basically a piece of wood (3/4” x 1-1/2” x 5” or so) with a groove plowed down the middle. The groove is the same width as the thickness of hardboard (usually 1/8” thick). Then you cut the desired angles onto the ends of bits of hardboard and slide them into the grooves. 

The wooden base keeps the tool stable. The removable hardboard means you can swap out angles for different chairs. The two stationary bevels shown in the photo above do all the leg angles for the staked armchair in “The Anarchist’s Design Book” plus about half the chairs in “The Stick Chair Book.”

The nice thing about these stationary bevels is they don’t lose their setting when you drop them off the bench. 

— Christopher Schwarz

Help Us Build a Workbench at the March 26 Open House

Posted on by fitz
The “Nicholson” bench – a popular style in the 19th century.

At our upcoming open house – 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, March 26 – you’re invited to help us build a workbench – or simply watch us work and ask questions.

We’ve been working with the Cincinnati Museum Center for a new permanent exhibit, Made in Cincinnati, that will include in the “made by hand section” an educational display about the very important 19th-century Cincinnati craftsman (and ahead-of-his-time ersatz epidemiologist) Henry Boyd. On exhibit will be one of his “swelled railed bedsteads” and a re-creation of his shop space, which is where this Nicholson-style workbench will end up.

We have been working on a book on Boyd for the last couple years – more on this exciting topic in the next week or so.

Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to find extant pictures or drawings of Boyd’s shop – but given the prevalence in his lifetime (1802-1886) of this sturdy and inexpensive bench style, it’s a logical inference that his bench was similar to the one featured in “Mechanic’s Companion.”

Join us in this build, and help us and the Museum Center celebrate the legacy of craft in our city and to share Boyd’s amazing story.

Made by Hand is scheduled to open July 1 at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Some elements will change over time, says Stacey Kutish, senior director of exhibition development, but she expects Boyd’s bed and shop exhibit to remain on display.

— Megan Fitzpatrick

P.S. Our shop is located at 837 Willard St., Covington, KY 41011. There is plenty of street parking.

Chairmaking on the Cheap(er) Part 3: Fitting the Comb

Posted on by Lost Art Press

One of my favorite magazine articles by Adam Cherubini was titled: “How to Saw Faster than a Table Saw.” His solution was: Don’t saw. Instead of ripping a board to a particular width, try to work with the boards you have on hand and their existing widths.

This blog entry is somewhat in that vein.

When fitting the comb onto a chair’s back sticks, you have a few choices about how to do it.

  1. Shave the sticks until you have a perfect 1”-long x 1/2”-diameter tenon on each stick
  2. Use a tenon cutter (or plug cutter) to size each tenon
  3. Do nothing to the sticks or their tenons.

I’m talking about No. 3 in this entry. Once while teaching a stick chair class, I realized I had left my 1/2” tenon cutter at home. It was the last day of class, and everyone was behind schedule. There was no time for students to shave their sticks.

Then it hit me: The chair’s combs are secured on the sticks with pegs. So the fit between the mortises and the tenons doesn’t have to be airtight. 

Then I knew exactly what to do. 

The 1/2″ mortise in the comb.
The 1/2″ mortise in the comb after a little “wallering.”

I drilled the 1/2” mortises in the comb then “wallered” them out by rotating the bit around the rim of the mortise while the bit was turning. This created a tapered mortise.

On a chair’s back sticks, the tip is almost always tapered because of the way we shave sticky things. 

This little trick worked brilliantly. After a little “wallering,” the combs dropped onto the students’ back sticks with a few mallet taps. A little glue and some pegs secured the comb. 

And we all got done in time to go get a beer.

This is how I now fit most of my combs. It’s faster, and it usually looks better, too.

More tips to come.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. If you own soft-jaw pliers, you can also compress the tenons a bit and waller the mortise a little less. Your call.

Robert Wearing on Chopping Mortices by Hand

Posted on by fitz
Photo 13 . Chopping the mortice. The true mortice chisel is shown and the workpiece is cramped to a morticing block which is held in a bench vice.

The following is excerpted from “The Essential Woodworker,” by Robert Wearing. In our opinion, “The Essential Woodworker” is one of the best books on hand-tool usage written in the post-Charles Hayward era. Wearing was classically trained in England as a woodworker and embraced both power and hand tools in his shop and in his teaching.

The mortices should be cut before sawing the tenons, as the latter are more liable to suffer accidental damage before assembly. It is not good practice to grip the work in the vice because then it cannot be tested for verticality, and if it is driven down in the vice during the process, it can become scored. Instead, cramp the work to a morticing block (Fig 106a) with G-cramps or handscrews. The block can be gripped in the vice (Fig 106b) or bolted to the bench (Fig 106c). This method is particularly useful when the bench has a front apron which prevents cramping. The morticing block is useful when the workpiece is small and thin.

Fig 107a shows how a shallow trench can be cut before beginning the mortice proper. Simply lean on the chisel until there is a crunch, then wipe the chisel across (Fig 107b) removing the small chips. The chisel can now be positioned without effort. Before starting to chop, put a depth mark on the chisel (a piece of masking tape will do). If two mortices are to be cut (Fig 108), two depth marks are required (Fig 109). Do not cut the first mortice to full depth or the second will be chopped over a hole and the inside corner may break away (Fig 110). The first mortice should be chopped to a reduced depth (Fig 111) then the second to full depth, thus avoiding this risk.

Having cramped the work securely to the block, drive in the chisel near one end of the mortice, bevel towards the centre (Fig 112). Check that it is vertical by placing a small straightedge against the true face (Fig 113); a longer rule will foul the handle. Withdraw the chisel, turn it round and drive in again with the bevel towards the hole. Push forward to break off the chip, then lever it out. Continue the sequence of drive in (Fig 114), break off the chip (Fig 115) then lever out (Fig 116). Continue almost to the end of the mortice, leaving a small piece of waste on which to lever. Frequently check that the chisel is vertical. Reverse the chisel and proceed to the other end. Continue the method, backwards and forwards until full depth has been reached (Fig 117). Finally chop down the ends at the knife marks, break off and remove the chip without bruising the ends.

Accuracy of depth can be tested by using an adjustable depth gauge or an improvized wooden one (Fig 118). If there is a haunch socket, this is chopped in the same way, right to the end of the component as in Fig 108. The mortice cannot be narrower than the width of the chisel, so it follows that any whittling of the sides of the mortice to neaten it will make it oversize. Keep the chisel vertical and do not permit it to twist as this will also result in an oversize mortice. The practice of first drilling a row of holes and then opening them up neither saves time nor produces a more accurate mortice.

Chairmaking on the Cheap(er) Part 2: Leg Tenons

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Nearly all vernacular chairs use straight (not tapered) cylindrical tenons throughout.

Before I owned a tapered tenon cutter and reamer, I used a 1”-diameter auger to make the mortise in the seat, and I shaved the tenons on the legs to size with planes. This requires great care.

You can greatly speed the process by using a plug cutter in a drill or a brace to cut the tenons. These inexpensive tools ($16 to $38) are widely available. They are supposed to be used “only in a drill press,” but you can use them safely in a handheld drill or brace as long as you first taper the tip of your tenon.

I make this taper with a jack plane. First I drill a shallow 1”-diameter hole in the center of the end of the leg to act as a target to work toward. Then I use a coarse-set jack plane to waste away the top of the leg until the tenon cutter just barely fits over the tip of the leg.

Next I level the leg in my vise, and I level the tenon cutter (I use a bubble level I epoxied to my drill’s body). Then I drill. It makes a nearly perfect 1”-diameter tenon (0.995”). The tenon has a shoulder, which I like for mechanical reasons. I like to lock the shoulder against the underside of the seat and lock the tenon in the top of the seat with a wedge. But you can plane away the shoulder if you like. Here’s a short movie that shows the tenon-cutting process.

More tips to come.

— Christopher Schwarz