Lost Art Press

Investigating Old Stick Chairs

Posted on by Lost Art Press
The curators (one is standing in the rear of the photo) were pleasantly bemused by us.

I love books, photos and drawings, but if you want to quickly learn a lot about making and designing chairs, there is one path: Study the suckers in person every chance you get. Up close and slowly.

Last week, Welsh chairmaker Chris Williams arranged for me and some friends to study four old stick chairs in the collection at the Carmarthenshire Museum. Only one of these chairs was currently on display, so it was a chance to see some chairs that aren’t in the public eye. In addition to Chris and me, we had Megan Fitzpatrick, Kale Vogt, Ryan Saunders plus Tim and Betsan Bowen of Tim Bowen Antiques. Lots of eyes, both fresh and old.

This entry is a close look at these four chairs, and some of what I learned from them. There’s no way this blog entry can replicate my in-person experience. But it’s cheaper than a trip to Wales. Note, I didn’t take measurements of these chairs, so don’t bother asking for them. For me, the proportions and angles are far more important than eighths of an inch.

The short sticks were the first thing we investigated.

Brown Comb-back

This is a massive and well-proportioned chair that has a low stance and some curious details.

Let’s start with the obvious: it has only two short sticks holding up the armbow. That’s a rare configuration for a comb-back, so we immediately took a closer look. The thick brown-yellow paint (one of several colors) didn’t show any evidence of missing short sticks. But turning the chair over showed us the truth.

Though the underside of the arm was painted, raking light from a flashlight showed evidence of at least two more sticks that were missing under each arm. This was a relief in some ways, as the single stick under the hand was tempting me to try something stupid in a future chair.

Here you can see how the seat and arm curve inward toward the front of the seat. Also, note the two different hand shapes.

Next, we looked at the seat. Despite what I’ve seen in the past, I’m always surprised by how thick the seats on these chairs can be. I’ve seen them as thick as 3”. This one is a full 2” thick, with a generous bevel on the front of the chair that lightens the visual load (the “vertically striped shirt” of the chair world).

The seat looked like a typical D-shaped seat until we took a look from the rear of the chair. The sections of a D-shaped seat that are usually straight weren’t straight. They curved in toward the front edge of the seat.

When we looked at the shape of the armbow, this made sense. The armbow also curved inward toward the front of the chair. Many Welsh chairs begin with an arm shape, with the seat shape flowing from that. Perhaps the arm was made from a curved branch. Perhaps not. The paint wasn’t telling.

Other interesting details: The hands of the arm were not identical. This happens more than you might think. I don’t think the builder intentionally made two separate hands. I suspect that the hand shapes were determined by the wood itself, its defects or voids.

Note the repair on the arm – a common feature on these chairs and nothing to be ashamed of.

The legs were shaved round – you could still feel the facets.

A straight-on shot of the comb (you’re welcome).

My favorite part of this chair is the playful comb. Its basic shape is common: two Mickey Mouse-like ears on the ends with a raised area between them. But the chair’s builder went further. The ends have a delightful cove on the underside. And the top of the comb has a nice convex curve. The whole thing looks like a crown.

Despite the bark on the front seat, this is a well-considered chair.

Lowback

This tidy lowback has some secrets, some of which we were able to suss out.

First, look at the front edge of the seat. Yup, that’s bark. Wide boards have always been difficult to come by, so they didn’t waste any width on this one.

Evidence of a replaced stick.

The front posts were curious. They looked more English or West Country to my eye. They were joined to the chair with square mortise-and-tenon joints, while the rest of the joints in the chair were cylindrical. A close look under the arm showed us the shadow of a round mortise behind the square front posts. Likely the front posts are a replacement.

Also curious: None of the tenons for the short sticks poke through the armbow. They’re all blind. This feature is isn’t unique to this chair. It got me thinking how the mortises were drilled when the chair was built.

All the mortises through the seat were through-mortises – not blind. I think there’s a chance that some of the mortises were drilled from below the seat and then directly into the arm. The sticks all seem to lean back the same amount. So, it’s possible. Who knows?

Nice shoe. Some would call this a “swan’s neck.“

Finally, take a look at the beautiful shoe. The detail on its ends – an ogee and fillet – are nicely proportioned. And the hands are also tidy. I think this chair was made by a skilled hand.

This piece deserves its own investigation.

Unusual Child’s Chair

The third chair is one I didn’t spend much time with because of its odd construction. You see this in chairs in Ireland and Scandinavia more than Wales. I kinda wonder if it’s an import. The turned legs and insanely thick seat added to its curious stance.

I forgot to ask the curators about the provenance on this chair. Perhaps that will give us some answers.

The charmer of the group (both the chair and Chris Williams).

The Best of the Bunch

The final chair in this group was my favorite (I wasn’t alone). All the details point to the fact it was made by a trained woodworker. The provenance of the chair supported this idea.

A clever and attractive stretcher arrangement.

First, take a look at the undercarriage. The side stretchers are tapered octagons. What is (somewhat) unusual is that they are ovals in cross-section. The stretchers are thicker than they are wide. It’s a trick that allows you to use a thicker tenon for the medial stretcher without adding bulk. I’ve seen this detail before, but not this well executed.

I’ll be stealing that idea.

The hands.

The hands on this chair aren’t identical, but they are close and crisply executed.

Compared to the other chairs in this group, the rake and splay of the legs is dramatic, adding to the overall dynamic stance of the chair. Also, take a look at the long sticks and the comb. The long sticks splay out perfectly. When paired with the undercarriage, the chair has an attractive hourglass shape.

Note how the arm is attached (and another shot of the undercarriage).

The most unusual aspect of the chair is its front posts. They’re tenoned into the arm but then lapped onto the seat and reinforced with screws. It’s another of the joiner-like touches on this chair that points to a trained maker.

This chair is the one the museum has on display for the public. I agree with their choice. This is a special chair.

— Christopher Schwarz

The exterior of the museum.

Now Available: ‘Dutch Tool Chests’

Posted on by fitz

This one has been a long time in coming. On May 31, 2020, I announced here that I was writing a book on Dutch tool chests. Today, November, 8, 2024, “Dutch Tool Chests” is finally in our warehouse and available for order. (Surprise! – the cover is blue.)

Inside the book, you’ll find in-depth instruction to help you build your own slant-lid chest, from soup (choosing the wood) to nuts (and bolts – which I suggest you use to attach the chest handles). There are plans and cutting lists for two different chest sizes, as well as for a rolling base that adds storage and convenience for moving it around the shop.

I love these chests – and have built more than a few! I find them to be great additions to the workshop and for hauling tools hither and yon when I drive somewhere to teach. (And, thanks to the fun of the “hidden” bottom compartment, these also make excellent toy chests for kids!) But more valuable in the long term (if I do say so myself) than the chest are the detailed lessons on some fundamentals of hand-tool woodworking: dados, rabbets, through-dovetails and more. My intent is that in building this chest, you’ll learn skills that will serve you well in all your hand-tool projects to come.

The chapter on through-dovetails, for example, includes just about everything I know about cutting (and teaching) this joint.

Plus, you’ll find a foreword from Roy Underhill, and a gallery of chests from 43 other makers (my favorite part of the book) that shows clever interior (and a few exterior!) modifications. Unique solutions that set them apart, and can be adapted for your own tool storage needs.

“Dutch Tool Chests” is 192 pages and is printed on 8-1/2” x 11” #70 matte-coated paper in Tennessee. The pages are folded into signatures, sewn, glued and reinforced with fiber-based tape to create a permanent binding. Enclosing the signatures are heavy (98-pt.) blue-fabric-covered boards. The cover and spine are adorned with a silver foil die stamp.

The book is $39 and comes with a free pdf if you order it from us by December 11. And all copies ordered direct from us will have my illegible scrawl of a signature in the front of the book. (We don’t know which of our retailers will carry it; I and my cats sure hope they all do! For complete information on that, click here.)

Note: Orders placed today (Friday, Nov. 8), will ship on Tuesday, Nov. 12 because of the holiday.

A bevy of brand-new DTCs (lids still to be attached) from a recent class in London.

Table of Contents:

Foreword 1

1. Let’s Go ‘Dutch’ 5
2. Materials 11
3. Parts Prep 23
4. Dovetails 29
5. Dados 49
6. Shelves 57
7. Top Angles 61
8. Assembly 65
9. Lock & Batten Notches 71
10. Bottom Lip 75
11. Front 79
12. Fall Front 83
13. Backboards 91
14. Lid 97
15. Hardware 111
16. Paint 121
17. Interior 127 
18. Mobile Base 133
19. Gallery 139

Acknowledgments 185

– Fitz

p.s. Because someone always asks: Fully loaded with my tools for any given class, my white pine chest weighs less than 50 lbs. For now, I can still get it into the back of my car by myself (though it was easier for me four years ago when I first began writing “Dutch Tool Chests“).

Three Ways to Mount Drawers

Posted on by meghanlostartpress
Age-old elegance. A traditional dovetailed drawer that slides on wooden runners in a table made by Kent Perelman. The guides at each side are precisely in line with the opening and perpendicular to the table’s face. The runner itself is just wide enough to accommodate the thickness of the
drawer side. The table is fitted with traditional wooden drawer stops that go immediately behind the face. The runners and side guides have been waxed to promote smooth movement.

The following is excerpted from Nancy R. Hiller’s “Kitchen Think: A guide to design and construction, from refurbishing to renovation.”

For two decades, Nancy made a living by turning limitations into creative, lively and livable kitchens for her clients. This, her final how-to book, is an invitation to learn from both her completed kitchen designs (plus kitchens from a few others) and from the way she worked.

Unlike most kitchen design books, “Kitchen Think” is a woodworker’s guide to designing and furnishing the kitchen, from a down-to-the-studs renovation to refacing existing cabinets. And Nancy shows you how it can be done without spending a fortune or adding significantly to your local landfill.

In this excerpt Nancy gives options for mounting drawers – handy when facing a kitchen renovation or for any casework where a drawer is included.

The inside view of the drawer mount shown above.

1. Wooden Slides

Traditionally, drawers have slid on wooden runners: strips of wood tenoned into horizontal rails at the face of a cabinet. In casework where a drawer will not be guided by the cabinet’s sides – for example, when the cabinet has a face frame that protrudes into the drawer opening – the runners are fitted with guides to keep the drawers from sliding left or right and binding as they’re closed.

Wooden runners have several qualities to recommend them:

• They work wonderfully when drawers are well-fitted. When it comes to fine furniture, they’re the gold standard, not least because it takes finesse to make a drawer fit snugly while not so tightly that it’s a challenge to open and close.

• Their only cost is your labor.

• The drawer front is the finished face.

• They let your drawer sides and joinery shine without intrusion by metal hardware.

At the same time, wooden drawer slides are less than ideal in some respects:

• They don’t allow for full extension. Once you pull the drawer out to a certain point, it will sag and can fall out of its opening.

• A well-fitted drawer can stick in humid weather where humidity fluctuates significantly.

For decades, cabinetmakers have had access to mechanical slides, the features of which have improved steadily. Today there’s a variety of options offered by manufacturers such as Blum, Accuride, Salice, Knape & Vogt and more. I cover just a couple here.

Mechanical slides have a few advantages over traditional wooden runners, even if they lack the cachet that comes with a piston-fit drawer. They’re quiet, smooth-running and allow you to pull a drawer out fully without danger of it tipping its contents all over the floor, or worse, falling out and being damaged.

An earlier generation of full-extension hardware. A drawer in a simple set of kitchen cabinets fitted with Accuride side-mounted ball bearing slides. This kitchen uses Accuride model 3832. One part of the slide is screwed to the interior of the cabinet; the other, visible here, to the drawer. The slides telescope to allow for full extension, which makes a drawer’s contents completely accessible.

2. Side-mounted Ball Bearing Slides

Side-mount ball bearing slides, such as those made by Accuride, are affordable, dependable and hardwearing. They come with a huge variety of optional features, among them a detent (helpful in cases where you want to use whatever is on the pull-out surface, such as a keyboard, without the drawer or tray closing when you touch it); extra-heavy load capacity; specialty slides for file drawers, lateral files, and so forth. Other advantages include:

• They’re extremely easy to install in casework. You can put them almost anywhere you want, mounting the support to the cabinet side or using mounting plates to attach the hardware to the cabinet’s front and back.

• They only impose one constraint on the dimensions of your drawer – the width of the drawer must be at or just a hair under the precise width between the slides once they’ve been installed. Beyond this, you can use these slides on drawers that are deeper (from front to back) or shallower than the slides, depending on your application.

• It doesn’t matter how your drawer bottom fits into the drawer, i.e. whether it’s flush at the bottom surface, fitted in slips, or slid into grooves in the drawer front and sides.

• While this flexibility may not sound so impressive in principle, it can be a life-saver in rare circumstances where you need the combination of affordable price, full extension and flexibility in drawer construction that such hardware allows.

These slides allow the drawer to be removed simply by disengaging a lever. To replace the drawer, slide it carefully into position – if you don’t align the parts perfectly, you can damage the slides – then push until you hear a “click.” Now pull the drawer out and close it fully to check the fit.

Before you install set screws, the slides are adjustable up and down in addition to forward and backward, thanks to slots on both parts – the part that goes on the drawer and the part that goes in the cabinet. Some models also have screwdriver-adjustable cams.

As for drawbacks, side-mounted ball bearing slides are not completely silent; there’s a metal-on-metal sound when the arms of the slides are closing or opening, but it’s minor. These slides also take up some width. This space varies somewhat, depending on the model; most require 1/2″ on each side. As a result, in most applications, you need to cover the front of the drawer with an applied face. This face can be inset, as shown here, half overlay or full overlay.

When choosing these or other mechanical slides, read the specs and installation instructions to make sure the slides are compatible with your design.

My least favorite feature of these slides is their visibility. Although they come in different finishes (many lines are available in white, black and stainless, in addition to zinc), they do detract from the pristine beauty of a nicely finished drawer side – at least, when the drawer is open. When the drawer is closed, the slides are invisible.

The bee’s knees – with exceptions. A drawer on Blum Tandem undermount slides, which are invisible other than a little lever just behind the drawer face (not visible in this photo). While Blum Tandem drawer slides work well in many applications, there are times when ball-bearing (or other) slides are the best choice for the job.

3. Self-closing Undermount Slides

Since about the turn of the millennium, cabinetmakers have had access to a type of slide that combines full extension and smooth, silent operation with almost complete invisibility. The Blum Tandem is the most widely known version, but as soon as other manufacturers saw how popular the new design was with cabinet manufacturers and their customers, they began devising their own variations on the theme.

Not only are these slides silent, smooth-running, full extension and invisible, when fitted with the right locking devices (available from the same suppliers as the slides themselves), they offer a new dimension in adjustability over previous kinds of drawer slide hardware. You can move the drawer face up or down, forward or backward, tilt it to make it flush with the face frame and move it from side to side – a boon when you’re dealing with inset drawer faces in particular. These features come with some strict requirements:

• There are precise dimensional requirements: Drawers must be just the right width and depth (front to back) to fit specific slides. These and other specifications are laid out in a handy instruction guide published by hardware manufacturers.

• There needs to be a 1/2″ recess beneath the drawer bottom so that the sides and front will conceal the runners.

• You need to drill a couple of holes at the back of the drawer for the tilt mechanism.

• Because the position of the slide hardware is fixed in relation to the drawer sides (it has to go below the drawer bottom), you need to be more precise in positioning the hardware inside the cabinet than you do with sidemounted ball bearing hardware. You must also leave more clearance in height than with side-mounted hardware, which can eat up space, depending on other elements of a cabinet’s design.

As with the side-mounted slides, there will be a bit of space on either side of the drawer with undermount hardware. This space works out to about 5/16″ on each side. An applied drawer face hides the gaps.

Updates: New Books, Reprints & Tools

Posted on by Lost Art Press
Castle ruins outside Newbury.

The editorial staff is currently on the road to Wales, which is why we haven’t been posting much on the blog this week. Despite our remoteness (physically) we’ve been working on Lost Art Press stuff the whole time.

Here are some updates on new things and reprints.

“Dutch Tool Chests” by Megan Fitzpatrick should ship from the printer this week. We’ll have it up for sale next week. All copies purchased directly through Lost Art Press will be signed by the author.

“Good Eye” by Jim Tolpin and George Walker is in its final stages. George and Jim have a few corrections to the text. We’ll make those when we return. Then the book will be off to the printer – and out right before Christmas (assuming no publishing tragedies).

“American Peasant” (second printing) should be back in stock by Nov. 13. The second printing will have a completely different cover than the first printing.

Exeter hammers should be back on sale sometime during the week of Nov. 18. We have a bunch of hammer heads on hand now and are waiting on the handles. With any luck, we’ll have 500 more hammers out in the world by the end of the year.

“The Woodworker” series of books. Many of you have noticed that we are out of stock on all four volumes of our “Woodworker” books. These will be back in print in early 2025 in a nice softcover format. During the pandemic, the prices for making these books nearly doubled. We can’t in our right minds double the retail price on these. So we are switching to a softcover. The binding will be the same: folded, stitched and glued signatures. The only difference will be the cover. We hope to sell the set of four books for $99 as a result.

  • Christopher Schwarz

Level the Legs

Posted on by meghanlostartpress
One Way to Level the Legs.
The chair is sitting on a level worksurface, the front legs are raised on blocks to achieve the proper tilt to the seat. The seat is then leveled from left to right with shims (if necessary). Measure from the front of the seat to the worksurface – 17-3/16″ in this case. Decide on a final seat height – 15-11/16″ in the illustration. Subtract the seat height from the overall height to determine how much wood you need to cut off – 1-1/2″ in this case. Cut a block of wood to that length. Use the block to scribe the legs with the help of a Half Pencil™.

The following is an excerpt from “The Stick Chair Book” by Christopher Schwarz.

Cutting down the legs of a chair so they rest flat on the floor is another one of the “great mysteries” faced by most beginning chairmakers. If you’ve never done it, it seems impossible. But if you’ve done it even once, it seems completely obvious.

If you’ve never done it, know this: Leveling the legs requires no special talents in geometry or math. The only skill required is being able to saw to a pencil line.

There are about five or six ways I know of to level the legs of a chair. I have tried them all. The following method is the one that is the easiest to teach. Most students grasp this method with ease, in my experience. If, however, you read through this technique and say: But why don’t you do …? My answer is simple: Try your theoretical method and see how it goes. There are lots of ways to do this operation.

Set the Stage

To trim the legs of your chair you need a flat worksurface that is level. This can be a piece of plywood that you have shimmed with wedges, the top of a table saw, your workbench or that one patch of floor in your shop that is inexplicably level.

To level the worksurface, I use a spirit (aka bubble) level and construction shims. I test the surface in the X axis and Y axis and add wedges until the surface reads level according to the spirit level. Then I gather the tools necessary for laying out the cuts on the legs: a handful of small wedges, the spirit level, a modified carpenter’s pencil, a tape measure, a 6″ rule and some scrap wood.

The Modified Carpenter’s Pencil

One of my favorite layout tools is a carpenter’s pencil that has been planed to half its thickness. I call it the Half Pencil™, and it is a useful thing to have around. It allows you to make pencil marks in the same way a spear-point marking knife works.

A marking knife works well for joinery because you can run the flat back of its blade against one surface (such as a try square) to accurately mark another surface below. The same principle applies to a half pencil. You don’t have to tip the pencil to make a perfectly accurate mark.

If you are skeptical, plane a carpenter’s pencil in half. This is easily done by placing the pencil against a planing stop. If you don’t have a planing stop, stick it to a scrap board with carpet tape and plane it in half with a jack plane. Once you own one, I suspect that you will find uses for it outside of chairmaking.

The Half Pencil™.
Plane a carpenter’s pencil in half with a jack plane until you get to its lead. This pencil (turned upside down in this photo) can scribe your legs without accounting for the pencil’s thickness.

The Two Big Ideas

Put the chair on your level surface. I’m sure that (like my chairs) it will wobble on the flat surface and look a bit awkward. This is how all that gets fixed.

The goal is to prop up the legs so the seat is:

1. Level from left to right.

2. Sloped from front to back so that the chair is ideal for either dining/ keyboarding or lounging.

Getting the chair level from left to right is straightforward. Place your bubble level on the seat and shim the legs so none of the legs wobble and the seat is level to the floor left to right.

Level, Left to Right.
Use shims to level the chair’s legs from left to right. Make sure the legs don’t wobble.

Now you need to set the “tilt” of the seat. How much does the seat slope downward from front to back? A seat that is level from front to back isn’t ideal. The sitter will feel like she is being pushed forward a tad. The seat needs to slope backward.

But how much?

The system I use is based somewhat on the way chairmaker John Brown worked. The seat should slope backward by “one finger” for dining chairs. And “two fingers” for lounging chairs.

Place the level on the pommel and the back of the spindle deck. Place one finger under the level at the back of the chair. Does the bubble level read level? If yes, then your chair is pitched correctly for a dining chair.

Usually, most chairs need to have their front legs propped up on scrap blocks to be sloped two fingers or three fingers back. If your chair (as built) is pitched at “one finger” and you want it to be “two fingers,” then you need to prop up the front legs by “one finger.” My fingers are about 3/4″ wide. So, I’ll cut scrap blocks about 3/4″ wide and place them under the front legs and any wedges.

Two Fingers.
I have put blocks under the front legs of the chair until the bubble level reads level from front to back with two fingers under the rear of the level. This pitch is ideal for lounging.

Then I check the slope from front to back. If I can put two fingers under the bubble level at the back of the chair and the bubble level reads level, then I’m where I need to be. If I want more pitch, I’ll add taller blocks at the front legs. If I want less pitch, I’ll use shorter blocks.

Mess with the blocks and wedges until the seat is level from left to right and pitched like you want it in real life. And make sure it doesn’t wobble on the block and wedges.