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.
Get your signed copies at Handworks! (And yes, that is milk paint on our office copy of “Make Fresh Milk Paint.”)
We have all the Lost Art Press books, Crucible tools (including 150 of our new lump hammers!) and apparel ready to ship out to Handworks in Amana, Iowa for the Sept. 4-5 show, and we’re hauling ourselves out there on Sept. 3. The show runs from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and features 80 hand tool demonstrators and vendors – the largest Handworks yet! (You’ll find us in the Festhalle Barn.)
And make sure you’re in the Festhalle Barn at 10 a.m. on Saturday for Christopher Schwarz and Mike Siemsen’s presentation! Chris won’t let me reveal his topic … but it will make you both laugh and cry. And while I don’t know what Mike is planning, I have no doubt it will make you laugh; he’s hilarious.
We’ll have signed copies of Christopher’s many LAP books and my one LAP book available, and we are happy to personalize them upon request. We’ll be in our booth for pretty much for the entire show – barring bathroom breaks – so come on by whenever if you want to say hey to us. We also have two other LAP authors scheduled for book signings. Mike Pekovich, author of “Benchwork,” will be at the LAP booth from noon-1 p.m. both days to sign copies of his latest book. Nick Kroll, author of “Make Fresh Milk Paint,” will be demonstrating fresh milk paint and signing his book from 2-3 p.m. both days.
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.”
Don Weber (middle, in the hat) teaching a low-back Welsh chair green chairmaking class at Country Workshops with Drew Langsner (to the left of Don, with the camera) in attendance.
This is the final post in a three-post series featuring images from a carousel of Don Weber’s slides, which he found while working with us on a profile for The Stick Chair Journal No. 4. This post features images of chairs and a wonderful series of photos from a Country Workshops chairmaking class, taught by Don Weber with Drew Langsner in attendance. Some have captions from Don (in quotes), some have captions from us, many have no captions at all.
Enjoy!
“Tulip-backed Windsor”
“A close look at a Jacobean table leg”
“Frame & panel chair and Brewster chair”
“Brewster chair, Plymouth”
“Brewster chair, Plymouth”
“Turned elements of Brewster chair”
“Turned elements of Brewster chair”
“Brewster chair”
“Back rail and through-mortised with peg”
“Child’s highchair”
This photo and the following photos are from a low-back Welsh chair green chairmaking class Don Weber taught at Country Workshops, with Drew Langsner in attendance.
This is the second post in a three-post series featuring images from a carousel of Don Weber’s slides, which he found while working with us on a profile for The Stick Chair Journal No. 4. These images show chairmakers, Don’s journey to the Wycombe woodlands, Don’s pole lathe and his Welsh left-handed writing chair. Captions from Don are in quotes.
