Every single vernacular stick chair I have studied uses cylindrical tenons. None have tapered tenons and mortises.
Yet, I teach many first-timers to use the tapered joint. What gives?
The tapered joint requires some special tooling, but you get a few chances to dial in the final angle. So it’s forgiving for beginners. A cylindrical mortise uses only a drill bit. But you get only one chance to get it right.
Personally, I prefer the cylindrical joint because it looks right to me. But both survive just fine in antique examples. You can make up all sorts of reasons that one is superior to the other, but the furniture record is clear: Both work.
Yesterday I legged up two Irish chairs I’m working on, and Kale Vogt (our new assistant editor), shot this short video that explains the steps I take to get my mortises just right.
This method is a little different than what I show in “The Stick Chair Book” (a free pdf download). I have added my cheap construction laser to the process. The laser makes the process so easy, that I’m considering using it in future classes.
The following is excerpted from “Shaker Inspiration” by Christian Becksvoort.
Not too many woodworkers can claim five decades of business success, but Becksvoort is among them. In “Shaker Inspiration,” he shares not only his woodworking knowledge and some of his best professional techniques for producing top-quality work, but also the business advice that helped him establish and sustain his long career in a one-man shop. Plus, he shares measured drawings for 13 of his own well-known furniture designs and seven Shaker pieces that he’s reproduced.
I stack my parts four or six high. That way I only clamp once on each side, for all parts. Let’s say it takes four hits per side to get halfway into each socket, or eight hits altogether. That means I have to switch chisels eight times (a wide chisel for the baseline, then a narrow chisel to remove the waste). If I do one socket at a time, and I have 12 sockets to chop, that means I switch chisels 96 times. By cutting all baselines on all pieces, then switching chisels and removing the first 1/16″ (.16cm) of waste, I save a lot of time.
3-13B. Here’s the first hit, with a 1/2″ (1.27cm) chisel and a very light tap directly in the scribe line.
Switching to a narrow chisel, I take out a thin sliver of waste on all the tails. Then I set the other chisel up against the shoulder I’ve just created at the scribe line, and give it a profound whack. I tend to tilt the chisel forward about 1°, to undercut the waste. Again I chop all of them, switch chisels, remove waste and do it once more, until I reach the middle of the tail boards. Then I flip them all over, re-clamp, and proceed in the exact same manner on the other side.
3-13C. Once all the light hits are done on all the pieces, I use a 3/16″ (.47cm) chisel to take out a thin sliver of waste on all the sockets.
When done, I clamp each board upright in my vise, then clean the corners with a thin-bladed knife. Remember that bevel-edged chisels have a narrow 90° edge, and the dovetail angles are less. There is almost always a bit of waste in each corner. We like crisp, clean tails, right into the corners.
3-13D. With the shoulder of the socket established, my second hit is a vigorous whack. I tilt the chisel forward about 1° or 2° for a slight undercut. In pine, that hit should easily reach half way into the socket. For hardwoods, it may take two or three hits (removing the waste each time) to reach the middle.
3-13E. Once I reach the middle of the socket, I use the narrow chisel to remove a much thicker waste piece.
3-13F. When one side is done, I flip the whole pile over, re-clamp it, and follow the same process on the other side.
Our future retail space is now clear of piles of books.
Our fulfillment center at the Anthe (pronounced Ann-thee) Building is now fully operational. The material lift has been repaired, the new roof is on, the skylight has been replaced, the back wall masonry has been rebuilt, and we have dehumidifiers on every floor – plus extra heating capacity to deal with the occasional cold snap.
The price: in$ane. Thank goodness John and I both have other ways to make money. Because Lost Art Press has primarily been paying contractors for the last 11 months.
Next month, John and his fulfillment crew will move the last of our inventory from storage units in Cincinnati and Latonia into the Anthe Building. If all goes well with that, we’ll have an opening day party for y’all (I hope you like Milwaukee’s Best and oyster crackers).
I know this doesn’t look exciting. But this is inventory that Mark and Gabe moved to the third floor with our material lift.
Now John and I can finally start looking ahead to what to do with the space. What is the next project? Restoring the exterior storefront? Getting a retail store up and running? Building a break room for fulfillment employees (probably this one).
This project has been the most stressful and difficult thing John and I have ever done together. If we could do it all over again, we’d probably do something different (a pole barn in unincorporated Kenton County would have been faster and cheaper). But for now, we’re just happy that the place is running and running well. John, Mark and Gabe have been getting orders out faster than our fulfillment house ever has. And we’re able to offer some signed editions and other niceties for customers that were once impossible.
So thanks to everyone who helped. Whether you bought a hammer, a class, a book or a bandana. Every penny helped.
Kale Vogt grew up just south of Covington, in Burlington, Kentucky, in a close-knit family – mom, dad and an older brother, T.J. A self-proclaimed “art kid,” Kale was athletic, playing soccer through high school, and loved to spend time outdoors. Kale’s mom is a special needs bus aide for elementary students, and Kale’s dad served in the military for 25 years, worked in HVAC for a while, and helped inspire Kale’s creativity.
“When I was young, he was really into woodworking,” Kale says. “I grew up surrounded by it but I was so conditioned to it I didn’t take much interest in it, honestly. Now that I’m older, it’s ironic to me that I’ve circled back to that. It’s something I obviously deeply appreciate now.”
This circle includes a loved childhood, a stint in art school, boondocking out West, working in a bakery then landing at Lost Art Press. Here’s Kale’s story.
99 Days Out West
After graduating high school, Kale worked food and retail gigs while trying to figure out how to pursue a career that allowed for creativity. Eventually, Kale took some gen-ed classes at a local community college, then studied studio arts at Northern Kentucky University while living in an apartment, solo for the first time, serving tables to pay for college.
“I got to the point where it began to seem silly to graduate with a major in studio arts,” Kale says. “I thought, ‘I don’t know what I want to do, why I am putting myself through this if I don’t know my focus.’”
Around this time Kale saw photos online of a hike in Zion National Park.
“I was completely blown away,” Kale says. “Having never been west of Chicago, I was like, ‘Wow. There’s a whole world out there.’”
Kale says they became obsessed (a word not used lightly) with the idea of traveling out West and spent the next 10 months planning, researching and saving up money – $8,000 for the entire trip. They took the passenger seat out of their 2010 Honda Fit and put in a cot. And then, in the summer of 2017, Kale started in the Southwest and did a big balloon loop, up through California and the Pacific Northwest, back down to Colorado.
One of Kale’s favorite trips: backpacking through the Sierras.
“It turned out to be, in total, 99 days where I was living alone, on the road, at 22,” Kale says. “I really put my parents through it,” they add, laughing. “There were daily texts to my mom. For the plenty of times I was out of service I would give her a heads up. Overall, hands down, one of the most influential trips I’ve ever taken. I truly don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t take that trip.”
Every day Kale hiked. They hiked Antelope Canyon in Arizona and got a permit to climb Half Dome in Yosemite – a 17-mile day chasing a loved feeling of being so small. They took a sunrise plane ride over the Cascades.
“I was really just living, you know?” Kale says. “Every day was a new hike, and every day was a brand-new experience. It was so memorable for me, all of my senses felt heightened. Everything was new to me.”
Kale boondocked and got a jetboil, living on soup, chili and oatmeal. Once home and having developed a deep passion for public lands, Kale immediately started applying for jobs with the National Park Service.
Four National Parks
Kale applied for more than 30 jobs before getting a call from Kings Canyon National Park in California. They loved the outdoors and had three months experience traveling – that’s it. At the end of the interview the interviewer asked Kale if they had anything to add.
“I basically just bared my soul to the person, begging her,” Kale says. “I was 23 at this point, and I said something along the lines of, ‘I know I may not have on paper a lot of experience but I have a lot of passion. I really think I’d be a great addition…’.”
A week later Kale received an email with a job offer.
Kale’s first year in the National Park Service, Kings Canyon, 2018.
For the next three-and-a-half years, Kale worked at four national parks. As a visitor-use assistant, they started out driving a camp truck from campground to campground in Kings Canyon, reporting visitor usage, ensuring folks were following the rules and performing general safety checks. From there Kale spent the winter at Arches National Park in Southern Utah, watching snow fall on red rocks.
“I love desert; it’s my happy place,” Kale says.
Next up was Glacier National Park.
“Turns out, Montana is very cold,” Kale says, laughing. “And so, from Montana I went back down to Zion, which was a full-circle moment for me. Zion is what inspired me to go out West and it ended up being my last job in the Park service.”
It was 2020, the start of Covid, and everyone wanted to get outside – Zion got hundreds of thousands more visitors that year than the year prior.
“It kind of just did me in,” Kale says. “It was a lot.”
By this point, Kale hadn’t lived longer than five months in any one place for three-and-a-half years and knew that a lifelong career working for the National Parks wasn’t what they wanted. Covid helped Kale realize they needed to get in touch with their roots again.
“Those relationships are hard to keep up when you’re on the road and moving,” Kale says. “So I came back to my family here in Northern Kentucky.”
Home
The first year back turned out to be really tough. Transitioning from an active lifestyle where they had complete control of what came next while living in some of the most beautiful places in the world to a period in their life where they didn’t know what the future held was difficult.
“I was feeling kind of lost,” Kale says. “I tried out this new thing that I was so passionate and sure of at first then it turned out to not be for me. It was scary. I didn’t know where to go from there.”
Kale lived with their parents for three months to get back on their feet and then found an apartment in Covington.
“I wasn’t sure what route I wanted to take,” Kale says. “Coming back I knew I was ready to focus on a creative career. Though I didn’t know what that would look like yet. It had always been my dream growing up and going to college – I wanted to do something creative, but I could never land on a focus.”
Kale worked at REI for a year.
“It’s what was comfortable, but I knew it wasn’t the goal,” Kale says. “I felt I’d done this – I’ve taken this route before to no avail.”
While visiting a local farmer’s market, Kale talked to some folks at North South Baking Co. and asked if they were hiring. They were.
“Honestly, I’m not much of a home baker at all,” Kale says. “I just really appreciate pastries.”
Kale brought drawings that could be translated to stickers or other merch to the interview. This, they thought, could be a path to a more creative career. But with few employees there was little time for extra creative pursuits. Kale did whatever was needed – retail, deliveries and working farmers’ markets. North South Baking Co. had a lot of regulars. Christopher Schwarz was one of them.
Building a Chair & the Start of Something New
“Full transparency, I didn’t know what Lost Art Press was,” Kale says. “I was looking for a restaurant on Google maps for lunch and ‘press’ was in the name. When I Google mapped ‘press,’ Lost Art Press came up.”
Kale pulled up LAP’s website and thought it looked interesting.
“I immediately see Chris and think, Wait a minute. This guy is a regular here. I see him all the time!”
Soon after this discovery, Chris came back into the bakery.
“I told him about how I came across his website and how amazing I think his work is,” Kale says. “I asked him about himself and figured, surely, he’s gone to college for industrial design and he’s like, ‘No, I actually just have hippie parents who were homesteaders and that’s how I learned woodworking.’ By the end of our convo he says, ‘Why don’t you come by sometime? We give out scholarships to local people if you’re interested. We could chat about that if you like.’ Which of course I say, ‘I’d love that.’”
The next day Megan Fitzpatrick came into the bakery and handed Kale her card and a copy of “The Stick Chair Book.”
“I was blown away,” Kale says. “I just talked to Chris and am now discovering this world, it was an exciting time. I was so thankful.”
A few weeks later Kale met with Chris and Megan for about a half hour after work one day, and Chris offered a scholarship to build a chair. It was mid-November and the bakery was busy with pre-holiday orders. With more time the first week of December Kale reached back out – they wanted to build a chair.
“Chris took me up to the lumberyard for our first day,” Kale says. “We picked out the wood, and he taught me how to read the grain, which I found super interesting. I was documenting all of it. I have so many pictures on my phone of this process because I figured, surely, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
Kale gluing up their first chair. Photo by Chris Schwarz
Kale began working on the chair at LAP several days a week. After working an eight-hour shift at the bakery, Kale at first found the additional two to three hours of chairmaking exhausting. But then, it became something they not only look forward to, but found energizing.
“It really lit me up,” Kale says. “This was a whole new world I was trying my best to absorb in real-time.”
It took Kale about a month and a half to build their first five-stick chair.
“It’s really unfortunate how unhappy I am with my first chair,” Kale says. “Looking back, it’s difficult knowing what I know now. I literally knew nothing going in. I had no idea what stick chairs were. I was trying to take in the history of stick chairs on top of designing one for the first time. I didn’t have a vision going in. So now, of course, I can only think of all the things I’d do differently. I’m sure that some time from now it’ll be a story to laugh about then be proud of my progress, but I’m just not there yet.”
Kale was about halfway through building the chair when Chris asked if they’d sit down with him and Megan to chat. Kale was nervous.
“He brought me back to his office and he had a book in his hands that he said was a really profound book for him.”
“He shared with me that it’s always been his dream to work with an apprentice and if I was interested, he had this idea about us both journaling from our perspectives during this process. I said, ‘Absolutely.’ It was so serendipitous. I go from working in a bakery and now there’s a possibility I get to learn from this master?”
By the time Kale finished the chair Chris had brought up the idea of a part-time position, working with him. By this point Kale had been looking for another job – they needed a full-time job. So Chris came up with a plan: They would work full-time at LAP, splitting their hours between working on editorial duties and helping with fulfilling orders.
“I think all of it was unexpected for the both of us,” Kale says. “I think we’re navigating it together.”
Kale’s been journaling, as Chris asked.
“Now that I’m working here, everything once again is a new experience,” Kale says. “I have so many thoughts about it all, so journaling has been helpful for processing.”
They are also studying the work of others.
“I’m learning about different styles and techniques,” Kale says. “It can feel a little overwhelming at times. I don’t yet feel ready to create my own designs. So as of now, to make myself feel less overwhelmed, I’m learning from the masters. I’m learning from Chris’s designs. I’ve been looking at Chris Williams’s work and of course John Brown, all the people I know Chris looks up to and has been inspired by. I’m taking note of the masters, taking what resonates and leaving the rest.”
These days Kale’s also been working on a research project for a workbench video, editing videos for the blog, and woodworking, which is considered part of the job (and really fun, they say, because it doesn’t feel like work). Megan is teaching Kale how to cut dovetails, and they’re finishing up a tool chest. Kale is also working on a second chair.
When not at LAP Kale loves spending time in nature.
“It’s my daydreaming time,” Kale says. Kale’s partner, Jordan, has two dogs and they like to take them out to explore several parks a week. Drawing will always be a hobby and lately, Kale’s been drawing a lot of chairs.
Portrait practice by Kale.
“I am wildly happy,” Kale says. “It’s been hard to articulate because I’m fighting the part of my brain that says this is too good to be true. I’m still in this headspace where I feel the need to prove to Chris that he made the right decision. I have a fair amount of imposter syndrome coming into this field, for good reason. Especially working with Chris and Megan, I mean, what teachers. I couldn’t ask for better role models. I’m allowing myself to be a student again and I’m just so wildly grateful to have been granted this opportunity.”
Megan is teaching a class on building a Shaker silverware tray here at the storefront this weekend, so y’all are stuck with me and Wally the cat for Open Wire.
We are happy to answer your woodworking questions here on Open Wire. Simply type your question into the comment box below. Post it. We will read it and answer as best we can. Know that Wally has only one answer to every query: “Treats, in my mouth.”
Sometimes there is a lag between the asking of the question and the typing of the answer. But I will attempt to answer all questions. Sometimes we answer them after comments have been closed – it just depends on our schedule for the day.
