To make things easier for you, I’ve collected all of the supplemental information I’ve released for “The Anarchist’s Design Book” (so far) into a pdf with a short introduction and an appendix on making your own seat templates.
This is available as a free download to anyone who has purchased “The Anarchist’s Design Book” anywhere in the world. We’re on the “Honorable Tortoise” system here. Don’t download it if you haven’t bought the book.
I’ve arranged all these pages into a book that you take to any “print on demand” service to print and bind it as a book for you. You can also download the color cover for it. Here are the links:
You have my express permission to print out a personal copy or two for yourself. If you sell them, however, I will phone the tortoise.
Here’s what’s in the 70-page supplement:
A short introduction to the sometimes drug-addled world of chairmaking
A chapter on building a Staked High Stool
A chapter on building a Staked Armchair
An appendix on making your own seat patterns for the chair.
I hope you find this information easy to use and interesting.
The next project is a settle chair, which I have been sketching for months now. Like all good chairs, it has a secret code I need to crack that will make building it a cinch.
By the way, our next tool at Crucible Tool will be a Chairmaker’s Decoder Ring.
The stick chairs are piling up in the shop, and more are in the works. So if you would like to have one for your home or office, read on. These ship anywhere in the continental United States via common carrier. Here are the details.
SOLD Red oak stick chair, $800 plus shipping
This chair is ideal for a sitter who is 5’9” or shorter. It sits fine for taller people, but the crest rail contacts the shoulder blades instead of hovering above them. The seat is 17-1/2” from the floor at the pommel. It slopes back to create a chair that is ideal for conversation – not for typing. The finish is organic linseed oil with beeswax, which has a nice matte appearance.
Maple stick chair, $800 plus shipping SOLD
This chair is ideal for a sitter who is 5’9” or taller. It sits fine for shorter people, but the crest rail is designed for a taller individual. The seat is 17-3/4” from the floor at the pommel. It slopes back to create a chair that is ideal for conversation – not for typing. The finish is natural soap flakes, which creates a pleasant, smooth and lustrous finish.
Shipping Details I box all my furniture in plywood crates to ensure they are protected. The crate is no extra charge. Shipping is via common carrier, which can be anywhere from $100 to $300, depending on your location and delivery details. I am also happy to deliver these chairs anywhere within a 100-mile radius of Cincinnati for no extra charge. Or you can pick it up at the storefront in Covington, Ky.
I am happy to answer questions about the chairs, but the first one to say “I’ll take it” gets it. Please contact me through my website via this link to ensure I see your message.
I am at work on adding five or six chapters to “The Anarchist’s Design Book” for an expanded edition that we will release in the future. Several customers have asked how this will work. Here are the answers.
Q: What will be in the expanded edition?
The core content of the expanded edition will be the same as the current edition. The additional content will be five projects that I wish I had included in the first edition: a staked high stool, a staked armchair, a boarded settle, a boarded settle chair and a boarded mule chest. These five projects use the same techniques – staked joinery and boarded construction – as in the current edition. In other words, I’m not adding a section on some new (or very old) joinery technique.
Q: When will the expanded edition be available?
We hope to release the new printed edition in late 2019 or early 2020.
Q: Will the five projects be available to people who own the current edition?
Absolutely. Anyone who owns the current edition will be able to download the five additional chapters for free. And they will be able to do this no matter if they bought the book from us or from another retailer. The additional chapters will be in pdf format, and designed in pages that are identical to the current edition. You will be able to print them out if you like or keep them on your computer.
Q: How will this download work?
Simple. We will have a link in our store for people with the current edition. Click the link and the download will begin. The link will be posted indefinitely.
Q: Will these additional projects feature copperplate etchings from Briony Morrow-Cribbs?
Yes. Briony has agreed to create new copperplate etchings for the expanded edition.
Q: Will the expanded edition cost more than the current edition?
Yes. Adding five more projects will increase the printing cost, so we will need to increase the price of the printed book when the new edition is released.
Q: Will I be able to trade in my old edition for a new one?
Sorry but no.
Q: You are releasing some of the chapters in advance as they are completed. Why?
Several reasons. They are going to be released for free, so why not do it now? Second, readers have been asking for them as photos of the projects have appeared on the blog and our Instagram feed. And third, readers might catch a mistake or two before we go to press.
You can now download a free pdf of my Staked Armchair project if you have purchased a copy of “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” This download is given on the honor system. If you already own this book, no harm will come to you by clicking the link below.
If, however, you have not purchased “The Anarchist’s Design Book,” you will suffer a curse that involves an Aldabra tortoise with multiple felony convictions.
The design for this chair is regulated by the lumber industry. When I design a piece of furniture from scratch, such as this chair, I look carefully at the materials available to the workaday woodworker. For example, asking you to buy 12/4 spalted sapele for the crest is a bit silly. This chair can be built with one chunk of 8/4 red oak and some 5/8” dowels from the home center. Nothing fancy.
In short, I try to design my pieces around common lumber sizes so that the design can be built in both Los Angeles and Baltimore without too much fuss.
For many years, I wished that I didn’t impose restrictions like this on myself. What if I designed a project based on my desires alone, and I could use whatever crazy materials I wanted? I tried that approach for a while and it was uninspiring. For some reason, I prefer to work within strict limitations of what wood species are available, what lumber sizes are common and how few operations/tools are required.
This is my sport. And projects like this bring me a little satisfaction.
The wood for this chair is less than $50 – way less than $50 if you are frugal. You don’t need a drawknife, steambox, shavehorse, froe or hatchet to make this chair. Instead, you need mostly furniture-making tools plus a scorp and travisher to saddle the seat. The wood is from any lumberyard. You can build it with hand tools. But if you have a band saw you’ll find the work goes faster.
It sits remarkably well for an all-wood chair. I’ve had these chairs sitting around the shop for the last several months and lots of people have sat in them and offered feedback. The No. 1 comment: I didn’t expect this chair to be this comfortable.
The trick is the geometry, of course, plus knowing your way around the lumbar region of the human body. The armbow is designed to support the lumbar (a fact that surprises most sitters) with the crest rail hovering slightly above the curve of your shoulders.
The seat is lightly saddled to avoid casting your buttocks like a Jell-O salad. And the “hands” of the armbow are set back from where you would expect them on an armchair by a couple inches. This small change affects how your forearms interact with the chair – for the better in my opinion.
So if you’ve ever wanted to build a Welsh stick chair, this chair is an excellent introduction to the form. If you are into Windsors, this chair has a few lessons, but you are going to need some more estrogen to get the job done with the feminine baluster turnings (this is only my opinion; many people of sound mind love Windsor chairs).
So download the chapter – at the peril of the highly disturbed tortoise if you don’t own “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” And think it over. Chairs aren’t so hard. Even I can build them, and I’m just a journalist who grew up in Arkansas.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Anyone who complains about typos will also get a visit from the tortoise.
Built in Baltimore. While many people associate Jennie Alexander’s chairs with country woodcraft, she lived in urban Baltimore, where she developed the design for her chair.
For the last five years, we worked with Jennie Alexander to revise her classic “Make a Chair from a Tree” book to her satisfaction and include all her latest thoughts and approaches to building her iconic ladderback chair.
Jennie’s efforts were assisted primarily by chairmaker and friend Larry Barrett and Jennie Boyd, who cared for Jennie Alexander in her Baltimore home during her final years.
With Jennie Alexander’s death this summer, we had to evaluate the future of the book. Could it be completed in a way that would make Jennie happy? Did we have the support of people who could help us finish the book? Did we have the support of the family and heirs?
The good news is that we are now moving at full speed to complete “Make a Chair from a Tree, Third Edition” for publication next year. The writing is almost complete. What is left is taking new photographs of the chair’s construction and commissioning new illustrations.
Larry will build the chair for the photographs. And we will enlist many other people who were close to Jennie to help us finish this book in a way that would make her happy.
I suspect this is the outcome Jennie anticipated all along.
During the last five years, Jennie and I butted heads whenever I applied gentle pressure to turn over her manuscript to me. If you have ever met Jennie, then you know that such tactics are futile. At one point I said to her: “Don’t you want to see your book published and see it influence a whole new generation of woodworkers?”
Jennie shot back: “You and Larry will do that after I’m gone.”
At that moment it became clear to me that Jennie saw the work on the book as her purpose at the end of her life. Taking the book away from her would remove that purpose. I backed off.
So don’t pay $500 (or whatever the book gougers are asking) for a used copy of “Make a Chair from a Tree.” In less than a year, we will have an outstanding new edition for you that will cost a small fraction of that and will be more durable.
In the meantime, we will soon offer the video version of “Make a Chair from a Tree” for sale as a streaming video on our site. We have reached an agreement with the maker of the video, Anatol Polillo, to offer the video for sale for $25. The streaming video will include a pdf download of a packet of drawings from Jennie that explain the dimensions and jigs discussed in the video.
With any luck, we should have that video available within two weeks.
— Christopher Schwarz
Personal side note: This has been one of the most difficult years of my professional life. I lost my father in February. And I’ve spent the last nine months racing to get “The Intelligent Hand” to press to beat David Savage’s cancer. Simultaneously, I worked into the wee hours to get “Welsh Stick Chairs” to press before the 10-year anniversary of John Brown’s death. And then Jennie died – opening a whole can of contractual worms. So I ask all our current authors: Please stay healthy.
I am at work on adding five or six chapters to “
With Jennie Alexander’s death this summer, we had to evaluate the future of the book. Could it be completed in a way that would make Jennie happy? Did we have the support of people who could help us finish the book? Did we have the support of the family and heirs?