I have been invited back to Germany this summer to teach a four-day introduction to chairmaking course at Dictum’s classroom in Niederalteich, a gorgeous monastery in Bavaria.
The class is in English (my German is terrible), and the location is a fantastic place to stay and learn. You can rent a room at the monastery. And we all eat meals together in the monastery’s gasthaus.
The class runs from July 9-12. Beginning chairmakers are most welcome. In the class we will each build a simple backstool and focus on the fundamentals – the angles, the joinery and training your hands to be a chairmaker.
While the chair shown is unsaddled, we will also cover basic saddling.
You can read more about the area and the class here.
I hope to teach a Dutch tool chest class the following week in Munich. More details on that class soon.
A ladderback by Terry Ratliff, one of the speakers at the upcoming event.
Andy Glenn’s new book “Backwoods Chairmakers” has been a runaway hit – we’ve about blown through the first press run after only 3-1/2 months.
Recently, Andy had the great idea to gather the chairmakers from his book at Berea College so readers can meet these chairmakers, hear their stories, see their chairs and watch demonstrations of how they work.
We think it’s a great idea, so we are working with Berea College Student Craft to hold the event on Sunday, June 2, at the college’s campus in Berea, Kentucky. Tickets will be $33, and attendance is capped at 200 people.
The all-day event will feature 13 Appalachian chairmakers from Andy’s book. We’ve asked each demonstrator to bring some of their chairs so you can see the work in person. All the chairs will be assembled in a gallery for you to enjoy. We’ll also have four other “stages” going all day for you to visit.
The Storytime Stage: Where chairmakers will share their tales of how they got into the craft and manage to keep their business afloat in a world filled with mass-manufactured goods.
The Turning Stage: Several of the turners use lathes in their work and will demonstrate how they make parts using this machine.
The Shaping & Assembly Stage: Chairmakers will demonstrate the techniques they use to shape posts & rungs and assemble the chairs.
The Greenwood Stage: Splitting, hewing and hickory bark demonstrations will take place in this outdoor area.
Plus Andy will be there to sign books.
Ladderback chairs are finally getting their moment in the sun, and I hope you’ll make the drive to Berea this June to attend this remarkable event. There is lots to do and see in Central Kentucky, so it would be easy to make this part of a quick weekend vacation.
More details on the event and registration will come later this week.
Please note that this is not a money-making venture. Berea College Student Craft has donated the space for the event. The tickets cover the honorariums for the chairmakers.
— Christopher Schwarz
Places nearby Berea (or on the way) that woodworkers and their families would love:
“The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” the book that allowed me to quit my corporate job, is now available as a free pdf download, now and forever. To download it, you need only click on this link. You don’t have to register, give up your email or do any other smarmy marketing idiocy.
We will continue to sell the printed version for people who like nice books that are designed and assembled to last lifetimes. And we are planning a revised edition of the title for the 15th anniversary of its publication. But the information itself? Free to everyone.
This is the sixth book of mine that I have made free. The others are here:
Plate 13 from M. Hulot’s “L’Art du Tourneur Mécanicien” (1775). Plate Courtesy of John and Eleanor Kebabian
Any time a picture or video shows up of Chris or me or a student using the low bench to shave spindles, I get questions about the “planing stop” against which the workpiece is held. That’s the “Hulot Block” or “head” that shows up in 1775 book “L’Art du Tourneur Mécancien.” Chris reproduced it for the Roman bench in “Ingenious Mechanics.” It’s on page 97 in Chapter 5: Early Workholding Devices. (There are many other simple and clever workholding devices in that chapter, too – but this is the one that always catches people’s collective eye, and it’s the one that sees the most use in our shop.)
– Fitz
If the shaving horse seems too complex, consider shaving spindles and legs using a setup from M. Hulot’s “L’Art du Tourneur Mécanicien” (1775). Hulot details a low bench he calls a “saddle” for chairmaking. The bench includes a “head” for shaving pieces and wedge-based clamps for holding chair pieces.
Detail of Plate 31 from M. Hulot’s “L’Art du Tourneur Mécanicien” (1775). Plate Courtesy of John and Eleanor Kebabian
To shave pieces, you don the “belly” in front of your belly and immobilize the wood between the belly and the head, as shown in the plate above.
We translated the original text (thanks Tom Bonamici) and offer it here for you to interpret.
The Figure 4, Plate 13, represents a type of bench which is named a Saddle for planing and assembling; it’s a piece of oak of 5 feet in length by 12 to 14 inches in width, and very thick, carried on four strong legs below, R, Y, X, Z, which enter through as many round holes drilled in the bottom of the Saddle, A B. The Worker has his face turned toward the head, H B, which is a big piece of softwood, such as alder, and of which the bottom forms a flat tenon which passes through a mortise in the Saddle; the upper part [of the alder head] forms a type of stepped stop, of which the steps are notched in different ways, some perpendicular and shallow, for receiving the end of flat pieces to be planed on their edge [see vertical notch just to the left of the letter B, Fig. 4, Pl. 13]; the flat steps receive pieces to be planed on their face. Other steps are notched horizontally and vertically in the form of a little spoon, for receiving the end of a baton. There are more little vertical notches next to this hollow, which can be seen in the figure [Fig. 4]. Independently of the tenon which fixes the head H, it [the head] is supported by the cross beam K, also named the transom, head, or buttress of the head, & which is supported at the end & across the Saddle, by two strong pegs of strong and binding wood, such as ash or dogwood, which pass perpendicularly across the cross beam and the Saddle.
Minute made. The “belly” is a remarkable appliance for shaving chair components. While it’s not as adept at shaving long, thin spindles, it excels when shaping legs or short spindles. Photo by NN
If the wood to be planed is big & long, one doesn’t sit on the Saddle, but one stands upright, & one places the end of the wood in the corner H K formed by the cross beam and the side of the head of the Saddle.
The Worker is obliged, in planing a piece of wood, to support its end against his stomach; & so as not to hurt himself, he has in front of him a mass or block of wood that’s named the Belly.
This Belly is a type of wooden piece of oak, a foot long, 6 inches wide, & about 1/3 of an inch thick, Pl. 13, fig. 10. The top part is cut in a roughly oval shape, F I, f G; the bottom part, F I, f k, is made in a roughly semicircular shape; & as the Turner places this Belly in front of himself, the cord of his apron passes from F to f, and by this method the Belly is held fast. In the middle of the oval, one places a block L, of softwood, round, 3 to 4 inches in diameter, by around 2 to 3 inches in thickness, made of end grain, and in the center of which has been inserted a pin l of hardwood, & which is held by a friction fit in a hole in the center of the Belly’s oval; one cuts the end of this pin flush off at the back so that it doesn’t hurt the Artist. On the face of this block, one makes a very shallow groove in the shape of a cross, which serves to hold the flat pieces to be planed, either on their face or on their edge. See Pl. 31, vignette, fig. 3, where the Turner is occupied in planing. Below figure 10, Pl. 13, we see the block shown in perspective; l, is the tenon or pin which enters in the hole in the middle of this block. The holes I, I, which are at the bottom, in the semicircle of these Bellies, serve to hang them on the wall when not in use.
Good design. The block in the middle is thick for good reason. Its thickness allows you to get your drawknife right up to the end of the work with remarkable control. Photo by NN
Making the head is simple. Like the shaving horse, the palm and the planing stop, these fit into a 2″ x 2″ mortise in the benchtop. Construction begins with a post that is 2″ x 2″ x 9-3/4″. Plane it so it fits into the benchtop mortise with mallet blows.
Now mortise the post into the 3″ x 3-3/4″ x 5-1/2″ head. Cut a mortise that is 3/4″ deep. Glue the post into the head.
Cut a series of rabbets in the head. I made mine roughly match the plate in Hulot. There also is a blind hole in the middle and a few kerfs. All these notches and kerfs are used to hold onto one end of the work. And, judging by the plate showing the head in use, you place the stick’s tenon in the hole when working a spindle or leg.
Head
The belly is a thin plate of wood that you wear – like an armored breastplate. A block of softwood with two trenches plowed across the end grain serves as the other end of the clamping action. Hulot specifies that the block is friction-fit into a hole into the breastplate, which I assume will allow the block to rotate (if needed).
I made the breastplate from a thin piece of poplar – 1/2″ x 10″ x 14″ cut to a rough oval shape. The block is white pine – 4″ in diameter x 2-3/4″ long. The 3/8″ x 3/8″ trenches cross in the middle of the block. I attached the block to the breastplate with a large screw, which allows it to rotate.
Hulot says the worker’s shop apron string can secure the belly while working. However, my shop apron doesn’t look anything like the aprons shown in the plate. So, I riveted the belly to a pair of $6 suspenders (a couple screws could also do the job of the rivets).
If you are shaving only a couple of pieces, you can prop the belly up on your legs. For long sessions, you’ll want it tethered to you in some way.
The belly is remarkably effective for shaving legs and other chair components. The block holds the work so you can knife the end of your workpiece without the drawknife’s handles hitting your body. Also, the rabbets on the head are all useful – especially the small rabbet at the top, which allows you to shave small components along their entire length.
Belly
The belly is an effective alternative to a shavehorse in many cases. It can be used at a high or low bench. It takes up no floor space. It allows you to shave the entire length of a leg or spindle in one swipe. It’s as fast as a shavehorse.
It’s not as effective when dealing with long, thin spindles, such as the 5/8″-diameter back spindles on a Windsor chair. They are so long and flexible that they are a handful when using the belly.
You know how when something goes wrong, we say “Wood hates you?” Well, this chair hates me. But I think this finish is going to work.
Update: Comments are now closed.
My Saturday goal is to get the final coat of paint on this chair. I just I assume it’s going to need a third coat after Friday’s second coat, because this chair hates me (this is General Finishes “milk paint” in Westminster Green – no longer available, unfortunately). But my other goal is to answer as many of your Jane Austen questions (just to change things up!), cat questions and woodworking questions as I can. Chris is busy teaching a class in making a peasant coffer (featured in his forthcoming book, “The American Peasant”), so he won’t have much time today to get on the computer.
You know the drill: Leave your questions in the comments field below (as always, brevity is appreciated), and I’ll answer (there will likely be a delay between your asking and my answering). Please hold your crazy metallurgy and arcane chair questions until next week.
Comments will close at around 5 p.m.
– Fitz
This is the coffer the students are making (they will, of course, choose – possibly create – their own spells). The finish is Allbäck linseed oil paint in Antique Gold (through which Chris carved after it was dry), topped with a coat of purified linseed oil.
