All of my commute is in this photo, minus about three steps. I have a joined stool cut out, but waiting for the turned parts – some of the wood is still too green for crisp detail at the lathe. So while I wait for that, I thought I’d take a vacation and work on the windsor chairs I’ve been picking away at.
These are Curtis Buchanan’s “democratic” chairs (I’m making one side chair, and one arm chair – I hope) – so shaved, not turned. In the photo above, I bored & reamed a test hole, scribbled inside it with a soft pencil and tried the shaved tenon in the hole. Bumps and high spots get smeared with the graphite, to show you where to shave next.
Once I had the legs’ tenons ready, I reamed the seat. Here, I’m testing the depth – according to the plans Curtis drew up – that stretcher location should be something like 9 3/4″ above (below, really) the seat. This one is for the arm chair version.
Got ’em where I mostly liked them. Then measured for the stretchers. Because I’ve been fumbling around at these chairs, I hadn’t made the stretchers yet. Here, I’m back on the side chair – making its stretchers out of a mix of dry-ish wood and green wood.
Once I got them where I liked them, I put them in the kiln to dry the tenons, and will go back to finishing the arm chair’s seat while those get to the right moisture content.
I think you can still get the videos that Curtis & Elia Bizzarri did over the past couple of months – http://handtoolwoodworking.com/democratic-chair-online-classes/
One reason to see these versus (or in addition to) the ones Curtis already had on youtube is because he has changed things over several versions of making this chair. I think he said he’s done a dozen of them. I saw some things that were either changed, or more detailed in this set of videos.
AND – then there’s Pete Galbert https://vimeo.com/ondemand/galbertfoundations – I can see I’m down a rabbit hole. Pete’s a great teacher, so I’m planning on getting that video series as well – but right now I have to have breakfast, then go light the fire. Or vice-versa.
PETER FOLLANSBEE: JOINER’S NOTES 
Mike Greene – “Wear wood whee bee width ought spill chalk?”
On Tue, Dec 29, 2020 at 8:22 AM Peter Follansbee, joiner’s notes wrote:
> sir i enjoy your posts and videos very much and at some point wish to try > to imitate some of your skills. to that end i was searching for a froe that > i could purchas to help in that endevor and I came across this one on > amazon. > it struck me that the model they have pictured using a froe had a remarkable likeness to you. maybe the beard but I thought that I would point it out to you in case they were using a photo of you without your knowledge. https://www.amazon.com/Timber-Tuff-TMW-62-Shingle-Froe/dp/B01LZ56XIS?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&psc=1 thanks again Please *Keep On Crafting * and teaching! it’s an inspiration to watch and read about your skills, learning and teaching.
pfollansbee posted: ” commuting All of my commute is in this photo, minus > about three steps. I have a joined stool cut out, but waiting for the > turned parts – some of the wood is still too green for crisp detail at the > lathe. So while I wait for that, I thought I’d take a ” >
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