Shaving Horse & Drawknife Basics
Traditional chairmaking starts with a shaving horse and a drawknife. Used with both green and dried wood, woodworkers have relied on these two tools for centuries. Simple to use, there are just a [...]
Clamping a Chair is Like Hugging an Eel
One of the challenges when building a chair is clamping the dang thing down so you can work on it. I’ve seen lots of solutions that use band clamps. But I dislike band clamps (perhaps I had a bad [...]
Take the Fear Out of Chairmaking
When you make a table it’s fairly straightforward. Four legs (or some variation thereof) and a top. Not too hard. If you choose to splay the legs, then you’ve added some geometry and math to the [...]
Galbert Drawsharp in Use
Before you read beyond the first few sentences of this blog entry, there a couple things you should know: I have no problems sharpening a drawknife. Never have (except that time in the 1990s [...]
Scoop a Chair Seat on the Table Saw with Mario Rodriguez
Mario Rodriguez of the Philadelphia Furniture Workshop has an article in our August 2013 issue that shows you how to build a clever table saw jig he uses to carve the chair seat for his [...]
A Visit with Woodworker/President Jimmy Carter
No matter what your political bent, you’ll want to check out the latest episode of Charles Brock’s The Highland Woodworker, which Popular Woodworking proudly sponsors, and [...]
Chair Joinery: Tapered Tenons & Tapered Mortises
Because chairs take abuse like a rented mule, the simple mortise-and-tenon joint is sometimes not enough. In traditional Windsor chair construction, the legs and spindles are attached to the [...]
A Better Clamp for Angled Joints
Gluing and clamping angled assemblies – like most chairs – can be a hassle. There are some great strategies for approaching glue-ups, angled and otherwise, in various books including “Glue [...]
Is It Cheating at Chairmaking?
Where is the craftsmanship line crossed between between handwork, machine work, and machine work driven by computers? Or, is there a line at all? I certainly don’t know the answer. But I [...]
Exploring the Roorkhee Chair
I’m gearing up to build a run of Roorkhee Chairs for some customers and (fingers crossed) this magazine. But before I can even order the wood I had to do something I thought I’d never do again: [...]
Build a Sculptured Rocker with Charles Brock
"Two DVD's + Book + Full-Size Patterns + Online Support = Success! Most woodworkers' ""bucket lists"" of projects include crafting a Maloof-inspired rocking chair. Brocks' [...]
Saddle a Chair Seat
“(Chairs) are too hard. Chairmakers are doomed to poverty.” — Gary Bennett (1934 – ) furniture maker and artist If I were a full-time chairmaker, I don’t think I’d be doomed to poverty. [...]
