Thread: A Double Bow Windsor Chair

Originally Posted by artme

I must say that either your photography has improved or the new forum layout gives extra clarity to the photos.

It certainly isn't anything to do with my skills with a camera. I suspect the forum is displaying the images at their original size rather than resizing them.

I too will be watching this one.

Originally Posted by Woodwould

.... I suspect the forum is displaying the images at their original size rather than resizing them.

Should this also be fixed?

Nearly missed this one, I have an electric pressure cooker that i have planned to use as a steam generator if you are interested WW

Originally Posted by Phil Spencer

I have an electric pressure cooker that i have planned to use as a steam generator if you are interested WW

Thanks, but I've got a wallpaper steamer.

I haven't previously attempted a copy of this particular variety of double bow chair, so I have to invent the necessary patterns for the seat, crinoline bow, back bow, arm bow and arm supports.

I first drew a seat pattern and cut the seat out of a goodly 2" thick slab of Elm. The seat blank was planed flat and level and then I tidied up the edges with a spokeshave. The edges of the front lobes were gently radiused and a chamfer was shaved around the entire periphery of the underside of the seat which visually reduces its bulk.

Seat ready for saddling.

I adapted a cabriole leg pattern from another chair and cut the two front legs out of some Ash. The legs were mounted in the lathe where I turned the tennons and pad feet and then roughed out the shape with drawknife, spokeshave and rasps. Afterwards I glued the ears on and refined the overall shape of the legs.

Faired ear and knee.

The rear legs are basically parallel-turned sticks, though in keeping with better quality chairs of this ilk, a simple baluster turning is incorporated in the lower half of the legs.

The legs ready for fitting to the seat.

Good stuphphm WW!!

The lemon crop is looking a bit rough this year. Too much water?

Looking good,

Originally Posted by artme

The lemon crop is looking a bit rough this year. Too much water?

Too much pickin'... especially by short people which diminishes the effect of the backdrop.

I knocked together a steam box out of some 15mm thick exterior plywood and connected it to a steam supply for bending the various curved parts of this double bow chair. I made several formers for the various bows from the same plywood by gluing two thicknesses together.

The first part to be bent was the crinoline stretcher for the chair's undercarriage. The only Ash I have at present has been 'air-drying' (truth be told, it has been sitting out in rain and shine at the end of the house) for the past four or five years. I had some reservations about the suitability of this old weathered timber, but I need not have worried; when steamed it bent like a sally rod.

The Ash stick clamped in the former.

When the bow had cooled, I removed it from the former and tied it securely to retain its shape until fully dried.

The bow secured while drying.

Hurray for sally-rod-like ash!

Wouldwood you are an interesting person. Got me looking up what a Sally rod is or was.

Originally Posted by Woodwould

when steamed it bent like a sally rod.

Code:

Club (weapon) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sally rod – A Sally rod is a long, thin wooden stick, generally made from willow (Latin Salix), and used chiefly in the past in Ireland as a disciplinary implement, but also sometimes used like a club (without the fencing-like technique of stick fighting) in fights and brawls. In Japan this type of stick is called the Hanbō meaning half stick, and in FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) it is called the Eskrima or escrima stick, often made from Rattan.

I'll add a little warning, too. I tried to find a photo of a sally rod to add to the post, but some of the images that Google brings back are of a 'cheerleader' named Sally Rod, who's pursuits certainly aren't woodworking related... I'm going to have to find the 'safe search' button, now that my 7 year old knows how to work Google. - Found it. All's safe again. Back to the woodworking.

Originally Posted by rhancock

Code:

Club (weapon) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sally rod – A Sally rod is a long, thin wooden stick, generally made from willow (Latin Salix), and used chiefly in the past in Ireland as a disciplinary implement, but also sometimes used like a club (without the fencing-like technique of stick fighting) in fights and brawls. In Japan this type of stick is called the Hanbō meaning half stick, and in FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) it is called the Eskrima or escrima stick, often made from Rattan.

I'm afraid you have fallen victim to Wikipedia; that is all utter tosh! They have mixed up their blackthorn shillelaghs and sally rods. A sally rod is a thin whippy willow (the Salix part is correct – usually Salix viminalis – whence it derives its name 'sally'). A sally rod is far too thin to be used as a cudgel whereas the shillelagh's purpose was specifically for fighting or defending oneself.

Sally rods are used for basket-weaving, hurdle-making and thatching etc.

sally_rods_01a.jpgsally_rods_03a.jpg